Titillating Translation Tooling

Hi all!

I had a lot of fun this month working on a translation tool. One could argue that I should concentrate on the game itself but the software is such a robust long-term investment that I couldn't resist. With it, I can do an initial translation of all the game content, as well as anything else like the Steam store page. The translations come from a commercial product that should meet Valve's requirements for AI-generated content.

There is some fine-tuning to be done as well as unit tests, but with Godot's robust localisation services and this software, I should be easily placed to localise the game with an initial round of translation, followed by a public repository so people can edit it as they see fit. I don't have a lot of text to translate it turns out, so translations will be done on the fly as I need them.

I also explored the concept of an automated short video poster and have an architecture in mind. More work is needed obviously but its a good start.

Moving back to the game now, I have learnt about the Game Development World Championship (GWDC). I am small-fry in comparison to the other participants, but I will be submitting the game nonetheless. This will encourage me to get a working demo done by the end of December but it will also make me think more about grants and competitions like this one..  The minimum list of things I will need to get done by that point are:

• Finished basic AI
• Win conditions
• A main menu
• A game menu

Bonus items would be

• A feedback system (e.g. an in-game form to write to a Google sheet)
• A decent tutorial system (it would be more for the steam visibility but can't hurt as far as the comp goes)

Things I got done this month

• Finished loading/saving game state
• Learnt Godot's localisation feature
• Created a tool to automate translations
• Played around with a POC for a short video posting solution

Things I want to do in November

Development

• Get the AI to do all the basic functionality of the game (it currently just moves and builds buildings)
  • Attack (or not attack)
  • Recruit dice

Bonus

• Basic win conditions for the game
  • Have the AI be able to do it
    
  • Have the current player win state stored (to remove players that have lost)
• Implement the ability to create an army
  • Have the AI be able to do it
• Get automated builds working again (was implemented for the old version)
  • Include ingesting translation files from a different git repository