TML - language translations

[Reives]

Heya guys. As a part of the To the Moon pre-launch work, I think it'd be best to start spreading Freebird's existing titles again, which I haven't been doing in a long time. I've been thinking of making some localizations of the game to help the process, and The Mirror Lied seems to be a good starting point to get the word out.

And also to start off, I'm really interested in developing some roots in the Filipino gaming communities. I understand that there are many different languages used there, but the main one seems to be Tagalog? I'll be needing advices from our Filipino members here. o:

(If anyone has any idea about which other languages to translate to, feel free to talk about it here. Thanks to Squall, we already have the German version of TML.)

[Stardale]

Do take note that some English words (particularly those Scientific Words) have no Filipino equivalent. Also, the lines can be pretty long once translated into our language. It's a good thing that TML consists of phrases that can be translated easily.


If you're to push through with this, I can help with the translation.

[Reives]

I suppose the scientific words can stay in English, since they'd mostly be there to give a sense of "scientific validity" or whatnot to begin with. The long lines can just be divided into more than one dialogue box, though it may add a bit more hassle.

Are there a considerable portion of people in the Filipino gaming/anime etc. community who speak Filipino but not English? And thanks for the help offer Star; it'd be really appreciated. c:

[Merlandese]

The English version is already confusing.

Don't forget to rewrite the TML theme in Filipino as well. 

[Stardale]

Are there a considerable portion of people in the Filipino gaming/anime etc. community who speak Filipino but not English?

I guess not. Most Filipino gamers nowadays play games in the English language (for instance, Defense of the Ancients, Modern Warfare, et cetera). Besides, I think the majority are educated enough to understand English.

I'm giving TML a dry-run translation for now.

[Just Lance]

Well Czech game comunity is similar. We have many guys who play and speak in english very well, but there are people who (for some reason I totaly don't get) refuse english. Czech gaming comunity is really widespread so I think that there would be a value translating into czech. (I'd do it if someone can show me how )

[Question Marksman]

And also to start off, I'm really interested in developing some roots in the Filipino gaming communities. I understand that there are many different languages used there, but the main one seems to be Tagalog? I'll be needing advices from our Filipino members here. o:

Wow, thanks for the interest.

I suppose the scientific words can stay in English, since they'd mostly be there to give a sense of "scientific validity" or whatnot to begin with. The long lines can just be divided into more than one dialogue box, though it may add a bit more hassle.

I'm a little iffy on this one. While Stardale does have a point that translated scientific words do have a tendency to further lengthen the already lengthened translation. A Filipino sentence with untranslated words appear more like "Taglish" (Tagalog + English; it doesn't really sound good unless used in common conversations IMO). A suggested idea would be to take advantage of the lengthened (and possibly completely translated) sentences and arrange them in a way that they could be read more of as a poem (applies on cryptic lines and messages but not dialogue) while keeping the regular translation in the dialogue so that they will read normally. The "poem-ization" of the cryptic stuff could add to the cryptic nature of the lines while keeping the translations as close a possible to the source material.

Are there a considerable portion of people in the Filipino gaming/anime etc. community who speak Filipino but not English? And thanks for the help offer Star; it'd be really appreciated. c:

I personally find it hard to imagine (1) a Filipino (2) on the internet and (3) not knowing English. Those three seem contradictory when put together. I am pretty confident when I say that a large majority (if there is even a sizable minority) of Filipinos on the internet are English-capable, though I haven't really been in dedicated Filipino gaming/anime communities so I don't have anything to back that up. Not that I'm implying that a potential Filipino translation should be halted. In the least, it can serve as an experimentation of what to do with translated stuff instead of just purely reaching out.

Don't forget to rewrite the TML theme in Filipino as well. 

But it has no lyrics. (Unless I missed something)

[Reives]

Hm. One of the reasons I'm considering of making a Tagalog version is so that there could be a price segregation -- I think the relative price of the usual USD cost would be a bit high for places like the Phillipines and China, so by making it more reasonably priced it would hopefully reduce the piracy of people who would like to get it legit but couldn't afford to.

Speaking of which, how do you feel the piracy level there is, Path and Star? Be honest. :p I'm guessing it's a bit better than in China but still rather severe.

[Ronnie]

The Hungarian gaming community is quite widespread too. One of my brothers is right in the middle of it, so if you wanted me to translate it, Reives, he could advertise it around. ^^

[Stardale]

Hm. One of the reasons I'm considering of making a Tagalog version is so that there could be a price segregation -- I think the relative price of the usual USD cost would be a bit high for places like the Phillipines and China, so by making it more reasonably priced it would hopefully reduce the piracy of people who would like to get it legit but couldn't afford to.

Are the shipping costs (if any) included in the fees already?

If your pricing is below $20, I think that's reasonable enough because the USD to Philippine Peso exchange rates fluctuate, although not really that much. Nowadays, the exchange rate for $1 is around P41 to P45. It used to go as high as P60 back in the day, but times have changed.

Also, the lowest price of a commercial game (the recent I remember) is around P450.00 .

I'm not sure how's the exchange rate between CYN and USD, though.

Speaking of which, how do you feel the piracy level there is, Path and Star? Be honest. :p I'm guessing it's a bit better than in China but still rather severe.

The government sometimes raid pirates in markets and arrests those selling pirated CDs/DVDs, there's still a considerable percent of piracy here in the Philippines. Majority pirated products they sell are movies, anime and dramas that were from South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and even China (but they all have horrible subs haha).

When it comes to pirated games, I do not see much of them nowadays. Sometimes, I see mini-stores selling CD-ROMs of games such as Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, well-known commercial games, et cetera.

[Question Marksman]

Speaking of which, how do you feel the piracy level there is, Path and Star? Be honest. :p I'm guessing it's a bit better than in China but still rather severe.

Around 70% bad. The price difference of pirated (P100 (around $2))and legitimate software (P1000 ($23) or P2500 ($58))  products is just too much for the majority of the people here to consider buying the real deal. Well,  no. That was the case back then. Now, the issue why people buy pirated software is because they are simply used to it. Of all the people I now in my campus, there's only one who regularly buys legit software. The others are more concerned in a world that revolves around "cd-key generators" and "cracks". In any case, it's not much different from mainland China since the Philippines is one of the prime importers of Chinese and Taiwanese counterfeit DVDs and stuff. I even remember a news report of local port authorities seizing containers upon containers chock full of pirated stuff. It was like the treasure room in National Treasure, except that treasures are fake.

So, yeah. It's not much different from China.

[Kirroha]

I could translate it into Singlish and sell copies at $1 each

[gogobrasil8]

DO A PORTUGUESE TRANSLATION!!!

Really, without translation, the chances of a Brazilian person download a game such TML its almost none. I, for example, just download it after playing TtM and Do you remember my lullaby.

[Question Marksman]

Perhaps you could bug these people to work on TML on the side. There aren't much Portuguese speakers here. And I think PT-BR means Portuguese Brazilian. I take it that's different from European Portuguese?

[Just Lance]

Perhaps you could bug these people to work on TML on the side. There aren't much Portuguese speakers here. And I think PT-BR means Portuguese Brazilian. I take it that's different from European Portuguese?

As far as I know there are some differences, but I never researched what exactly.