Welcome, foolish mortals, to a little review of my translation work on Foolish Mortals by Inklingwood Studios. I am very happy to give you a little peek behind the scenes and take you back to Louisiana in 1933.
The journey into the bayou begins
It was 2022 when I first heard about Foolish Mortals. The art style and presentation instantly caught my attention, and I was eager to learn more. Inspired by classics such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island, but also by David’s experience as a creative designer at Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California, and his love of theme park design. So, where Monkey Island was based on the Disney ride “Pirates of the Caribbean,” in Foolish Mortals you get to experience what it would be like if the story of the “Haunted Mansion” attraction were to be continued.
In 2022, two of my colleagues from the Warlocs and I got in touch with the developers, David and Sophie Younger, to translate their demo into Spanish, French, and German. No sooner said than done!
A first demo was released in October 2022 and—aside from Murphy’s walking speed—made a good first impression on players. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that same year, it was only a matter of time before the point-and-click adventure would be released.
In 2023, I met Sophie and David at AdventureX in London. We chatted about the game and its development, as well as the genre itself and their idea of making a video game. Sophie, for example, had never programmed before and taught herself the ins and outs of it. In the end, she programmed the entire game! Even though it would still be some time before the localizations were due, we had a great time at the gaming convention.
First Glimpses
By mid-2025, things were starting to take shape, and we discussed the initial details regarding the planned German translation. I was able to get some early glimpses of the scenes, and I also got to listen to a preview of the big band song, since the rhyming lyrics also needed to be adapted into German. That was one of the biggest challenges for me. I wanted to render the lyrics as faithfully as possible while maintaining a similar rhythm so that—if there were ever to be a German voiceover (which doesn’t mean there will be one; I’m just dreaming along with all the other fans)—the voice actors and singers would have as little trouble as possible making the whole thing just as impressive as it is in English. And honestly, that song is still on my playlist!
Thanks to an early beta version, I’ve already been able to play around with the game a bit. I took the opportunity right away to create a glossary and highlight and jot down complicated passages. I usually do this by hand; strangely enough, I find it easier that way to think things through and come up with a suitable translation. But I only do that if I don’t have the script yet. In the vast majority of cases, if I already have the script, I simply translate it the way it first comes to mind and then fine-tune it later.
Working on the Script
The (almost) complete script arrived at the end of August, and I postponed other projects as much as possible to finish a first draft as quickly as I could. In fact, though, I was so captivated by the game that I translated it while playing it on the side. So I launched the game and opened my trusted translation tool, MemoQ, in a tab next to it. While the translation itself takes a bit longer this way, it saves a lot of time later on when it comes to proofreading and fine-tuning. Since I always had the context right in front of me, I was spared a lot of corrections.
Here’s how it all looks. It’s important to note that MemoQ is a professional tool designed to support my work. It’s not about machine translation or AI; it simply makes it easier to work with large files, since you can create what are called term bases and translation memories, which help ensure consistency in the use of terminology, for example. I also often see the context for each segment (in the lower right corner), which in many cases lets me identify which character or object in the game is being referred to. A translator’s dream! So when a section once again mentions just “the”, which in German could be “der,” “die,” or “das”. This helps immensely!
A particular highlight for me was the fish-themed puns. I created a special document for the developers explaining my jokes, and we clarified just how creative my translations could be—it was hilarious! One column had the original English text, one had my translation, one had a literal translation, and one explained which fish was being referred to.
In between, there were a few press releases, store descriptions, and other odds and ends. While playing the game, I also came up with the idea of localizing the graphics as well. Unfortunately, the developers initially said this wasn’t possible—first, because it wasn’t in the budget, and second, because some of the graphics weren’t easy to edit since the Photoshop files weren’t available. Luckily, my dear husband, Torsten Sohrmann, is a graphic designer!
After consulting with the developers, I ended up translating the graphics after all, including the entire newspaper and the magazine. I covered the cost of editing the graphics out of my own pocket because I simply wanted the German translation to be perfect! If I had unlimited funds, I’d also finance the German voice acting for each of my favorite adventure games. 😄
From Draft to LQA
By the way, the first draft of my translation was finished in September. This was followed by a round of proofreading and an extensive LQA process. This refers to “language quality assurance,” or quality assurance related to the language and translation. The goal is to check the work within the game itself: Was everything correctly integrated into the game? Does the text fit properly everywhere? Do my translations extend beyond menu boundaries or text boxes anywhere? And so on and so forth.
I also received active support from a few testers who tested the game in German and sent me feedback. First and foremost, Marko Hundertmark and Sven Oesterle—thank you very much for your feedback!
While we were testing, Torsten worked on the graphics, and Sophie gradually incorporated them into the game. Toward the end, it turned into a race against time, but we pulled it off, and the complete German translation made it into the game in time for its release on November 5, 2025. A few German graphics were added later via a patch, but all in all, I was very satisfied with the final result of my work and was already looking forward to the players’ reactions!
Reviews and the Gronkh Effect
The first reviews started trickling in, and both the developers and I were very eager to hear the opinions of the press and the players. In fact, my translation was mentioned a time or two, which made me incredibly happy. Unfortunately, that often gets overlooked in the video game industry, but you can always count on adventure game fans! Thanks again for the mention and for the constructive criticism.
“This is complemented by a professional German translation penned by adventure game translation expert Marcel Weyers. Yes, a German voiceover would have been the cherry on top, but the cake underneath tastes absolutely delicious even without it!”
Then, in November, something happened that point-and-click developers can probably only dream of. Gronkh played the game on his channel and, well, what can I say—sales figures in Germany are now higher than anywhere else. With the developers’ kind permission, I can also share some numbers: 28% of players are from Germany, followed by the U.S. with 20%.
I was especially pleased that Gronkh liked the German translation, as he mentioned in the credits of the last video in the series. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for the mention and the praise, dear Gronkh!
Conclusion and Outlook
What can I say? You’d have to be foolish not to like this game! It’s definitely one of my gaming highlights this year, and I’m not just saying that because I worked on it. And yes, I hope we’ll see a lot more from Inklingwood Studios in the future—whether in the form of a sequel or something completely new. One thing is certain: the game is set to release on consoles next year. Will there be a German voiceover? Who knows! It would certainly be a dream come true!
To help make this dream come true someday, there’s only one thing we can do: recommend games like Foolish Mortals, share them on social media, write reviews, and show everyone that this genre has so much to offer! I think that when you play the game, you can really tell how much heart and soul went into it.
Thanks for reading and for your attention! Please let me know if you’d like to see more insights like this into (adventure game) translations in the future.
Yours, Marcel