Writer Andrew Dice, whose work helped popularize Japanese indies like Recettear in the West, has died

Stylized illustration of deceased videogame writer Andrew Dice, sourced from his bio page on the Carpe Fulgur website.

(Image credit: Carpe Fulgur (via the Wayback Machine))

Writer Andrew Dice, one half of videogame localization team Carpe Fulgur, has died. The news was shared to Twitter on September 25 by Dice's friend and collaborator at Carpe Fulgur, Robin Light-Williams. Carpe Fulgur focused on localizing obscure or otherwise overlooked Japanese games, and was among the first companies to bring Japanese indies to Steam.

"I am very sorry to announce that my friend and business partner, Andrew Dice, has passed away," Light-Williams wrote. "Pursuant to that, Carpe Fulgur will be ceasing operations. As written in our contracts I will be remitting rights to our translations of indie games we published to the developers who will hopefully be able to sell them on Steam for everyone to have.

Hello to anyone reading this. I am Robin Light-Williams, formerly lead translator for Carpe Fulgur. I am very sorry to announce that my friend and business partner Andrew Dice, @SpaceDrakeCF , has passed away. Pursuant to that, Carpe Fulgur will be ceasing operations.September 25, 2025

"Thank you all for everything. This will be my last post on this account and as part of Carpe Fulgur. I wish you all the best and I hope you remember us fondly."

Carpe Fulgur's most impactful contribution remains the English language localization of Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, an RPG/management sim where you dungeon delve to better stock your classic-style fantasy game store.

Originally released on Steam back in 2010, Recettear's localization was one of the first in a wave of more obscure or indie Japanese games brought to Steam and PC gamers, an aspect of the hobby we largely take for granted today.

One of Dice's final posts to Twitter highlighted a rare sale of Recettear over the summer ahead of a planned HD remaster, one that the writer was actively working with Light-Williams on.

In a 2015 Kotaku story, Jason Schreier recounted the harrowing story of Carpe Fulgur's work with XSeed to localize The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, a PSP RPG with a staggering wordcount nearly twice as large as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In addition to showing the shocking toll Tales: SC took on Carpe Fulgur and XSeed, the article also outlined Dice and Light-Williams' working relationship, with Light-Williams directly translating the original Japanese, and Dice editing and adding character back into that raw text.

On Carpe Fulgur's website, archived by the Wayback Machine, Dice wrote that he "set out to found Carpe Fulgur for two reasons: one, because the huge chip on his shoulder wouldn't let him do otherwise, and two, because he knew that, despite the gains made since the 20th century, a great number of pieces of entertainment software weren't getting the treatments in English they deserved... or simply weren't getting treatments, period.

"Alongside Robin Light-Williams, Andrew started CF with a singular mission: bring over the excellent software that others were unwilling or incapable of doing themselves. Through ups and downs, that mission remains unchanged."

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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