The Scottish Gaelic translation of Still Wakes the Deep is deeply political

During the opening hours of Still awakens the depththe critically acclaimed horror game set on board a dangerous oil rig in the North Sea, we hear the C-bomb no fewer than six times. Most of them come from the mouth of the gruff protagonist Caz McLeary, an electrician, or ‘leccy’, from Glasgow. Caz has a good understanding of his local colloquialisms: “despised” means “fed up”; ‘clarty’ means ‘covered with dirt’. When Still awakens the depth does not deliver cursed, heartbreaking horror, but an introduction full of expletives in the Scottish language.

The verisimilitude, of place, period and jargon, immerses players in the game. But the meticulously rendered scum and mostly blue-collar cast aren’t 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 1970s. That’s why Caz and his colleagues are at the helm, and the game draws heavily on Scottish politics and culture. Case in point: the game, developed by studio The Chinese Room, comes with an unusual language option: Scottish Gaelic. The colorful script is subtitled in the country’s indigenous language, spoken by 1.3% of its 5.5 million inhabitants.

“We didn’t hold back on the swearing or accents,” says McCormack, who is from Glasgow himself. “We all embraced it and then doubled down. Then we doubled it again with the Scottish Gaelic translation.”

For McCormack, the indigenous language is an important symbol and carrier of the base’s identity. It was the primary 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 of 1745. As late as the early 20th century, children were beaten to speak English at school. McCormack remembers his history lessons at school 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 when McCormack was brainstorming ideas for the game announcement trailer which debuted at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, just as the game was entering its final year of development. He wanted to avoid traditional horror styles: jump scares; screeching violins; angry, dramatic editing. He imagined something slower and more melancholy: a shot of the swirling North Sea; the oil rig slowly emerges through the misty air; an elegiac Scottish Gaelic folk song as the soundtrack to the player’s introduction to this doomed setting.

The creative director went down a YouTube rabbit hole and eventually came across a video titled “Scottish woman sings emotional folk song.” The woman in question was the legendary traditional Gaelic singer Flora MacNeil, who lived on the small Hebridean island of Barra. ‘She has a beautiful voice. It’s so full of sadness,” McCormack said.

He sent the song to the game’s audio director, Daan Hendriks, who suggested using it, or something similar, for both the game’s announcement trailer and the end credits. Hendriks found another song whose lyrics fit the game’s themes better: ‘Fath Mo Mhulaid A Bhith Ann’, which translates to ‘being here has caused my sadness’. MacNeil died in 2015, but the game’s publisher, Secret Mode, was able to commission her daughter, professional folk singer Maggie MacInnes, to record a vocal-only version of the song. McCormack was charmed by the result. “It really created the sadness that players should be feeling,” he says.

The sad song plays over the end credits. McCormack felt a kind of ‘magic’ in combining a traditional folk song, one that evokes both the history and stark beauty of Scotland, with a game whose tragedy comes from penetrating the country’s ancient soil. But he also felt a responsibility: it was not enough that the game used Scottish Gaelic to evoke the past; it must communicate with the speakers of the language in the present. The idea was sold to the game’s publisher because it would make a nice marketing beat. If cost was an issue, McCormack was willing to ‘throw away’ other elements of the game to make it happen.

Scottish Gaelic has suffered a slow and steady decline. In 1755the language was spoken by 289,798 people, or 22.9% of the then 1.2 million inhabitants. According to the most recent census figures from 2022, it is spoken by 69,701 people, or 1.3% of the country. The number (and proportion of the population) who speak the language has increased marginally over the past decade. But Robbie MacLeòid, a Glasgow writer and Scottish Gaelic academic, says is evident from the census that the language is effectively outside community use in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles, the areas traditionally considered the core area. Another one study suggests that the language may even become extinct altogether within the next decade.

The place of language within the arts is uneven. Scottish Gaelic literature is in ‘good health’, says MacLeòid. But in theater there is only one theater company, Theater Gu Leòr, which tours plays and other stage productions throughout the country. Scottish Gaelic speakers can watch television broadcasts from BBC Alba and listen to the radio via BBC Radio nan Gàidheal.

Video games, even those made by Scottish developers, lag far behind. There are a handful DIY translation efforts by, among others, GunChleoc (a pseudonym) for games such as 0 AD And Pingus. But the mainstream industry, including developers Rockstar North and No Code (the Glasgow studio working on a new Silent Hill title), has shown little interest in the language. “Given how healthy Scotland’s video game industry is, it’s surprising it’s taken this long Still awakens the depth for this kind of representation,” says MacLeòid.

It was a memorable moment for MacLeòid when he started the game with the Scottish Gaelic translation enabled. “I honestly got quite emotional at the title screen as soon as I changed it to Gaelic,” he says. “I sat there for a minute and thought: Wow, I’ve never seen this before.” MacLeòid has long interacted with video games through English; playing in authentic Scottish Gaelic was both ‘surreal’ and ‘moving’.

Too often, MacLeòid says, language is used in a way that can feel culturally appropriate. Scottish Gaelic is often referred to as the ‘ancient language’, he continues, to add ‘colour’ and suggest the ‘romantic’ or the ‘unknown’, implying that the language is an artefact or a signifier of the past , and therefore , something that is ‘not relevant now’.

Arts and culture, including video games such as Still awakens the depthare in a unique position to normalize minority languages ​​and help those who learn them. MacLeòid recalls the way in which the Scottish Gaelic translation of X-Men: The Animated Seriesbroadcast on BBC Alba in the 1990s, helped him learn the language. He sees the impact as a Scottish Gaelic translation of Grand Theft Auto 6currently in development at Rockstar North in Edinburgh (as well as other studios around the world), could have the language. “It would be radical and revolutionary – a game changer,” he says. “It would not only create jobs for people who work in the language, but also give respect to the language itself – its raison d’être.” This is the “bare minimum”, MacLeòid insists, that he believes major Scottish gaming companies should be doing in relation to Scottish Gaelic.

For McCormack, Still awakens the depth is an expression of Scottish identity. The game, with its keen sense of place and eye for regional detail, resonates with efforts across Britain and Ireland. Northern Irish band Kneecap rap in Irish Gaelic; for which fiction writer Harry Josephine Giles won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Prize Deep wheel Orcadiaa science fiction novel written in the Scottish Orkney dialect. Blindboy Boat Club is an anonymous podcaster and author who reshapes Irish history in response to centuries of English colonialism. “People are reclaiming their identity,” says McCormack. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

McCormack sees the Scottish Gaelic translation of Still awakens the depth as a small but important part of this movement. “People say, ‘There are only so many thousands of people who actually speak Scottish Gaelic,’” he says. “’I don’t care.’ Then they’ll say, ‘But hardly anyone will use it.’”

McCormack is proud of his team’s response to this last point. Those who want to claim every achievement Still awakens the depth must complete the game with translation enabled. As of December 2024, more than 16,500 players have done so across PlayStation 5, Steam, and Xbox Series X. Call it an incentive, friendly encouragement, or a gamified approach to language. Either way, The Chinese Room has created what many consider a breakout moment beautiful, elegant language, and a reminder that Scottish Gaelic is not a relic.