Hiya,

Thank you for spending this Haven community week with us! We had a lot of fun with our Haven Geoguessr, and a beautiful new Nest wallpaper to share with you. And it's time to announce the winners of our fan art contest and our Haven Geoguessr!

This community week's fan art contest theme was Date night on Source, and boy did you deliver! We received 28 beautiful artworks, and it was incredibly hard to pick winners. Up until yesterday, we had an 8-way tie for the coup de coeur and a 3-way tie for first place. Thank you so much to all of you incredible artists who submitted work!

Here are our 4 winners, take a look at their work:

First prize - Night Camp, by Aurora - we just love the sky and the bloofs!
2nd prize - TRCelyne[www.instagram.com]'s beautiful stargazing artwork
3rd prize - Oink wants a kiss too, by Kloudinthesky. And Oink deserves that kiss
Coup de coeur - Date night shenanigans by https://twitter.com/eldikay_art- that is very in character for Yu!
Geoguessr winner

The official Source tour guide and winner of our Haven Geoguessr is Mykeelay! They not only got all of the answers right, but they also did so in record time.

Out of all the participants, 16 of you got all five screenshots right! That is better than our in studio performance, and we're impressed. It came down to how quick the answers were, and our top 3 were almost tied, with only 60 minutes between their answers.

Will you be our Valentine? We have a gift for you, and it’s this Oinktastic new wallpaper. Long winter nights are to take a hot shower and curl up on the couch with Oink!

Download it here: {LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/Oinkpaper
Art by Beloup ✨

It wouldn’t be a community without our traditional fan art contest, we can’t get enough of your amazing artworks! This year’s theme for Haven is Date night on Source, and I beg you to give us a hot date with Oink

Here’s what you can win by entering :

• 1st place: $70 gift certificate for Haven merch[merch-us.thegamebakers.com]
  
• 2nd Place: $50 gift certificate for Haven merch
  
• 3rd place: $30 gift certificate for Haven Merch
  
• Coup de coeur: $30 gift certificate for Haven Merch

As always you’re entirely free to use any and all medium, the only restriction is that the piece must be created for the contest, and can only be submitted by its author, and be submitted by February 23rd, 5pm CET. Please send your artwork, with a title and your nickname to fanart@thegamebakers.com to enter! Good luck, we can't wait to see what you come up with 💫

Cover art by TRcelyne[www.instagram.com] and banner art by Mikayla, both winners of our last fanart contest!

Hi everyone,

You’ve given Haven so much love this past year, with someone going as far as writing up an Applebrew cocktail recipe! It means the world to us that Yu & Kay have a special place in your hearts. It’s time to celebrate all that love with a community week 🎉

We have plenty of activities planned for this week! In the spirit of Valentine's day, I’ll share the team’s favorite games they’ve gifted their partners and cozy games for a night in. 💞 We'll also share stories behind artworks and concept arts and answer your questions about Haven and its universe. Join un on Discord[discord.gg] on February 12 at 6pm CET for the Q&A on Haven with Marjorie (3d artist) Céline (Content manager), Audrey (exec prod). And Koyorin (character artist) will also give their answers later in the week!

And it’s a tradition, we’ll host a fan a fan art contest! We always love seeing your creations, you’re so talented ✨ More details and prizes soon!

Garayann - Lovebirds traveller, one of our winners from the last community week

How well do you remember your time on Source? It’s time to go back and explore the islets again, because we’re running our own Geoguessr-inspired game with Source islets! Tune in to our social and answer the daily islet quiz to win the one and only Oink plushie.

We’ll be posting one Source islet a day at 8pm CET from Monday February 12th to Friday 16th. Both having the right answer and time to answer will be taken into account so be on the look out for the daily post!

• https://www.facebook.com/thegamebakers/
  
• https://twitter.com/TheGameBakers
  
• https://www.instagram.com/gamebakers/
  
• https://discord.gg/thegamebakers
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/thegamebakers.bsky.social
  
• https://mastodon.social/@TheGameBakers

And last but not least, Haven is on sale for the whole community week, at 60% off! It’s a great time to rope a friend into playing it, but it also makes for a great Valentine’s present wink-wink

Hi everyone,

We have a gift for you today: we’re launching a new game, inspired by Furi, and it’s entirely free! It’s an 8-bit-inspired version of The Chain’s boss fight, with frantic controls, fast-paced combat and mix of melee and ranged combat. In good old 8-bit pixel art and music from the 90s!

Check it out here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2593450/Furi_Demake__The_Chain/

To make this game come true, we’re partnered with Sylph, a solo dev specializing in 8-bit games. It’s been a passion project for the past few months, and we wanted to make this Demake completely free to thank you for your amazing support since the launch of Furi.

Ready to dive into some intense and fast Furi-inspired gameplay with retro controls and style?

And to celebrate, we’ll be hosting a week-long community celebration, from now until December 6th.
This week’s activities will include a dev stream with an all-star cast from the dev team, Furi’s creative director fighting The Strap in Furi, a fan art contest, a Furi Demake speedrun competition, merch discounts, and surprises that will be posted here and on our social media during the week.

That’s not all! Furi and its DLC Onnamusha are discounted the whole week - let your friends know they can get them at a low price and try out the demake.

Participate and stay posted with our news by joining our Discord[discord.gg] or signing up for our very occasional {LINK REMOVED}newsletter from The Bakery.

Hello everyone,

As per tradition, we ran a fan art contest during Haven last community week, and the theme was "We love them when they do...". We have received amazing applications, the jury has deliberated, and now it’s time to unveil the winners.

First of all, we would like to thank each of you for taking the time to participate: Freya, TRCelyne, Sieghiro, Skyler van Alen, MrPimp, Will, Baktos, Garayann, Mikaila, Loustica Lucia, Daranee, Aeroshino, Miomiea, June Gloom, Sukara Daiko, Catherine A., Raven, Apis Azura, Val, Basil, Svengouli, Kour, KhanSJet.

And the winners are…

1st place

Will[www.deviantart.com] - A Long Night

2nd place

Garayann - Lovebirds Traveller

3rd place

Mikaila - I love them when they do the seed contest

Coup de coeur

TRCelyne[www.tumblr.com] - When You Have No Clue What Morphognenesis Is But She Looks Too Passionate To Interrupt Her

Thank you to you for submitting great artworks.
You can check the summary of everything that was announced or discussed during Haven Community Week here.

And join The Game Bakers community, stay posted about our news and give us your thoughts directly by joining our Discord[discord.gg], or on our social media or signing up[www.thegamebakers.com] for our occasional newsletter.

Haven Community Week is now over! Thank you so much for your participation, all the messages and the submissions to the fan art contest. It was fun for us, we hope it was fun for you all too!

You will find below a summary of everything we shared, to be sure you didn’t miss a thing!

• The Haven Cutest Creatures contest on Twitter is now over and the winner is Salamash (Oink). What a surprise!). We also shared the story behind the names of the creatures in competition.
  
  
• We unveiled a new Haven t-shirt (and you seem to like it a lot). It was exclusive to our team members, but you can win one with the Haven Fan Art contest. It will also be available this Spring when we re-open our merchandise store. Stay tuned!
  
  
• We shared 10 secrets about Haven on Twitter.
  
• With the help of our Discord Community, we created a bingo of things you should do while playing Haven. Have you filled it already?
  
• You can read a full interview with Florian Coudray, concept artist who created most of the creatures on Source.
  
• We shared on YouTube Haven’s credits video, if you haven't reached the end of the game yet, or just want to enjoy the sensual outro video one more time
  
• Our team shared their favorite love stories, if you are looking for recommendations on new things to read, watch or play, it’s here.
  
• We shared new wallpapers[www.dropbox.com] & the super cute new avatars that Koyorin drew for this Community week.
  
• You shared with us which streamers you would like to see playing Haven together, and you had great ideas, thank you!
  
• We interviewed Thomas Brasdefer & Diana Díaz Montón about translating Haven, which is available in 9 languages.

Now, the Community Week is over, but the Fan Art Contest is still live for a few more days! I hope you loved it as much as we did.

You can join our Discord[discord.gg] or register to our newsletter[www.thegamebakers.com] to stay in touch until the next Community Week!

Hello everyone,

If so many players could enjoy Haven in 9 different languages, it’s thanks to our amazing translators. It’s time to highlight their work with an interview of Thomas Brasdefer and Diana Díaz Montón!

Can you introduce yourself, your background and your work on Haven?

Thomas: My name is Thomas, I’m an anthropology professor currently at University of Vermont, I specialize in linguistics and I translated Haven from French to English.

Diana: My name is Diana, I am a professional translator specialised in game localization, and have been working in the industry for over 20 years. I have participated in the localization of hundreds of games, as a translator, editor/proofreader or multilingual project manager. I am also co-founder of Native Prime. I was the Spanish editor at Haven.

According to you, what are the most important qualities to be a great video game translator?

Thomas: Translation is never just about words, most of the work is making sense of something for someone else… Which means that the translator has to understand the reasons why the words exist. But in a video game you have a million things to interact with, from the NPCs to the environment, and a surrounding community of gamers; so you have to take an entire universe into account before you even get started. I would say that having a carefully crafted game as material is definitely a big part of it.

Diana: I completely agree with Thomas. In game localization, the goal is to convey the emotions into the different target languages, so players can truly engage with the characters they are controlling and immerse themselves in the game universe. A good video game translator needs to understand how games work as a whole, they should be familiar with the different mechanics. It is important that they also master the source formats we work with, and how strings will be used in the game, be it as part of the interface or as VO dialogue. And also need to know their target audience well, their expectations. But overall, translators have to master the source and target language so the results sound fluent and natural and match the tone and style of each particular game.

Haven is a huge project, with more than 90 000 words. How do we start while translating a game as talkative? How long did it take to translate the game?

Thomas: Believe it or not, Haven isn’t the longest game I’ve worked on. And on top of that, there are parts of the script that didn’t make it into the game! I actually like it better when there is a lot of dialogue, because that gives me time to become closer with the characters, and to watch them grow through the storyline. But it does have some drawbacks when it comes to continuity: games aren’t being developed in a linear manner, there’s alternate stories, some parts are ready before others, some need to be re-written, etc. I think it took a bit over 3 months for the whole process, but it was spread out over the course of a year from start to finish.

Diana: As Thomas mentioned, this is not a large game, though it does have quite a bit of dialogue. I also agree that this is the most fun part of any project. Dialogues give you the chance to become more creative, and you can decide how a character should talk, based on their personalities. It is fun to shape them through the words we type. The project spanned over several months, mostly because not all content was ready when we first started working on it. The drawback is that there are several pauses and it makes it a bit harder to get a general picture of the game and the different parts that make it.

How do you approach cultural specificity? Some references could make sense in some countries, when they don’t in others. What are the best practices for you?

Thomas: Losing your reference points is a big part of Haven, so I had to be careful for what is alien to Kay and Yu to be also alien for gamers, while also maintaining the cozy parts as relatable. This is where knowing the characters is absolutely crucial because I’m not telling the story, they are! My job is to make sure that gamers are hearing the story more than my own voice.

Diana: This is what localization is all about, bringing the game, the story, the characters to a target audience through expressions and words they can relate to. Again, the goal is to keep in the target version the same effect the text causes in the original. Haven however has its own universe, so the challenge here was not to use references to the real world! I remember one line in which one character called another a “parsnip” and one of the translators was like: “But parsnips don’t exist in Haven”. So we had to change that to something else that made sense in the game universe. We had to keep on our toes and that was fun!

For Haven, writer Pierre Corbinais created a lot of new words: apple dew, creamberry, loofacrid, or even swear words like bloot or boron! How was it to translate those words?

Thomas: Pierre is a terrific writer, and I’m always looking out for what he comes up with. He speaks English quite well too, so he definitely had some input when it came to word inventions, as did Emeric, the creative director for The Game Bakers; some words they came up with, some I gave them options. This is another case where their vision is much more important than my translation because they know the universe better than I do. Cursing is especially difficult because you don’t casually say them, they come straight out of your limbic system; I liked using “boron” as a swear word tough, because it sounds very close to an existing insult, but it’s also an ore that’s kind of everywhere and not particularly valuable.

Diana: This was the most fun part in the localization process. All three translators decided together each of the terms in the game. Each of us suggested a translation and then held a couple of meetings to discuss the terms one by one to settle on a final translation. It was fun making up words for the food and medicines. We based our translations on the French and English alike, also considering the description and the visuals, trying to come up with words that were evocative and that matched the game lore. We also came up with a series of cursing words that we had to use in a different way compared to English. We spent a lot of time deciding the names of the planets. We felt these were an important part of the universe and we wanted to get them right. I am quite happy with the names we came up with.

Thomas: We owe the planets’ names to one Murray Gell-Mann, who actually passed away while the game was in production (look him up!). One of many cheeky references to be found in Pierre’s writing.

What makes a difference for you to be able to provide the best translation? Is it playing the game, a good translation guidebook, a good glossary, direct access to the team to ask questions, a little bit of all of that or actually something else?

Thomas: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. I generally find it hard to rely on glossaries and guidebooks for video games, because it’s such a different practice than other visual media, but sometimes you need specific technical terms. I’ve also never started working on a game that was finished or fully playable (at first I only had gifs for Haven!), but having storyboards and demos is definitely a plus. Access to the team is certainly important in a narrative game, because they have a pre-existing relationship with the characters, but they also have to trust that you are doing your job. So I guess the key is to make sure that translation is part of your design process, and not an afterthought.

Diana: I’d say a bit of everything. It all depends on whether the game is finished by the time we start working on it, or if it's still early in development and subject to lots of changes. I’d say, the key is to have good communication with the dev team, so we can ask questions and get as many assets as they can share with us: be it a build, gameplay videos or screenshots. In Haven we received a very detailed lockit up front, which helped us all get familiar with the characters, the universe and the mechanics of the game. This to me can be even more valuable than playing the game, since it helps us define how characters will talk, or how we will tackle the localization of certain terms. Having contextual information in the files we work is also very helpful, so that we know exactly where a string is used in the game, or in which context a line is spoken.

What did you enjoy the most while working on Haven?

Thomas: Literally everything: it was a wonderful experience from day one because everyone at The Game Bakers is so talented and dedicated, and the game is obviously beautiful. It felt really comfortable to spend all this time with Kay and Yu. And receiving a new batch of text was always exciting!

Diana: This was a really nice project. The game is beautiful, the characters are lovable and the dialogue was very relatable, so it felt great giving voice to them in our language. I was the editor in the Spanish team, so I got to discuss lots of things with the translators and had to make it all consistent and cohesive. As an editor, or if you are the sole translator, you get to read all the content and that gives you a good understanding of all bits and parts. The Game Bakers were also a very cooperative team, always eager to help. Feeling backed up and taken into consideration is not always a given!

And what was the most challenging for you?

Thomas: Because I was discovering Source at the same time as the characters in-game, approaching some of the practical details was sometimes pretty abstract. Things like Flow and Rust have no analog either for me or for them, so even if I knew more, it wouldn’t necessarily be helpful since the characters don’t have that information. It’s too tempting to over-explain things when you’re dealing with the unknown.

Diana: Probably defining the right terms to keep faithful to the game universe. We wanted to get it right so we took our time. As Thomas mentioned, there are some elements whose meaning was harder to grasp, such as the Flow, and we struggled to convey the exact meaning, but eventually everything fell into place!

Any last word for Haven players?

Thomas: I have to say that the community that came out of Haven is also something to behold. I still lurk on Discord and Twitch pretty regularly to check out how people are reacting to the game, whether it’s their first or hundredth play-through. But it was especially soothing during the early months of the pandemic, when I could just plug in to Haven and enjoy some quality time with my friends… including Oink!

Diana: Since the game was launched, reading all comments players left in Twitter and Discord, I could already tell this was quite a special community, very welcoming. And I feel honoured to be part of it. I just hope the players continue enjoying Yu and Kay for many years, in whatever language they choose to play!

You can follow Diana on Twitter and read more about Thomas on his website!

Haven is at its core a story about love and freedom, and we’ve asked our team to share with you their Favorite Love Stories (and they had plenty to share!).

So if you like romance, you will find below some recommendations of new works to read, watch or play. Please share yours in the comments too!

Pierre, Writer

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Novel) by Carson McCullers: When asked by a journalist why there weren’t any love stories in the Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers seemed startled and she replied : « There is nothing but that ! ». This is always the first book that comes to my mind when I hear « love story », and even if it is not a romance, it’s definitely all about love.
• Locas (Comic book) by Jaime Hernandez: Locas is a comic book series started in 1985 and still going today. It tells the decades long love story between two L.A. latin-american punk girls Maggie and Hopey. At times they’re together, at times they’re apart, and sometimes they’re not even there. I’ve been reading their stories since I’m a kid and I hope I’ll keep reading them for a long time. Locas is my The Young and the Restless.
  
  
• Pilules Bleues (Comic book) by Frederik Peeters’ Lupus: I already mention Frederik Peeters’ Lupus when asked about my inspirations for Haven. Pilules Bleues is an autobiography about a couple dealing with H.I.V. It’s funny, sad, beautiful but most importantly : it’s deeply human.
  
• Strangers in Paradise (Comic book) by Terry Moore: Katchoo loves Francine. David loves Katchoo. As for Francine, well, she’s figuring things out. This might sound like a pretty classic love triangle, and it would be if Strangers in Paradise didn’t also involve troubled pasts, secret agents and crime syndicates. Is this soap opera comic book a bit too long? Maybe. Did it jump the shark a few times? Certainly. It’s still a landmark of US indie comic books and is well worth your time!
  
• When Harry met Sally (Movie) by Rob Reiner & Nora Ephron: This movie is often mentioned as one of the best romcom movies of all times (if not the best) but what I love the most about it is that… it’s hardly a romcom? I mean, most of the movie is about friendship, not romance. A Friendcom maybe? Now, is there really a difference between friendship and romance? Are they two different categories? A spectrum? Is sex compatible with friendship? Its absence with romance? Well let’s watch the movie and find out.
  
  
• Castaway on the moon (Movie) by Lee Hae-joon: He’s stuck on a desert island in the middle of Seoul, she’s stuck in her room. Soybean noodles will bring them together. Sure, it doesn’t make any sense now, but in its own way, Castaway on the moon is a pretty classic romcom.
  
• Language Lessons (Movie) by Natalie Morales & Mark Duplass: After a year in lock-down doing zoom calls after zoom calls, I didn’t think I would enjoy a movie which is basically that, zoom calls. And yet. Language Lessons is a super impressive first movie, a surprising huis-clos, and a wholehearted friendship/love story.
  
  
• Alabama Monroe (The Broken Circle Breakdown) (Movie) by Felix Van Froeningen and Carl Joos: Sometimes you want to watch a cute lighthearted romcom, sometimes, you just want to cry every single drip of water your body contains, and more. Alabama Monroe is for the latter. You’ve been warned.
  
• Big Ocean Wide Jacket (Video game) by Turnfollow: Would Big Ocean Wide Jacket even qualify as a love story? I think it does. It even offers two love stories for the price of one: the newborn, tweenish and cute love story between Mord and Ben, and the steady, tried-and-tested and not any less cute love story between Uncle Brad and Aunt Cloanne. It’s literally the best video game ever made (I mean it) and it’s short enough to be played 5 times in a row in a single day.

Emeric, Creative Director

• Thelma & Louise (Movie) directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri: A road trip that goes bad for Louise and Thelma. I first saw this movie when I was much younger, and it struck me as one of the best love stories ever. To the point that, when I saw it again much later, I was surprised to realize that they were only presented as “friends”. Still one of the best love stories for me.
  
  
• Ruby Sparks (Movie) written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton: It's the story of a writer who sees the character of his novel come to life. It's both very funny and surprising and a nice angle on what happens in a couple when the balance of freedom is broken.
  
• Maison Ikkoku (manga) by Rumiko Takahashi: I love Maison Ikkoku not so much because of the love story but because it shows the daily life of normal Japanese people. It's fun, moving, and still very unique even though it’s 40 years old.
  
  
• Nagi no asukara (Anime) directed byToshiya Shinohara & written by Mari Okada : Despite its cheesy looks, this anime is quite a surprise if you give it a chance for more than 3-4 episodes. I won't spoil anything but if you're into coming of age romcoms with a twist, it's a good one.
  
• Marin Eden (book) by Jack London : This book by Jack London is probably the most impactful love story I ever read. A young, poor and illiterate sailor falls in love with an aristocrat and to seduce her he dedicates his life to become successful as a writer. An unmatched love story about obsession.

Audrey, Executive Producer

• Saga (Comic book) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: A major inspiration for Haven. The story of a couple from two nations at war, fugitives hunted down by formidable foes, trying to protect their child. Yet on the backdrop of the epic odds they are against, their story is so ordinary and relatable: lassitude in the couple, raising children, getting on with the in-laws, giving birth…
  
• In The Mood for Love (Movie) by Wong Kar-wai: For the sensuality and the restrained desire that emanate from this impossible love but also for the voluptuousness of the nights of Hong Kong.
  
• Lost in Translation (Movie) by Sofia Coppola: for everything that doesn't happen between them, the unspoken words, everything that could have been and never will be.

Marjorie, Game Artist

• Lore Olympus (Webtoon) by Rachel Smythe: I love the cartoonist art style and the story. It’s about the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades but in a revisited and more modern version. It also deals with a lot of difficult subjects like harassment, physical & moral violence, rape.
  
• Wuthering Heights (Novel) by Emily Brontë: It's a dark but delicate story and setting. A story of love and revenge in England in the early 1800s.
  
• Final Fantasy X (Video game) by Square: My favorite game of all time, but also a amazing story of chemistry & love between Tidus & Yuna.

Julien, Programmer

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (Novel) by Sarah J. Maas that tells the tale of a young mortal Feyre Archeron who is abducted into the land of fairies after she accidentally kills one. This is a fantastic love story full of tension.
  
  
• Kimi no Na wa (movie) by Makoto Shinkai. What to say? Probably my favorite Japanese animation movie. A cocktail of emotions and surprises that left me with a wonderful memory, and especially a reaction like: "But wait... what? WHAT?!"
  
• Outlanders (TV Show) based on the novel from Diana Gabaldon: A huge crush. I think I watched the first season in just one week.

Also, one of my passions being music:

• Crépuscule - Coeur de pirate,
  
• Enfant de - Pierre de Maere
  
• Margaux, Omar, Marlow - Kyo

Steven, Game Designer

• Banana Fish (Manga) written by Akimi Yoshida : This manga starts off pretty intense: the first volume shows gang wars, murders, corruption, sexual exploitation... It kind of feels like a gritty HBO show. And in the middle of that, these two characters meet. At first, I didn't think much of it, there was a lot going on anyway. But the more I read, the more I found myself rooting for these two, hoping they would overcome the many obstacles between them and find their way together. It might not be a love story in the strictest sense, but in my book, it's definitely a great one.
  
• tldr: Came for the gunfights, stayed to see the relationship between the two main characters unfold.

Mylène, Marketing Specialist

• Malgré tout (Comic book): This story by Jordi Lefebvre is about two lovers who never had the opportunity of living their love. It’s very touching and the narrative structure is very refreshing <3
  
  
• This is Us (TV Show) created by Dan Fogelman: This is a story about family but also about love. I really enjoy the couple dynamics which are always trying to get the best of their partners. They feel relatable and a couple goals at the same time, and make us cry a lot!

Here you go for a few recommendations from Haven’s team, we hope you will make some discoveries that will stay with you for a long time.