I'm going to translate my game into Chinese. Any tips?

I just read that Chinese is an uncomplicated language with no genered pronouns or articles.

So I thought I'd have a go at translating my text based adventure game into Chinese.

Do you think this is a good idea.


BTW. This forum bans Chinese characters.


Mais cela vous permet d'écrire en français.

 

This is not a good idea at all, especially for a text based game. Translation and localization services exist for a reason. Just because a language is syntactically uncomplicated does not mean that you can just go "well, this language I read about shouldn't be too tricky to figure out and translate a game into" because you still have to account for things like idioms and context.

 

It will be tricky though because there are procedural sentences like:

"You picked up (the/an/a) [bowl/cat/water] and put it on (the/an/a) [sand/monster/artichoke]".

But China is a big market! How much would you pay someone to translate an adventure game I wonder.

 

While Chinese language indeed does not contain gendered pronouns and articles, it is also considered to be one of the hardest language to learn for people from EU (germanic language group?). Due to how different it is.

There's also an important matter of cultural differences.

No. You'd need to hire a professional localization agency, otherwise result will be garbage. The legion of poorly translated eastern games on steam are a living testament for that.

Also, dealing with procedural sentences is tricky in general, and unless you're chinese-fluent it is not worth considering.

You'd have to pay whatever they ask, pretty much.

 

Maybe I'll start with German then. Shouldn't be too hard...


Come to think of it why doesn't Unity have different langauge versions of these forums? Not everyone can speak English.

 

Great. In this case, what does "Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften" stand for?

It doesn't work this way. If you aren't multilingual, you need a localization team, and if you haven't got one, the best idea is to stick with your mother tongue.

 

Because...

1. English is considered a universal language - more precise: lingua franca.
2. Creating localized sub-forums would mean hiring additional (moderation) staff.

 

There are plenty of translation services, contact them. For technical support on localization, use the proper forum.