Portal 2: Google Translate Edition mod

Happy new year everyone! Hope 2022 is a great year for all of you. A little over a month ago, I held auditions for voice actors for Portal 2: Google Translate Edition. The audition process is now closed, so here are the results:

AplusMage – Voice of Space Core

Benjamin M. Campbell – Voice of Adventure Core

BinkusTheTrinkus – Lead developer, dialogue + text translator, lead vocals on Exile/Vilify, Cara Mia Addio, and Slow Vibrations; arrangement, mixing, beatboxing, and backing vocals on Want You Gone, voice of Developer Commentary #9 and radio chatter (“Super 8” interactive trailer)

completeindieyt – Voice of Developer Commentary #2

CopyKater – Voice of Developer Commentary #4

Elli Reads – Voice of Developer Commentary #3

fireflame – Assistant developer, voice of Developer Commentary #1

GauntletKnight – Voice of Caroline

Grant The Hierophant / Grant Newkirk – Voice of Developer Commentary #6

Jacob Fraga – Audio post-processing, voice of Announcement System

jay33721 – Voice of Wheatley

MahoganyCrafter – Lead vocals of “Want You Gone,” voice of GLaDOS and Cave Johnson

Mikantsumikiwi – Assistant dialogue translator

miketheva – Voice of Developer Commentary #8

StarUndrscre – Voice of Developer Commentary #7

Timbleweebs – GLaDOS audio post-processing, voice of Sentry Turrets and Defective Turrets

TreeTop – Texture artist

XiaoXiaoMan – Voice of Fact Core and Developer Commentary #5

Congrats to everyone who got their part! Hopefully, I have already contacted you. And of course, thank you so much to everyone who auditioned! I ended up getting far more auditions than I had expected, and some difficult decisions had to be made. Don't give up voice acting, even if you did not get a role this time around!

Now, here's a little treat to whet your appetite:

That's right, not even Portal 2's Co-op and DLC are safe from the terrible power of Googelus Translatortius! With everyone assigned to their roles, we will all be hard at work completing this mod in time for its hopeful Summer/Fall 2022 release. Until then, there likely won't be too many updates, but rest assured, I shall keep you all in the loop regardless of if the mod is released on time or not. Other than that, below is the FAQ from the previous article on this mod page. See you later this year everyone!

FAQ

Q: Wait, isn't there already a Portal 2: Google Translate Edition?

A: Yes, there is a separate mod of the same title developed by a different person. However, if you are looking for the official sequel to Portal: GTE made by the same creator, then you have come to the right place!

Q: How did you translate this? What language(s) did you use?

A: For each line of text/dialogue, I put it through a varying amount of languages until I got something funny or interesting. The languages I most commonly use are Latin, Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, Xhosa, Kinyarwanda, Gujarati, Urdu, Odia, and Sinhala.

Q: Why not use text-to-speech/A.I. generated voice for the dialogue?

A: For one thing, voice acting is so much more fun than just having a machine do all of the work. It also arguably gives these mods more character. Plus, A.I. technology, while incredibly impressive, is currently not at a state where it can handle something like this. If you've ever used A.I. voice programs for even a moderate amount of time, you'll know that they often slur, mispronounce, or skip certain words entirely. Voice acting is altogether more reliable in this regard.