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Language localizations
https://xmoonproductions.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4745
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Author:  jackal27 [ Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Language localizations

Hi,

I'm just curious if you are planning to release other language localizations for the stories.
I think it would help to spread the game even further. And I always felt sorry for those unlucky guys, who
didn't learn the english properly and now are missing out a lot of fun.
I can even offer my help - for free of course. I'm fluent in English, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian.
I already did some translating work to all of the above mentioned languages and translating the stories would be a piece of cake. The only obstacle that comes to my mind is that these languages are using some special characters. You don't need to do anything with the PC localization settings, (like you need for japanese etc.)
you only need the font that is used in the game to support these special characters:

Slovak special characters: á ä č ď é í ĺ ľ ň ó ô ŕ š ť ú ý ž + uppercase variants
Czech special characters: á č ď é ě í ň ó ř š ť ú ů ý ž + uppercase variants
Hungarian special characters: á é í ó ú ö ő ü ű + uppercase variants

Reading these languages without special characters is possible (you substitute the special letter with the regular one), but the reading is kind of funny without these and the whole translation have this cheap and amateur feeling.
I'm sure that we would find someone that will be willing to translate to German, French, Spanish.....
Let me know what you think.

Author:  xpadmin [ Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Language localizations

How many letters are there in the Slovak, Czech, Hungarian alphabet. Is it 26 + these extra letters?
Or do they replace other letters?

Author:  Roggvir [ Thu Nov 03, 2016 10:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Language localizations

xpadmin wrote:
How many letters are there in the Slovak, Czech, Hungarian alphabet. Is it 26 + these extra letters?
Or do they replace other letters?

I think in case of all the mentioned languages it is 26 letters of basic latin + those extra.
For Czech it is 41 letters when combined, and Slovak language got similar number.
Hungarian is a bit different (contains some digraphs and such, which are basically two normal letters next to each other, counting as one letter of alphabet, so i guess it couldbe "cheated" a bit) - essentially it is also 26 + extra.

Personally, i couldn't care less about any other languages, but i am surprised you did not take this into account before and do not already have some kind of unicode support in (as your question implies).
So, maybe you could just add it to your TODO list? (of course somewhere near the very end :) ...just to keep it on your mind, in order not to do something that would make possible implementation too difficult some day in the future).

EDIT: also, what about all the chinese, japanese, russians, and other ppl using strange languages?
Let's not forget how many of those ppl are there - it could be a relatively cheap change on the programming side of things, and it might help spreading the game to even wider audience, as the OP points out.
I am talking only about the support for different languages, i am not saying you should automatically provide translations for all of them, that could be a significant investment you might want to avoid - and again as OP pointed out, various translations might be done by members of this very community, just give them the option.

Author:  jackal27 [ Fri Nov 04, 2016 9:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Language localizations

Yes it is 26 + the special characters for these languages. If you are seriously considering it, the unicode is the way to go. This will give you support for any languages later, if and when you decide to include them. If you google it, it should give you all the information you need, to get it to the engine. I don't know what kind of character encoding is the engine currently using, but chances are that it will support unicode character set, without the need to do any significant changes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this should be a top priority now, but it is always easier to implement in earlier stages of the project and making your work futureproof.
I just wanted to point it out as a possibility, because I believe it would help to spread the game and get you even more support. And with a community driven project like this one, finding people willing to do the translations for free (like me) shouldn't be a problem.
BTW - If you are considering the multilingual support it would be probably wise to start with the web page. It is easier to do and the web is basicly your first line of connection to people, that are interested in the game. IMHO giving a web page some language selection options is a childs play. The only real work there is to actually do the translations.

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