Quick question regarding translations

Rodya

Perpetually tired
Jul 31, 2017
103
829
26
Coahuila, México
I could help with a Spanish translation, should people need/want one. I'd just need approval from M6 and maybe coordinate with other fan translators. Either way, I think that devs already stated that localizations are not a high priority right now.

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Only real issue would be the amount of untranslatable puns. Also, there's no real way to translate phonetic accents to Spanish, which is a shame, really.
 
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frankvega

I am thou , thou art I
Feb 11, 2018
3
6
25
Argentina
steamcommunity.com
I could help with a Spanish translation, should people need/want one. I'd just need approval from M6 and maybe coordinate with other fan translators. Either way, I think that devs already stated that localizations are not a high priority right now.

Only real issue would be the amount of untranslatable puns. Also, there's no real way to translate phonetic accents to Spanish, which is a shame, really.
LOL I did the First Certificate in the same University. Anyways,yeah I could help with the spanish translation too and the problem about the puns/specific sentences we have seen in many games. Its just a matter of making something that would fit the same context. If I have to think it as a game dev the translations should be set up once the game is released (as you said, its not that much of a priority right now) but its always a good option to have multiple languages to encourage more people to try the game.
 
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Frost Aura

That guy that answers questions
Sep 20, 2017
79
185
Canada
French Student here, I honestly like where you guys are going with this, and if anything takes off from here, I'd like to help.
 

Orcool

Loves you to death
Feb 11, 2018
14
23
LOL I did the First Certificate in the same University. Anyways,yeah I could help with the spanish translation too and the problem about the puns/specific sentences we have seen in many games. Its just a matter of making something that would fit the same context. If I have to think it as a game dev the translations should be set up once the game is released (as you said, its not that much of a priority right now) but its always a good option to have multiple languages to encourage more people to try the game.
Considering I'm native to Mexico, I'd be more than glad to help as much as I can as well with the Spanish translation. A lot of the puns and other phrases could be easily adapted into phrases & saying from different latin american countries/Spain with relative ease. In any case, I'd love to help out with this.

EDIT: Gramatical Error lol
 
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Rodya

Perpetually tired
Jul 31, 2017
103
829
26
Coahuila, México
Considering I'm native to Mexico, I'd be more than glad to help as much as I can as well with the Spanish translation. A lot of the puns and other phrases could be easily adapted into phrases & saying from different latin american countries/Spain with relative ease. In any case, I'd love to help out with this.

EDIT: Gramatical Error lol
You know, this would probably be the closest thing to the original that we can do about the accents. Velvet would be Argentinian, Oleander would be Spanish, Arizona could be, uh, Sinaloan, I guess? If done properly, the end product would work rather nicely.
 
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Anukan

Three Worn Words
Mane6 Developer
Feb 2, 2016
342
1,746
34
Penzance
We're not currently planning (Read: allocating budget, time and resources) to translations, but we're open to it in the future if we can do it. Specially if we get to have console releases.

I personally want to be very careful with translations, though, because honestly, I consider the general standard of videogame translations (at least to Spanish) to be very, very low. I rarely play a videogame that's been translated to Spanish, and I rue the fact my consoles force some games to use the localized versions of the few I do play that way.

It seems to be the standard for things to either be half translated, where general parlance gets translated, but specific terms don't (have fun trying to translate "Them's Fightin' Herds" while keeping the pun and not needing to make an approximate replacement, by the way) so you get specific terms like "Blockstring" existing as English words in the middle of a sentence (or in the middle of a term itself, such as "Frames de Startup"), and Spanish-ified, but not translated, so you get words like "Chipeo" or "Techeo", or in the other hand, get fully translated to completely unrecognizable results which are technically right in that they -are- literal translations, but the contextual meaning has been entirely lost. Unfortunately, the standard in there has been set for a long while, so that's one pre-lost battle where we'll have to adhere to the settled translation rather than attempt to innovate with alternatives.

That's not to mention the fact that while they -are- technically the same language, regional dialects do vary a lot. An Argentinian, a Spanish and a Mexican ("...walk into a bar...") would require different regional translations or a very neutral one. Don't want to accidentally trip slang that while innocuous in one regional dialect is highly awkward and/or offensive in another.
 

frankvega

I am thou , thou art I
Feb 11, 2018
3
6
25
Argentina
steamcommunity.com
We're not currently planning (Read: allocating budget, time and resources) to translations, but we're open to it in the future if we can do it. Specially if we get to have console releases.

I personally want to be very careful with translations, though, because honestly, I consider the general standard of videogame translations (at least to Spanish) to be very, very low. I rarely play a videogame that's been translated to Spanish, and I rue the fact my consoles force some games to use the localized versions of the few I do play that way.

It seems to be the standard for things to either be half translated, where general parlance gets translated, but specific terms don't (have fun trying to translate "Them's Fightin' Herds" while keeping the pun and not needing to make an approximate replacement, by the way) so you get specific terms like "Blockstring" existing as English words in the middle of a sentence (or in the middle of a term itself, such as "Frames de Startup"), and Spanish-ified, but not translated, so you get words like "Chipeo" or "Techeo", or in the other hand, get fully translated to completely unrecognizable results which are technically right in that they -are- literal translations, but the contextual meaning has been entirely lost. Unfortunately, the standard in there has been set for a long while, so that's one pre-lost battle where we'll have to adhere to the settled translation rather than attempt to innovate with alternatives.

That's not to mention the fact that while they -are- technically the same language, regional dialects do vary a lot. An Argentinian, a Spanish and a Mexican ("...walk into a bar...") would require different regional translations or a very neutral one. Don't want to accidentally trip slang that while innocuous in one regional dialect is highly awkward and/or offensive in another.
I dont think game titles should be translated, as it identifies the game itself and it might be a bit incoherent if done incorrectly. As for the translation itself, Its possible to translate everything to neutral spanish (since its a language that every hispanic region could understand) or separate South American and European spanish (this last option is a bit more time consuming but it's a safer approach). I agree there are terms that sadly its almost impossible to fully translate , so personally I would always prefer make something up to the same context than destroying the context completely because of a literal translation. Another alternative is using these unique/specific words/phrases to explain what the game is trying to tell you (an example of this could be "coup d'etat" which is a french word used in english). I think games could be nicely translated if done with care and patience.These kinds of situations tells you that translations are not an easy task :p.

I dont think game titles should be translated, as it identifies the game itself and it might be a bit incoherent if done incorrectly. As for the translation itself, Its possible to translate everything to neutral spanish (since its a language that every hispanic region could understand) or separate South American and European spanish (this last option is a bit more time consuming but it's a safer approach). I agree there are terms that sadly its almost impossible to fully translate , so personally I would always prefer make something up to the same context than destroying the context completely because of a literal translation. Another alternative is using these unique/specific words/phrases to explain what the game is trying to tell you (an example of this could be "coup d'etat" which is a french word used in english). I think games could be nicely translated if done with care and patience.These kinds of situations tells you that translations are not an easy task :p.
Sorry for the double posting but I remembered something just as I finished posting the last reply. I don't know if its just me but I feel that what I would like to call "game/gaming language" has taken a lot of ground, english words like "respawn" "loot" for instance is something that a non-english speaker can easily understand these days if they play games, so I don't think words like "Blockstring" could interfere with the understanding of the context now as long as you explain it a bit more. btw thanks for the reply Anukan! Please let people know if there are more news regarding translations, I would love to give a hand on this task just for the experience!

edit: Thanks for the help merging the double post!
Moderator edit: Please just edit the initial post instead of double posting.
 
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