Carpe Fulgur (Company)

Carpe Fulgur

COMPANY» Founded 2009-12-10

America

A small publishing company dedicated to bringing lesser-known Japanese PC games to Western audiences.

Overview

Carpe Fulgur was originally founded in December of 2009 by two friends, Andrew Dice and Robin Light-Williams, who met via the SomethingAwful forums. The pair wanted to localize games from Japan (Location), and saw particular potential in the then-burgeoning doujin development scene. Nicholas Carson was also brought aboard to assist them with 2D graphics and interface work. The name Carpe Fulgur (lit. "seize lightning") is a variation on the classic Latin exhortation 'Carpe Diem' (Seize the day), representing the risk the pair were undertaking by attempting to localize games on a very small team and low budget, as well as the potential benefit they hoped to see from it. On September 25, 2025, Light-Williams announced on social media that Dice had passed away. Light-Williams also stated that as a result, Carpe Fulgur would be ceasing operations.

Localization Work

Carpe Fulgur's first commercial release was Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. The pair had been considering trying to get work on the Atelier (Franchise) series, but quickly shifted priorities to the doujin market, with Recettear being their first choice in the space. Recettear's English release launched in September 2010, garnering some attention for being the first independent Japanese title to release on Steam and becoming an "overwhelming success" according to Carpe Fulgur. Following Recettear's success, the pair went on to release Chantelise (Game) and Fortune Summoners in 2011 and 2012 respectively. In September 2013, it was announced that the pair had been hired to assist in the translation of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC, which Dice described as something he'd "....wanted to work on ever since CF began..." However, in December 2014 Dice stated in a blog post that significant trouble with the localization process as well as in his own life had slowed the localization's release and also led Carpe Fulgur to pull out of further involvement on the project, with XSEED handling SC's translation going forward. In May 2015, the team announced their next project would be This Starry Midnight We Make. In May 2017, they announced that their sixth project would be a translation of The Midnight Sanctuary (Game) (though publishing would be handled by Playism.) This would ultimately be their final project officially under the name Carpe Fulgur, though the pair would continue to pop up in English game localization, including the translation teams for Super Robot Wars 30 (Game) and The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. Dice also stated in December 2024 that Carpe Fulgur would be involved in the release of Recettear HD Edition.

Developed Games

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Published Games

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