Deliberate game-making choices, on-screen language, and translation

This article offers insights resulting from an interview with the Studio Art Director at Ustwo Games, David Fernández Huerta. We discuss artistic vision and graphic design considerations pertinent to diegetic writings in games as a case in point. In Cognitive Translation Studies, On-Screen Language is a multifaceted framework for the analysis of digital games and other audiovisual media that aspires to map the various functional, cognitive, and technical dimensions of visual-verbal coding of messages. It seeks to facilitate translation product and process research, and possibly feed into translatorial practice. Based on the conversation, the article proposes to unpack these notions through a perspective grounded in relevant literature, and so it becomes an example of collaboration between an Industry agent and representatives of Academia. The interview was semi-structured and is presented here in an abridged format, slightly edited for clarity and brevity.