A lot of people who are indebted when playing overseas PC games. This time, a deck construction type rogue card game with volunteer translation was officially adopted by the developer and translator of the “Vault of the void” **.
Japanese language is to be able to play overseas games in Japanese. Among them, it is not a formal Japanese language by developer and publisher, not a user-informal Japanese language for users Niho Japanese language (volunteer translation) . It is generally performed by volunteers, and deliverables will be distributed free of charge.
Nihunshi Japanese language has been done within the extent that developers and publisher are permitted, and there are unauthorized ones. Recently, an example in which Nihunshi Japanese language is adopted as the official Japanese version, mainly indie games, has come out.
The 18th series is the deck construction type rogue card game “Vault of the void” leader of the Team Translated Team and what Game Developer Josh Bruce itself , and two people. I talked about the story.
# Do Japanese language power needed to translate?
–Please introduce yourself.
Josh Bruce (hereinafter referred to as a rittle abbreviation) Developer’s Josh BRUCE. I am freelance concept artist in Australia. I am involved in various games work during the day, but I developed “Vault of the void” at the free time.
Mr. Fumakuma (hereinafter referred to as the honorold abbreviation) is a smoke of the translator. His first-time translation translation is “RISK OF RAIN” and this will be his masterpiece.
– Please tell me the charm of “Vault of the void”.
Mokumaru This work is more interesting than “SLAY THE SPIRE” and other rogue card games, whose routes and card choices are left to the user.
JOSH This work has an approach different from the general deck construction type rogue light card game. When randomness is too strong in this kind of game, the player can not control the result and strategy, and it is unfair that he loses it. I tried to reduce the problem of randomness by specifying information on the player. When I defeated it, I wanted to felt that I lost myself rather than my game. In this work, you can plan the deck from the beginning because all events and maps are known, and all reward cards are also known.
-What is the reason for being involved in volunteer translation?
Mokuma I think that I think is more fun, unfortunately, it is not very common in the world. As a result of thinking about “How do you play more people?”
– Why are you working with volunteers?
Momoruda’s translation is motivation to increase game players, not because of money and handle.
-Do you think that the best ability to do in volunteer translation?
Fumakaru I’m enthusiasm for that game. There are no other needs. Some translators say “Japanese language ability” needs, but there will be no problem if you live over 10 years in this country. The same is true for English skills. Now, we use DEEPL translation to create this sentence, but it returns a surprisingly easy-to-understand translation.
(I’m sorry: This interview was done in English text chat.)
– Did you use Deepl translation for translation of this work?
That’s why it is. First, check the text translated by Deepl translation and check the typographical error and check the error. Then, we will translate while modifying natural sentences. However, this work did not need this work. It was because most texts were short logical statements like card explanations.
-What is the enthusiasm for the game?
The smoker indie game work is small, and it can not be seen even on Twitter. “I want to talk more about the work. I want more people to play more people.” The feel of my enthusiasm is my enthusiasm. In fact, those who will be translated will rare, but if you ask what you need for volunteer translation, I think that the feelings are most important.
# Enthusiasm and passion
-Did you plan for Japanese support from the beginning?
JOSH No, I was not preparing for localization at all. Until I start developing “Vault of the void”, I had never played game programming. The story of “Localization is planned” was heard, but I was listening. When I was popular enough to be localized, I thought it would be good at that time. Because of this misunderstanding, it takes three months to extract all text from the game, and localization was a very hard process. However, it is really pleasure to be able to enjoy this game to people around the world.
– A surprise with the work that developed this work for the first time.
It is like a mountain for JOSH programming, and it is like a mountain.
Fumakaru Josh is early to write a program that does not seem to be 3 years programming. He wanted to create a tool for translators who can confirm the card’s text without playing the game, and I was implemented the next day and I was really surprised.
-How did this translation team formed?
Looking for a person who is interested in translating in a detailed work on Twitter. That’s why I participated. Next, we recruited translators at the Discord server “Japanese language worker mutual aid meeting” where volunteer translators gather. I participated in response to recruitment, Agebder and ATALOSS.
-The Japanese language worker mutual aid event is introducing Currydays in past interviews.
STEAM “Japanese Teaching Information” Group Manager Interview “I made things I want to do anything else” [From the field of Japanese language Japanese]
-What did you think when there was a first time from the Japanese volunteer translator?
Josh Occasionally I was looking for a tweet about this work with Twitter, so I noticed that it was a bit attention in Japan. It was the best timing when I was just able to contact you for the first time. I have learned Japanese a little bit at school, and I am studying Japanese in leisure time because I go to Japan at a family after a few years. So I thought it was very wonderful to see the game translated into Japanese.
-What is the reason for adopting voluntary translation as a official Japanese version?
JOSH “Vault of the void” is a complex game. Since the launch of 2020, I received a contact from multiple translators, but I wanted to get a confirmation that the game was translated correctly. Translators should be players who have a passion for the game while enjoying the game. This means that the translators understand the various terms and mechanisms in the game, and their interactions with the highest standard attention and accuracy.
– Are there any other reasons?
Josh This work has respected the community from the beginning. I welcome feedback and we are making many modifications based on community requests and suggestions. So I thought that one member of such a wonderful community was going to translate it.
-I stated that Mr. Makaru is important. Josh also asked for a passion to translators.
JOSH is just like that. If there is a passion, the attention and accuracy for artifacts will be improved. At this point, the abilities of Mr. Makamaru and the translation team were out.
Somuka I have translated several games so far, but Josh is not a developer who believes in a volunteer translator and leaving it. Not only the content in the game, but all translations related to the game, such as Steam’s store pages and development articles, were entrusted to the hand of the translation team.
– How did I support Japanese? How did you affect it?
JOSH When the localization of each language was delivered at the same time, first from Japan Sales from China bounce greatly. Three-thirds of total sales in Japan are for the past one month, and the previous sales are only one third. This work has always been friendly for Japanese fans.
-What reaction did you have from the user?
All tweets and STeam reviews through Joshgoogle translation were all favored.
# Two-person tripod with developer
-How did you do the actual translation work?
Extract all 40,000 words or more words from the Josh game and uploaded to the localized management platform Crowdin in one JSON file. Crowdin delivers it to the translation team in each Japanese language and tracks and manages subsequent changes. If you need to fix card text after the game is completely translated, if I update the master file and upload again, Crowdin lets you know only the entire file but only the changes increase.
Smoker Crowdin is a tool that is useful not only for developers but also for translators. I usually work on Google spreadsheets, but when I want someone wants to modify translated text, I have to add a new line or overwrite the text already. However, Crowdin can propose multiple translations for one original text.
-The this work is early access, but how is the translation update done?
There is no problem with the smoked update. Crowdin strongly supports situations such as partial fixes and adding new texts.
Josh I now have to work with a sense of translation. Previous updates were once a week or two weeks, finished on Friday and released on that night and wrapped a patch note. Now I finished the fix from Monday to Tuesday and submit a patch note to the translation team. Then the translation team can sufficiently ensure the time to translate towards the weekend release. This is still studying in a new development process.
-How did you exchange it with the translation team?
Joshdiscord created a private channel for a translation team and tried to open it to open as much as possible in the process of translation.
As there were various problems as the fumigation development has progressed, we used the task management service of Trello to manage the problem.
-How did you decide whether to translate original text into Japanese or make it katakana English?
When I asked the video distributor who is playing Mokumaru this work in English, I heard that I wanted to translate into Japanese. That’s why “I don’t remember the card name.”
– Are there any other reasons?
Makaru “SLAY THE SPIRE” Mochi translator Grezzz asked the standard for translating the card or artifact’s name to Japanese. GREZZZ seems to be named “Fireball Problem” this standard. Fireball translates “fireball” or translates “fireball”, and the percentage of katakana English in that world is decided. If you translate it as a “fireball” in Japanese, it will be a classical fantasy atmosphere, and it will be a casual atmosphere if it translates as a “firewall” in Katakana English.
– Is it “Fireball Problem”? It is an interesting standard.
Since I was a translation in Japanese in the smoker “Slay THE Spire”, “Vault of the void” is also unified in translation using extreme Japanese. If you did not hear the story from Grezzz, most text may have become katakana English. Of course, there are also places where katakana and English are adopted with emphasis on the atmosphere.
– Have you ever devised other than translation?
The fot Japanese font was larger than the English font, and the card could only show up to 10 characters on a single line. Therefore, we translated by replacing the original text with short text of the same meaning so that a line break occurred in the middle of the sentence and does not impair the game experience. Such translations will be important to know various republicies. It is one of the “Japanese power” that other volunteer translators say. Furthermore, I also devised that “to” of the particles without changing the meaning of the sentence.
– Was there a technical problem in supporting Japanese?
There was no problem with JOSH. It was difficult only to extract all text from the game. This mere copy and paste takes 8 to 10 hours per day.
– Did not a problem with Chinese kanji in Japanese?
Josh Japanese and Chinese fonts used what each translation team wanted. Both language fonts are completely different and do not meet the problem that letters are mixed.
Mokumar Josh used to use the font where the translator has chosen. Actually, Japanese fonts are replaced three times.
– Why did you replace it three times?
The font used first did not contain kanji. The next font did not fit the atmosphere, and the third font was finally found.
-What kind of request did you have any other request from the translator?
JOSH request was most about font and layout. It was a bug fix of the phrase point. The game engine in this work was thus treating the phrase point as a single character and displayed at the beginning of the line.
– It is a problem of prohibition processing.
Smoker “Vault of the void” is developed with GameMaker Studio 2. This game engine may not be directed to localization because it is made based on English text.
(Edit Note: “GameMaker Studio 2” has started formal response to Japanese than the latest version of March 2022 after interview.)
Josh Chinese had the same problem. It took time and effort, but has brought great results.
-How did you check that translation is correctly reflected in the game?
The smoke confirmation was constantly d1. If there is a text that is anxious about the display, actually play the game and “Does the text fall within the frame?” “Is kanji normal?” “Does the tool tip work well?” confirm. I play this work for 470 hours, but I think that I spent 300 hours for confirmation work.
Josh programming has been touched by the history, but we created a tool that allows you to check all monsters with the actual layout without playing the game. Tools are very easy and very simple and are special modes hidden in the game only for translators. I wrapped a program in a hurry to become a translator’s power as soon as possible. The screenshot looks like the correct image is not displayed, but it does not require the text.
– Have you ever requested to improve the tool?
There is a demand for the improvement of smoking, but the part of the tool actually played the game and confirmed. I played several times, but I did not get tired. Speaking of greed, it may have been good if there was a tool that can start the game with any card. If you do not repeat the search many times to get a specific card, the text in the game could not change.
Josh Actually… There is a way to do that. I passed the manual and it was OK…!
– What was the most difficult thing in translation?
I do not think particularly. The fun was from the difficulty. If it is strong, it was annoyed many times in the half-width space. If the text contains a half-width space, a line break will occur in unexpected place. As a countermeasure, I asked to use a special character called “no break space” that is not a blank but not a line break.
– Have you ever changed the way to work over official translation?
Somuka So far, it was aware of the work of working early in the game of work. However, it was a really fun experience to achieve translation in close cooperation with the developer. I’m thinking of raising a name to the translation of works under development next time.
– Please tell me the episode you experienced through Japanese language.
Josh was very busy and dense time, so he does not come up immediately. However, I remember often when he switched to Japanese for the first time in the language of the game. He doubted his eyes, translating projects that I had a long time, which was translated into many languages and could play in various words. It was a very heartwarming experience. I can not believe it now. “Vault of the void” began as a small hobby project, but now it is ready.
# Message from the on-site
– Please give me an advice to those who want to translate from now on.
It is an enthusiasm for the game that is important for the Makamigamoru translators. As I am so, I do not have to be good at English. You can borrow the power of machine translation like DEEPL. A person who has played the game once at once, “I want more people to play.” The games developers will surely meet that enthusiasm. If you want to speak Japanese as “GameMaker Studio”, people who want to speak Japanese will help me.
– Lastly please give me a word.
For small indie games such as Josh “Vault Of The Void”, a passionate fan that takes time to make the game more familiar is a very long presence. I can not thank you. I met such a wonderful volunteer translation team and I was very lucky that I was able to work together, and I am satisfied as much as the deliverables. From now on, we will cooperate with the team to make this work as the best game.
It is recommended that everyone who loves the smoked game to jump to the official Discord server of the game and give a word of gratitude to the developer who made a funny game. Such deep exchanges may begin from there. Developers should continue to make funny games for the world. Someone may have proposals for volunteer translation, but it would be nice if you could get warm and welcome.
– Thank you for dividing valuable time today.
Mr. Fumakaru has published the back story of Japanese language on the web. If you are interested in reading an interview, please see here.
Japanese localization back story of Japanese localization of Vault of the void (NOTE)