Notes of the Games Translator 5. A terrible story.

I know, I know. Something I frequently release notes here (almost every day), but today we have an interesting case.

Still know that the film industry has such a thing as “scenario doctor”. So, a couple of our guys last week was lucky to work with “translation doctors”.

Yes, I promised that there would be no more notes on one specific game, but here is an interesting case. Yes, and, a note with the heat of the heat.

Test on pumpkin

So where to start? I think from the moment the developer asked us to check the quality of the translation that he ordered for the game from the studio. I repeat, he paid money for it. Kh. Continue.

Collects the developer (we will call his spin) confidential build with the game. Sends with the words: “Please go along the game along and across, so as not to miss any dubious moment”. The word of the client is the law!

We open, then, the game … and we see that everything is not bad. Not bad. So we thought exactly … The first 2 minutes, while the introductory screensaver was coming. And then the worst began ..

I repeat: the build was sent to us confidential (the game has not even come out even), and therefore we have no right to show whole screenshots from the game. But pieces of screenshots are another matter, hehehe. (Yes, the author of the game knows, he allowed the pieces)

So, it is worth saying that the characters in Pumpkin Jack are essentially caricatured, and this is their charm. Each of them has a pronounced character – and Russian localization mercilessly erased these characters. They all spoke the same way, like some robots. Now multiply this that the text itself is read incredibly … Here is an example:

There are no errors in the text itself, but how hard it is to read it … And it’s not about wise words – it is a matter of building sentences and poor adaptation. I remember we thought: “How could you write like that? As if they took and missed the text through … “

And then it dawned on us. In the studio, nonukcasinosites.co.uk/roulette-not-on-gamstop/ they could really miss the text through the online translator and make only some adjustments. Our theory was reinforced by the fact that most messages in English, when we, out of curiosity, missed them through an online translator, were translated in the same way as they were transferred in the studio.

Or here is another example from the same opera:

“Arrown better than being unarmed” … And the whole text was the whole. For rare, very rare, exception.

“And that’s it? Therefore, you remade the text? Let it read hard, but the translation is correct!” – would you say and would be right. This would not be a sufficient basis for rewriting everything. But this is only the beginning ..

*makes a meaningful sip of tea*

The worst in localization from the mysterious studio lurked in adaptation of jokes. This adaptation is simply … Pumpkin Jack can boast of hilarious dialogs full of puns. And they … buried it.

I show and tell.

You also did not understand what you just read? And it was a joke. Here is an interesting game of words that the translators did not bother to adapt, deciding that “and so will go away”.

And, you know, this is the most offensive. We warmly communicate with other teams involved in localization. They all translate games on pure enthusiasm, no one pays them. And they, no doubt, would adapt a joke at times better. Injustice, dear friends. Sometimes injustice just kills.

The phrase above the raven says when Jack jumps on “trampolines”. And this … Yes, I can’t and I don’t want to comment on anything else.

In the end, we made a ton of screenshots with “dubious moments” and sent the developer with the next message: “If there is an opportunity, let them transfer again. The translation completely distorts … it distorts a lot of things, in general “.

The spin begins to panic. Says: “No one will redo. Localization was ordered by his publisher from the studio. The same studio translated the game into other languages, but there were no problems with other languages ​​”.

Then I made a note for myself that the localization comes out better if you give the game to a team that specializes in translation into a specific language, and not at all at once. Then the quality of all localizations will be at a high level. I don’t know, however, how profitable it is … Perhaps the publisher just ordered a translation into all languages ​​in one place, because “in bulk is cheaper”.

So, back to the topic. The developer in a panic is associated with the publisher. We don’t know what they were talking about, but the spin returned to us with a request to correct the localization. And gives us everything about everything for a week.

What a difficult week it was … We worked until two in the morning every day, “reviving” the text and inventing the puns. Sometimes puns came out so that we began to hate ourselves. We laughed nervously, cried, but … rewrote the text.

Now that I am writing this note, my colleague is already waiting for me to conduct the final tests of our localization in the game. Therefore, on this I, perhaps, will go … the pipe calls.

By the way, when the game comes out, we will play, according to tradition, for it the key.

By the way, do not forget to write what exactly you would like to know about, and we will definitely try to make a note about this in the future. In extreme cases, we plan a small podcast. And, yes, we still have a group in which all these notes are fastened, as well as our reports and keys are played for official projects, on which we worked. We will be glad to you.