Ben Kaestner-Frenchman has a diverse work experience in the gaming industry. Ben currently works as a Creative Text Writer at Wizards of the Coast since 2022. Prior to this, they were a Narrative Designer at Lively - A Keywords Studio starting from October 2021.
Before joining Lively, Ben worked at Fusebox Games where they held multiple roles. Ben served as a Senior Narrative Designer from January 2021 to August 2021, leading the writing of two seasons of Beanie Quinn and contributing to Love Island the Game. In this position, they were responsible for all aspects of narrative game writing and led a successful AB testing project to increase player retention and upsell paid content.
From 2018 to 2019, Ben worked as a self-employed Freelance Video Game Writer, contributing to games like "80 Days" and "Old Roads." Ben also worked as a Freelance Japanese to English Video Game Translator during this period.
Prior to their freelance work, Ben worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Japanese to English Translator/Writer from August 2016 to October 2018. Ben also held the position of Junior Japanese to English Translator from January 2014 to August 2016.
Early in their career, Ben worked at Edanz Group, a publishing support company, as a Quality Control Editor. Their responsibilities included copy editing, formatting manuscripts, and creating promotional and instructional videos.
Additionally, Ben briefly worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Japanese to British English Translator in 2008.
Ben Kaestner-Frenchman attended Liverpool John Moores University from 2004 to 2008, where they earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Japanese. In 2006, they participated in a foreign exchange program at Kanazawa University. Ben obtained a certification for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2 from JLPT, but specific details about the month and year of acquisition are not provided.
May, 2022 - present