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How to translate games?

A topic by Inarizushi created May 16, 2024 Views: 529 Replies: 3

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Hi, for a while now I wanted to start translating visual novels into my native language, but I don't know where to get started. I'm talking more about the technical stuff, like, do I just take the script file and replace all the text in English with its Polish equivalent? I downloaded a game that has different translations, and there was a bunch of txt files, but when I translate them all, how do I make them work? The game was made using Ren'Py by the way.

Sorry if my post is incoherent, and I'll be thankful for any help.

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Pop Shop Packs247 days ago(+1)

If you are translating games that you have not made, I would reach out to the creator of the game and offer to translate the game for them.

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Evolutionary Games246 days ago(+1)

You would use software like Word, and create three columns. The first column has a key (which software like Unity use), the second column has the English text and the third column has the translation. Like this:

Key	English	Russian
NewGame	Start New Game	Начать новую игру

I don't know anything about Ren'Py, but with Unity it's complicated to insert a translation after the game is complete. So you'd be better off offering your service to someone still developing a game, or who already has translations in their game.

Just randomly translating a game might be pointless because you can't publish it, (it's copyright infringement) and the developers might not be able to incorporate it into their original game.

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hechelion246 days ago(+1)

Renpy is not unity, and its operation is very different

Renpy has tools to export texts to files that can be translated, the problem is that the ID of each line is generated as a hash of the original text.

If you try to create the translation in the middle of creating the game, you often run into problems with IDs, which means having to repeat a lot of work.

On the other hand, if you do it when the game is finished, you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

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