Translating video game "Monster Logic" to Japanese

Japanese Language
#1

Hey everyone,

I got the idea while speaking about it in the forum about “Games you are playing”.
To (try to) be short, I’ve been making a game for the past 3 years and it’s close to be released, but I wondered if I could add one more language to it: Japanese.

Since we have a lot of learners and/or aficionados of the Japanese language, do you want to participate in the translation into Japanese of my game?

What’s in for you:

  • Free (and permanent) access to my game to see your translation in action
  • Your name in the credits as the awesome person you are
  • Being able to participate somehow in a commercial game

What’s not in for you:

  • Money
  • Luncheon Vouchers
  • Maternity leaves
  • Beers (unless you are in Paris, then yes I can pay you one)

How will this work?

You’ll have access to the game, the whole script of texts in the current Languages (Available right now are English, French, German, Simplified Chinese and Brazilian (50%) ).
You’ll have to translate every lines / sentences into Japanese

How many people do you need?

Probably just one fluent/native person, or multiple motivated intermediate ones. I’m not against more people joining the fun.

What game is it?

The game can be located here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/917900/Monster_Logic

I’m in! Where should I sign?

Join the discord here https://discord.gg/aZJzrUA and say hi, saying who you are on WK. I’ll add you as a translator in like 24h maximum.

I want to help translate in ____ language!

If you’re native in a language not yet supported or not finished (Brazilian for example) and willing to help, I mean wynaut? Join on discord and specify your language.

If I broke any rule of the forum please let me know (as in being a tad job-post-y). Just to know I’m a single developer doing its own stuff, not really trying to hire people or anything, if I don’t have Japanese for my game, so be it!

Thanks a lot

CvxFous

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#2

I don’t at all have the skill to translate to Japanese, but good luck on the game release! I took a glance at the store page and it looks quite cool!

I’m a bit worried you might not be able to find much in the way of free volunteers, people historically don’t love the idea of getting paid in exposure.
Again, good luck on the release! :smiley:

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#3

Hey it’s me, your friendly neighborhood Debbie Downer – aside from the slightly dubious practice of asking people to work on a commercial project for free, generally people who work in localization will translate from their L2 to their L1 – not the other way around. You want a native Japanese person, or at the very least someone with years of experience speaking Japanese and a high level of cultural and genre literacy. I’m going out on a limb here but I don’t think you’ll find anyone here that fits that description, let alone one who’s willing to work for free.

Here are some fun links if you want to see just how bad this can get – everything from mildly awkward to hilariously literal to horrifyingly inappropriate.

https://legendsoflocalization.com/common-problems-when-translating-games-into-japanese

https://legendsoflocalization.com/games-with-famous-bad-translations-into-japanese/

I suggest reaching out to a proper localization company and letting them do what they do best. If you lack the ability to translate the game yourself, why would you expect to be able to vet a community translation?

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#4

Quite. If you ask us, you’re probably going to get Japanese that reads like a textbook. Or a manga.

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#5

Or a… manga textbook?!!..All the sudden you are making this sound pretty good! :turtle: :upside_down_face:

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#6

Wow that was a tad unnecessarily harsh. I was just feeling the water, to be honest. My game is not a visual novel, nor a RPG or something like that so I don’t have a lot of translation to do.

I was just sharing for the heck of it, I mean most people (including maybe myself) can probably translate short sentences or concepts, like “Play”, “Exit”, “Sound” etc…

I was just thinking it might be a fun thing to do, for practice and giggles, it does not necessarily need to be perfect. I myself might not even get a fraction of the time and money I invested, I just did this game because I wanted and because I could.

Anyway, I’m a bit surprised by the negativity here, because I’m used to the opposite here, being warm and welcome.

1 Like
#7

That being said, I understand everyone’s opinion about it, especially the native argument, it is true that the people that did help were native in their language, which facilitate things.

I took a different approach here thinking that people interested enough about Japanese could be interested to participate in a wiki kind of thing. It might be weird, incorrect or janky, but it’ll be a group effort.

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#8

So there is some chance that you’ll make money if the game is successful, but the translators definitely won’t? Just making sure I understood what you were saying.

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#9

That wasn’t negativity, that was realism: if you ask for free labour from students of Japanese, you’re gonna get what you paid for. And honestly, I don’t think he was being harsh at all, either.

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#10

I’ll give you credit for having an actual product to show. Usually these types of posts involve people who have a “cool idea” and all they need is “someone to do the programming.”

That being said, you’re expecting to make money for the time and effort you put into it, so why should anyone you’re asking for translations be any different? Anyone who’s put in the effort to become good enough to do so isn’t just going to volunteer for free for a random person on the internet.

No one here is being rude about it, they’re bringing up legitimate points they are concerned about.

There are things people do for free, yes, but that’s because there isn’t an expectation of trying to sell something. As soon as money starts moving around, it becomes a business transaction. “I’m selling this thing, but please contribute for free” isn’t ever going to go over well with most people.

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#11

Have you played many games in Japanese? Not meaning to be rude but…this is exactly why I posted those links. Here’s a screenshot of the menu in the game I’m currently playing – barely any Japanese in sight until you navigate deeper!

Screenshot_20200303-180519
Screenshot_20200303-1805191920×1080 1.14 MB

Here’s the thing; if you ship a Japanese translation, there are two types of people who will consume it: 1) native speakers and 2) Japanese learners. If your translation is shoddy, the native speakers are going to have a poor impression of your game, which is bad enough, but it’s arguably worse for the people who might learn unnatural patterns without knowing any better. You can neatly sidestep both of those issues by contracting to a localization company with a proven track record, or just by not shipping a translation at all. A bad translation is miles worse than a non-existent one.

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#12

Well, I feel like it could be fun and instructive. Plus, it’s nice to get one more game.

I’m joining that discord.

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#13

By the way, if anyone’s interested the game is out now and at a 10% discount, so $9 for those of you in the US :slightly_smiling_face:

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#14

very good game and the Japanese translation is really nice. Things like that should go on.

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#15

The game now has a free demo, still available in Japanese with @sigolino’s translations, and 5 others languages. Feel free to try it :slight_smile:

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