Localized and unfobs games – a sore question for residents of Russia and the CIS countries. In our territories there are quite few people who are able to understand the intricacies of the conversations of Arthur Morgan and the dance van der Linde, monologues of the Komstok and the irony of dialogs Night in the Woods. And reading subtitles in the midst of a fierce shootout is not the best activity.
Large companies like Blizzard And Electronic Arts For a long time included Russian in official languages. Independent studios with this are more difficult. By tradition, part of the work is taken by enthusiasts, and they give odds to professionals in many ways, which relates to the facts and mythology of the game world. But that they inevitably miss?
We decided to talk about the difficulties of localization processes again. And chose the company for this Inlingo. Yes, she is not as famous as " Fargus " or " SoftKlab ", But behind her employees – dozens of translated and voiced games.
Hi all! I am Stepan Dubova, head of the PR department and studio marketing Inlingo. I agree: as a rule, we strive to find out the names of the localizers in two cases – when there is no translation and when it is simply disgusting (it is better to switch to English than to look at it!).
Large publishers make high -quality localization, it is difficult to find fault with them, mistakes are rare. So you can argue here https://magic-reels-casino.co.uk/ mainly about tastes: how the names and names were transmitted, how the voices are chosen. But indie developers and small companies with a modest budget have to resort to the services of freelancers or even a translator Google. As a result, insulted forks appear.
Punctuation, spelling: trifle, but unpleasant!
Of course, she had in mind “It Was Close”: everything hung in the balance, it was a difficult victory
The fact that the fork was called "he" is a trap familiar to all players for translators: in Russian the genus is not always logical, and it is not easy to enter different options into the code. And what mistakes are not so obvious?
In fact, there are many options. Inexperienced developers take up the localization themselves, since they imagine the process very easy. It's good if they attract native speakers, even if not specialists. But even at the same time, they sew the text into the images, do not know about the limits of lines, locchitis, glossary and a lot of subtleties.
In most cases, this does not end in anything good. They get Russian text somehow, but they cannot check it-they don’t know the language. The game comes out, gets a flurry of criticism, which means that errors must be corrected. And these are additional costs for professionals.
And it’s good if you can limit yourself to editing a home -made text. Often we have to do everything again, from scratch.
I met a case when poor localization influenced the gameplay. Just imagine that a certain object is called “branch” everywhere, and only in one of the quests – “stick”. A player in confusion, he cannot even think that this is one and the same. So he has to solve the problem of the whole inventory.
Mastering title, level "God"
Not only small developers do not know about the intricacies. That's what it is – Locchitis? What's wrong with limits and graphics?
Locchitis – Localization File. Absolutely all game texts should be included in it. When compiling it, it is very easy to skip short words like LVL, EXP, H (HOUR), M (minute). But then these details are always striking and spoil the impression of the game. It is even more interesting when the game is updated after the release, and there is a lot of non -valued text in it.
As for the sewn text, it is not enough to translate such a graphics. It still needs to be completely redrawn. However, they often use this intentionally: “Russian” posters and signs work great for the atmosphere.
Game Heroes Chargage : the word Victory is drawn separately, in text form it was not stored anywhere, and here is the result
Players get to know the concept of limits when they see a text that does not fit on the buttons or gets out of the designated window. This means that no one said to the localizers that this line has a limit, restriction on the length.
You could get rid of the "scatter": the full text will fit into the allotted field
What is "PO"? The localizer knows him!
So what should be a good translation of the game?
For starters – beautiful.
Secondly, appropriate. If Frodo Karkins and Zleye's villain can still be justified, then imagine that one of the heroes GTA v Taras Filippov would become!
Meet Taras Filippov, President of Filippov and Company LLC!
Yes, there are in the games that when translating it is better not to touch. Death Stranding , For example. Just imagine how it could sound in Russian: "Death on the Meli"! "Umbilical cord"! "Exit death"? It seems that yet officially confirmed, but also so -so.
More about the relevance: everyone heard that there are cultural features, but it is unlikely that anyone is able to mention them all. Take the famous Candy Crash Saga : In our games “three in a row”, sweets are often involved, they cause joy. But they can’t please the Chinese, because their sweets are not at all sweet. Therefore, Chinese players are gathering in a series of cute animals.
Yes, and such aspects are required to take into account the localizers and suggest developers!
The game is the same. But Chinese players see what is below, and everyone else is what is at the top!
There are examples more complex. Recently we transferred to Russian Chinese game Atomic Heroes. In the original, the product is very specific – the theme of three -season. We have not so familiar with Chinese history, and here – three hundred generals and their relationship.
We left game mechanics, profiles of the main characters, their interaction, the principles of development of plot lines. But the names and geographical names had to be rewritten, the stories and individual quest branches were changed so that the storyline was clear and close to the Russian user.
It's hard to believe, but this is the same game
The topic of localization of games in our territories can become endless, so why not continue it? If it turns out to be interesting, we will talk with other studios and companies that teach heroes to the Russian language.
In the meantime – what localizations are you more likely to come across? What are the most funny (and censorship!) jambs met you? Share in the comments!
