Game translation?

[Harkinho]

Hi!

I am writing this post to know if there is someone interested in translating his/her/their game onto Spanish. I have done a Translation degree and some Videogame localisation courses and I would like to do some real practice. I don´t have much experience aside from the activities I´ve done in the courses, but I would like to help anyone who is interested ;)

[kkots]

At 12/10/13 05:32 PM, Harkinho wrote: Spanish.

Okay then. Let's assume that I have a 96% complete game, with all dialogues already written out in English. Me, my own lovely self, is natively Russian-speaking. Coincidentally, I could translate my own game to Russian. But!! I just know for sure Russians are not going to be interested in my game, if anyone at all.

Now, if you had to prove that something (for ex. a game) would benefit from or needs to be translated to Spanish, what would you say?

[PSvils]

At 12/11/13 08:47 AM, kkots wrote: Now, if you had to prove that something (for ex. a game) would benefit from or needs to be translated to Spanish, what would you say?

The argument is simple; any kind of localization helps the exposure of the game...

And in this case, it's a useful thing from both sides, to learn to implement localization in an effective way. I would definitely be up for this, if I had a game in which I could use this currently. Right now all my things are very work-in-progress like.

P.

[MSGhero]

At 12/11/13 08:47 AM, kkots wrote: Now, if you had to prove that something (for ex. a game) would benefit from or needs to be translated to Spanish, what would you say?

My game randomly got 32k (out of 130k total) views from brazilian sites. If you knew portuguese, I'd consider it haha.

Though from my experiences in playing dota 2 on us east, south americans know enough english to get by in a video game.

and not much more, just swears and "noob"

[Sam]

Sure, English is extremely widespread but I think this is an interesting proposal. Not everybody understands English, and Spanish is spoken more widely as a first language than English is.

I can see a few things happening if somebody lands at your game:

1) They understand English as a second language and don't mind playing the game in it.
2) They don't understand English, but attempt to play the game anyway
3) They understand English (not as a first language), but would much prefer to play in their native language or in one they are more familiar with, and leave your game
4) They understand no English at all. But perhaps another language as a second or first (odds being Spanish or Mandarin).

1 is a win for you, 2 is partial because if your game is complicated, it may be difficult to pick up without being able to read instructions. 3 and 4 are lost plays and views but if you offered a translation, perhaps that is a language they do understand - or understand enough to play (Nordic languages come to mind here, afaik Norwegians are pretty good at understanding both Swedish and Danish).

By having multiple languages offered in your game, you do nothing but increase exposure. I don't think it would do anything but improve your views and traffic. In all fairness, script translations are pretty cheap as it goes and if the money spent gives you ad views and clicks as a return then you're golden.

[SurferLight]

At 12/11/13 08:47 AM, kkots wrote:

At 12/10/13 05:32 PM, Harkinho wrote: Spanish.

Okay then. Let's assume that I have a 96% complete game, with all dialogues already written out in English. Me, my own lovely self, is natively Russian-speaking. Coincidentally, I could translate my own game to Russian. But!! I just know for sure Russians are not going to be interested in my game, if anyone at all.

Now, if you had to prove that something (for ex. a game) would benefit from or needs to be translated to Spanish, what would you say?

Hmmm... should I assume most Russian gamers are comfortable with English? I know for sure that there is a wide market for games in Spanish.

Then again I guess there are way more SPanish speaking people than Russian speaking people

[kkots]

At 12/11/13 01:42 PM, SurferLight wrote: should I assume most Russian gamers are comfortable with English? I know for sure that there is a wide market for games in Spanish.

Then again I guess there are way more SPanish speaking people than Russian speaking people

Stop the guesswork and blindly poking at demographics.
Some people have already done this for you. It's measured in revenue, but it's natural to assume its direct relation to amount of consumers.

[Harkinho]

It wasn´t my intention to create a debate :S

Basically as Sam said, localising a product only increases your chances of people playing. There are still people that still prefer playing a game in their own language, specially if its story and texts are important. Though English is quite widespread, gamers don´t pause the game to look up in the dictionary that English word they don´t know.

I don´t know if it wasn´t clear on the post, but I plan of just doing it for free, I am not advertising a service or anything. It´s just that I want to have in my hands the real deal and see with what I would work.

[kkots]

At 12/11/13 02:34 PM, Harkinho wrote: It´s just that I want to have in my hands the real deal and see with what I would work.

Your best strategy is to keep a keen eye on Collaboration forum, trying to spot any project that can be helped (which already started, or is going to rely on text to a large degree).
Also, try to watch news post on NG's front page. If one shouts something about translations - it's calling for you.
I have less chances if you just passively sit in a single thread, never go out of it to look around, and wait until someone finds you.
Be active.
Be the hunter, not hunted.