Gray (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47197.0) is currently successfully conquering the English speaking world -- as well as territories where people speak Polish (Poland, obviously, the UK and Ireland, and Chicago). If you'd like to witness Gray's current mastery of both langages, you can/should/must download the game HERE (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1627/download/). Also, knowledge of German is currently being surgically extracted from my brain. But that's not nearly enough! Gray's ambition is to take over the WHOLE world and speak ALL languages :D
So yeah, I'm currently looking for brain donors... Uhh, I mean, translators -- of any language. Spanish and Portuguese would surely help to expand Gray's reign -- but if you know Swahili, Mongolian, Cantonese or Basque, you are also more than welcome onboard.
Now, it won't be an easy task. My rough estimate is that the whole dialogue list is 100 print pages long, at around 3500 multi-sentence lines. A lot of it is very technical language, different speech registers (formal vs informal), imitating accents in writing -- and idioms. If you ever dealt with translations -- be it prose or technical -- you might have a idea just how much thought needs to go into it. Hell, I spent a lot of time and brain power translating from English into my first language -- all while understanding what I meant in English, because I wrote it. Understanding someone else is something quite different. So while good understanding of English is a must, obviously -- I'll try my best to explain every question/doubt you might have. Also, the translation needs to sound like the actual target language, not a google translation, where the words are, say, Spanish but the sentence structure/idiom is English.
Not meaning to SCARE people off -- sorry if I came across as threatening :D I'm not that, I'm just a total language nerd -- and I'm looking for fellow nerds, because no sane person will take up this amount of job for free :)
If there's anyone still reading this - congratulations, brave adventurer ;) Click to read on!
Spoiler
I will try to make it easy and help you in your quest as much as I can:
- there is basically no deadline, and with this much work, done for free, I couldn't possibly impose deadlines on people wanting to HELP me, right? I think I've scared people enough with my requirements alone :P
- it would be awesome if your language had only up to 30 letters or so -- because that's how much my current and favorite font editor can handle. If it has more... well, I'll have to figure something out/probably ask around the forums for technical help
- if you're not sure what I mean by a particular phrase/sentence -- or how and why exactly it's supposed to be funny -- don't hesitate to ask. With most words a dictionary or google will help you (just type [insert word] and "definition") and it'll give you a decent explanation, but idioms and puns can be tricky. Once you understand what a given phrase means, you'll need to look for something that conveys the same idea (in the case of idioms), or uses the same set of words (in puns, which are often based on the combination of two items), but DOES NOT HAVE TO BE the exact copy of the original. You will stumble upon some real toughies. They might take some time to figure out. Best thing to do: write them down and go on to the next thing, we can get back to it later. I will make a list of some that were difficult for me to translate.
- I have a basic understanding of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch -- and I still remember some Russian from elementary -- let's hope we can make use of that!
- I'm planning to do the German translation by myself -- but if you'd like to help/take over, that'd be awesome :) I will have to have it proofread by a native speaker of German, anyway. Tabata volunteered (she's tireless!) -- but the more the merrier, right?
- if I get more than one offer of help per language, we can divide the job, and then one person could proofread/help out with the other's part
So... Anyone?
...
Ok, I guess we could translate the game into cricket chirp :P
proofreading german translation would be something I could easily do. And maybe translating some lines, even though I played the game and know how wordy gray is when describing thing.
I would like to finnish. Btw there is over 6000 languages but I hope that you succeed.
Selmiak: I'll get back to you with that :) Right now I'm considering whether to start on the German translation OR make some update (with a couple of extra features).
Hece: Awesome! I'll pm you with the details :)
I can do spanish if you wish
Oh, definitely! :) I'll pm you with some initial details/questions!
I'd love to translate Gray to russian language (unfortunately, the russian alphabet has 33 letters, it can be reduced up to 32 letters by using the letter "E" instead of "ÃÂ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%81)").
Oh, I learned Russian in school, long, loooong ago -- so I have a general idea of what we're dealing with here :) 32-33 is ok, I think it's about the same amount that Polish has, including the non-standard letters. Figuring out how to draw them might be some work -- but I'm looking forwards to it!
Anyway, pm me for details, including your e-mail -- so I could send you the translation file. Definitely excited to have another translation that I can understand (at least a little).
Quote from: Fitz on Sun 10/02/2013 08:46:48if you know Swahili, Mongolian, Cantonese or Basque, you are also more than welcome onboard.
I'm willing to help with Basque, you've got a PM.
Oh, this is awesome! Are you actually Basque yourself or just a fluent speaker of it?
I'm Basque myself (and fluent enough to communicate without shaking my hands too much). I'm giving Gray a smart-ass "standard as spoken in TV" language, which sounds a bit alien to old natives, and a more natural but not so standard dialectal variety to earthlings. Some jokes are giving me a hard time (tic, tick, heck-tic), but it works quite well so far.
Oh yeah, "as spoken on TV" is exactly the kind of formal language I intended for Gray -- as kind of unusual, over-formal for a regular speaker of that language. When he explains things about plants/animals/etc. he should sound like a show on Animal Planet. As for pun, yeah, I spent quite some time figuring out some good Polish counterpart for tick/tic and hectic/heck-tick. But don't worry: if there's something that's giving you trouble, just write it down and go over to the next thing -- and then we can either sort something out together later, or you might get a better idea somewhere along the way. It just helps to have those problems written down. Keeps your mind focussed even on subconscious level.
Oh and let's take this convo to e-mail, if you don't mind, don't wanna clog this thread :)
I can do it in 3, maximum 4 months, in greek if you are interested. 3.500 lines == 40 ~ 30 lines per day. Sounds fair. [Of course, shit can happen..always.] ;)
That's an admirable attitude :) And of course I'm interested! PM me with your e-mail and I'll send you the translation file right away, along with some basic details.
If you would like a Norwegian translation, I can give it a go.
Totally! :D PM me with your e-mail address so I can send you the translation file and some basic details :)
The Dutch translation can be taken care of too Maciej. PM'ed you.
Buongiorno Fitz. I'm in the middle of another translation job at the moment, but if you'd like a translation into Italian, let me know.
I can translate your game in URDU language, if you agree. But I must say that it will take a while so you will have to much patient. I can't work on it right now, because:
1.My exams are near and I need to prepare for them. (Damn, exams. Why do they come? (laugh)
2.Urdu language is complex and its scripture is much similar to Arabic therefore, it'll take a while to type.
But most importantly, there are 38 letters in Urdu so first you will have to sort that problem out. I have a very good .ttf font which I can give you.
Just P.M me for more info. and details.
Cheers, :)
Adeel S. Ahmed
If you need help with a German translation, I'm your guy! I speak both (English and German), because I live in Germany! Write a PM or add me in Skype: marcel.plix
Cheers!
- Marcel / pl1x
I could translate it into estonian if you'd want that for some odd reson (there's only less than a million people speaking estonian :D ).
That depends on you entirely :) If you feel like translating it, for whatever reason YOU might have -- it's totally up to you :) Gray is a humble indie project, so I have no way of knowing how many people would actually play it in Estonia, or Basque Country, or Pakistan -- I simply welcome all language versions :)
Just make sure you play the game first and get a hang of the language used in the game. Because there's a lot of it and a lot of it is not your average spoken language.
Hi Fitz!
I'm 16 years old (turning 17 next month) and I'm from Portugal. I've been studying English since I was 6 and I started loving English more than my language itself, that I even have 3 Certificates from the University of Cabridge (PET, CAE, FCE)
Well that's enough about me...
I would like to help you translate Gray to Portuguese (even though it's Portugal Portuguese, Brazilian people can still understand)
I've got lots of free time and I've translated a few games and also some websites.
I also know some coding since I'm studying C++ etc at school so I could translate directly from code, I don't mind.
Well I think that's it
if I don't reply here you might want to add my skype: wakerzeco
How's the Russian translation going? I might help.;)
Waker: Check your inbox :)
Tinyhippo: Hm... Never actually heard back from my Russian friend, even though I sent a bunch of pm's to everyone involved -- so I have no idea? If you'd like to help -- how could I say no? :) I even made a cyryllic font already!
Send me the details, then. I'll see what I can do but I need to finish Gray first, of course. I'm not even close to finishing it ATM, yet i'm fully enjoying the humour. :)
Has anybody signed up to take care of french? I can do it.
The French translation is actually alllmost done (by Surdy, who also did the French version for Nelly Cootalot) - but maybe we could use a second proofreader, just to make sure everything is funny where it should be, the style is consistent with the characters, etc.
Do you need Spanish translation or Cleanic did it?
Hello, I could help you with italian translation. PM sent.
/Cancelled.)
Another Icelandic translation assistant here :grin:
Hugsanlega var þessi beiðni of yfirgripsmikil. à žað eru allavega ekki mikil viðbrögð. En mögulega get ég aðstoðað yður við þýðinguna,ef þér viljið Fribbi. Tek fram að ég tala aðallega nÃtjándu aldar gullaldarmál, eins og Jónas áður en hann lenti à óhappinu.:P
Denture Alley Lurker: I'm still astounded that ANYONE offered their services -- and will not hold it against anyone if they back out, because it IS a whole lot of text. Two people sharing the translating duties would be great - since you could proof-read the other's part later.
Hi Fitz,
I want to help you translate it into Indonesian :)
Sorry for delayed reply, but my offer is still valid.