Translating a video game into Scottish Gaelic has become deeply political

At opening hour Still awakens the depthIn the famous horror game, set aboard a dangerous oil rig in the North Sea, we hear the sound of an atomic bomb no less than six times. Most of them come from the mouth of the gruff protagonist Caz McLeary, an electrician nicknamed “Lechesy” from Glasgow. Kaz is well versed in local colloquialisms: “sunnered” means “fed up”; “Clarti” means “covered with mud.” When Still awakens the depth rather than delivering a damn, heart-wrenching horror, it offers an expletive-filled primer on the Scots language.

The verisimilitude of the place, period and slang immerses players in the game. But the meticulously rendered equipment and largely working-class cast are more than just window dressing. “The game is thematically based on Scotland,” says John McCormack, creative director Still awakens the depth. The country experienced an oil boom in the 1960s and 70s, so Caz and his colleagues are on the rig, and the game draws heavily on Scottish politics and culture. Case in point: the game, developed by The Chinese Room, comes with an unusual language: Scottish Gaelic. The colorful script is subtitled in the country’s indigenous language, spoken by 1.3% of its 5.5 million population.

“We didn’t hold back on the swearing or the accents,” says McCormack, who is originally from Glasgow. “We took it all in and then doubled down. We then redoubled our efforts again with a translation into Scottish Gaelic.”

For McCormack, indigenous language is an important symbol and carrier of people’s identity. It was the main language in most rural areas until the early 17th century, when it was suppressed by the Scottish Crown. The language was further suppressed after the Jacobite rising in 1745. As recently as the early 20th century, children were beaten into speaking English in school. McCormack remembers his high school history lessons in the 1980s. “It was just English and British history,” he says. “There was no Scottish history at all.”

The idea for the Scottish Gaelic translation came about as McCormack was brainstorming ideas for the game’s promotional trailer, which debuted at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase as the game entered its final year of development. He wanted to avoid traditional horror stereotypes: jump scares; screeching violins; furious, dramatic editing. He imagined something slower and more melancholic: a shot of the stormy North Sea; an oil rig slowly emerging in the foggy air; an elegiac Scottish Gaelic folk song that provides the soundtrack to the player’s introduction to this doomed setting.

The creative director went down the YouTube rabbit hole and eventually came across a video called “Scottish Woman Sings Emotional Folk Song.” The woman in question was the legendary traditional Gaelic singer Flora MacNeill, who lived on the tiny Hebridean island of Barra. “She has a beautiful voice. It’s so sad,” McCormack says.

He sent the song to the game’s sound designer Daan Hendricks, who suggested using it or something similar in both the game’s promotional trailer and the end credits. Hendrix found another song whose lyrics better suited the game’s theme: “Fath Mo Mhulaid A Bhith Ann”, which translates to “being here has caused me grief.” McNeil died in 2015, but the game’s publisher, Secret Mode, was able to commission her daughter, professional folk singer Maggie McInnes, to record a vocal version of the song. McCormack was fascinated by the result. “It really captured the grief that players must feel,” he says.

The funeral song plays over the end credits. McCormack felt a kind of “magic” in combining a traditional folk song that embraces the history and rugged beauty of Scotland with a game whose tragedy involves drilling into the country’s ancient rocks. But he also felt a responsibility: it wasn’t enough for the game to use Scottish Gaelic to remember the past; he must communicate with native speakers in the present. The idea was sold to the game’s publisher on the basis that it would be a good marketing ploy. If cost was an issue, McCormack was willing to “give up” other elements of the game to make it happen.

Scottish Gaelic is experiencing a slow and steady decline. In 1755, the language was spoken by 289,798 people, or 22.9% of the population of 1.2 million at the time. According to the latest 2022 census data, it is spoken by 69,701 people, or 1.3% of the country’s population. The number (and proportion of the population) of speakers has increased slightly over the past decade. But Robbie McLeoid, a Glasgow-based writer and academic of Scottish Gaelic, says the census shows the language is effectively falling into disuse in communities in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles, areas traditionally considered its heartland. Another study suggests that the language may even disappear completely in the next decade or so.

The place of language in art is uneven. Scottish Gaelic literature is in “good health”, says McLeod. But the theater has only one theater troupe, the Gu Leora Theatre, which tours the country with plays and other productions. Speakers of Scottish Gaelic can watch BBC Alba TV and listen to radio via BBC Radio nan Gàidheal.

Video games, even those made by Scottish developers, are lagging far behind. There are several attempts at self-translation of games like GunChleoc (alias) such as GunChleoc (alias). 0 AD e. And Pingus. But the mainstream industry, whose developers include Rockstar North and No Code (the Glasgow studio behind the new Silent Hill game), has shown little interest in the language. “Given how healthy the video games industry is in Scotland, it is surprising that this has continued as long as Still awakens the depth for that kind of representation,” MacLeod says.

It was a significant moment for MacLeid when he loaded up the game with the Scottish Gaelic translation included. “To be honest, I was really excited about the title screen once I changed it to Gaelic,” he says. “I sat there for a minute and thought: Wow, I’ve never seen this before” McLeoid has a long history of interacting with English-language video games; playing in authentic Scottish Gaelic was both “surreal” and “touching.”

Too often, McLeod says, language is used in ways that seem culturally acceptable. Scottish Gaelic is often referred to as an “ancient language”, he continues, to add “flavor” and to suggest either “romanticism” or “obscurity”, implying that the language is an artifact or symbol of the past, and therefore that… something that is “irrelevant now.”

Arts and culture, including video games such as Still awakens the depthhave a unique opportunity to normalize minority languages ​​and help those learning to speak them. McLeoid recalls how the translation into Scottish Gaelic was made. X-Men: The Animated Seriesbroadcast on BBC Alba in the 1990s, helped him learn the language. He believes the Scots Gaelic translation had this influence Grand Craft Auto 6which is currently in development at Rockstar North in Edinburgh (as well as other studios around the world) may feature this language. “It would be radical and revolutionary, a game changer,” he says. “This will not only provide jobs for people working in the language, but will also create respect for the language itself – its right to exist.” This is the “absolute minimum”, McLeod stresses, that he believes large Scottish gaming companies should do in relation to the Scottish Gaelic language.

For McCormack, Still awakens the depth is an expression of Scottish identity. The game, with its keen sense of place and attention to regional detail, resonates with the UK and Ireland efforts. Northern Irish group Kneecap rap in Irish Gaelic; science fiction writer Harry Josephine Giles received the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for Deep Wheel of Orcadiaa science fiction novel written in the Orkney dialect of Scots. Blindboy Boatclub is an anonymous podcaster and author reimagining Irish history in response to centuries of English colonialism. “People are reclaiming their identity,” McCormack says. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

McCormack sees the word translated into Scottish Gaelic. Still awakens the depth as a small but important part of this movement. “People say, ‘Not many thousands (of people) actually speak Scottish Gaelic,'” he says. “‘I don’t care.’ Then they will say: “But hardly anyone will use it.”

McCormack is proud of his team’s response to this latest issue. Those who wish to claim every achievement in Still awakens the depth You must complete the game with translation enabled. As of December 2024, over 16,500 players have done it on PlayStation 5, Steam, and Xbox Series X. Call it incentive, gentle encouragement, or a gamified approach to language. However, The Chinese Room was a breakthrough for what many consider a beautiful and elegant language, and a reminder that Scottish Gaelic is not a relic.