VN Translation World Record Attempt! (The Question 17+1+13)

[mikey]

Hi! Please use the following new thread instead of this one. Thank you!
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =16&t=5209

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World Record Attempt: The Question translations (status):
Website: http://rentarot.angelfire.com/questions.htm

Everyone is invited to take the original script of the "The Question" game that comes with the Ren'Py demo or is the standalone game, and translate it into other languages. Good luck!

17 languages
1 original language
12 extra translations

Languages:
--------------------------------
Catalan - herenvardo
Czech - denzil
Danish - Vatina
Filipino (Tagalog) - MoonlightBomber
Finnish - Kagami
French + UI - monele + filsduloup
German - Jo'ogn
Hungarian + UI - Dis
Indonesian - LVUER
Italian + UI - Ren
Japanese - yummy
Portuguese + UI - Ridley Wright
Russian + UI - 000
Serbian - tigerrenko
Slovak - Enerccio
Spanish + UI - AlphaProspector
Swedish - Sailor Kitty

Extra translations:
--------------------------------
English (1337, leet speak) - denzil
English (Da Waaagh) - Efreet
English (Elmer Fudd) - PyTom
English (lolzcat) - Enerccio
English (marketing speak) - mikey
English (otaku) - Enerccio
English (Rot13) - bloodywyvern
English (Swedish Chef) - PyTom
English (Ye Olde) - PyTom
English (Yoda) - Enerccio
French (Creole (Réunion)) - Adorya
German (German-Swiss) - EusthEnoptEron
German (Swabian) - Der Tor

------ original post: --------

*gulp* no, I was just thinking (while washing dishes - I swear that's true!) - with all the people from all over the world gathered around here, if we could translate the Ren'Py minigame "The Question" into our native languages, we'd have at least 15 or more languages... that would be a lot (I haven't researched this, but what is the most translated VN of all time?)... and the game is miniature... so it's kind of a doable project, in theory it's just about an hour (of work) or so... and technically it's a VN... plus you could have the zipped script.rpy available on the renpy site, so it could also help the engine... so... ah, nevermind, but maybe... I don't know.

[Ren]

Yes!It would be so cool to see the question in many different languages.I could do the Italian version, I don't know how many Italians know Renpy(only one magazine I know of made an article about it, and there's a blog entry about Blade where I shamelessly plug for Renpy, but that's it)but this can be an opportunity to make it more known :3

If the creator has nothing against it I'd like to!

[Jake]

I could translate it into English, if you like? Put extra 'u's into half the words, change 'z's into 's's and so on?

[mikey]

In retrospect, I did feel a bit strange suggesting The Question since I wrote it, but actually it's not mine, it belongs to Ren'Py, I did it for Ren'Py, so if you want, feel free to translate away... I know I should volunteer, but I am kind of hoping for Enerccio (I feel a bit translation-lazy now after Nattsu)

Anyway, if there is interest, I will update the first post with the status, like F.I.A in RenTarot ^_^.

Jake >> English English... that would be so very British!

[Enerccio]

Hmm... okay then...
I finished translating it, but it need a double check I think.
Also only script, no menus nothing, sorry.

[Ren]

Me neither, I peeked around but i didn't understand where to go to translate the menus...

Edit:fixed a couple of typos which I didn't notice yesterday ^_^;;Gomen!

[mikey]

Hey, it's working!
Sure, no menu translations needed. I'll update the top post.

Enerccio >> I'll check it tomorrow, but already now I feel the big point will be "vizualna novela", which I personally don't like. Literally it would be "vizualny roman" (as vizualna novela means "visual novella"), but it sounds terrible (let's admit it) - in fact in Project Nattsu (in the Author's Show), I translated VN as "obrazkovy pribeh" (picture story), which IMO makes good sense for what is usually understood by a VN - to be honest I don't think the SK translation has to translate the WORD, it can create a new term - "obrazkovy pribeh" could be a "visual or kinetic novel with images"... I'll think about it tomorrow when I have more time. This may also be interesting in theory for a CZ translation... I mean I know that people use "vizualna novela" sometimes, but it really hurts the ears

[bloodywyvern]

You could add some comedic translations How about a lolcat or engrish version? Or maybe one in lojban o.o In all seriousness though, it seems interesting to have a single game being moved to so many languages. Too bad the only language I know, is the one "The question" is already in!

[Enerccio]

Enerccio >> I'll check it tomorrow, but already now I feel the big point will be "vizualna novela", which I personally don't like. Literally it would be "vizualny roman" (as vizualna novela means "visual novella"), but it sounds terrible (let's admit it) - in fact in Project Nattsu (in the Author's Show), I translated VN as "obrazkovy pribeh" (picture story), which IMO makes good sense for what is usually understood by a VN - to be honest I don't think the SK translation has to translate the WORD, it can create a new term - "obrazkovy pribeh" could be a "visual or kinetic novel with images"... I'll think about it tomorrow when I have more time. This may also be interesting in theory for a CZ translation... I mean I know that people use "vizualna novela" sometimes, but it really hurts the ears

I kinda like vizualna novela, and many of my friends use that word to describe it too (like kozec often says "Je ta vizualna novela v japoncine alebo v anglistine?" (Is that visual novel in japanese or english?). Vizualny roman sounds awful, ahaha

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[PyTom]

I'll throw in a language selector that runs at the start of the game, so we could have n languages in one distribution.

[monele]

I've started a bit and I'm having a really hard time with tenses @_@... It keeps going from past tenses to present tenses, help!

Code: Select all

"She turned to me and smiled."
(...)
"She is shocked. And then..."
(shouldn't it be "She was shocked"?)

"She was a wonderful person."
"I've known her ever since we were children."
"And she's always been a good friend."
"But..."
"Recently..."
"I think..."

(shouldn't it be "I thought"?)

I just need to know if I should go with past tenses or present tenses ^^;

[mikey]

This is coming along nicely ^_^

bloodywyvern >> I'd say if it stays true to the original, some dialects versions or just Engrish can be fun - I wonder about a Rot13 translation We'd probably want to point out it's just fun, though.

PyTom >> that would be nice... hopefully there will be a good amount of languages then.

Enerccio >> My "picture story" translation has one drawback, I admit, it doesn't sound cool or foreign and not really unique... but "vizualna novela" is IMO just as terrible as "lokacia" (instead of lokalita). I know a lot of people are using it, but it's still wrong.
It's your translation, of course and it's a difficult decision - to be honest, maybe the best way is NOT to translate it at all, much like Ren didn't in the Italian version.

monele >> Your call, I'd say. There are some people who demand tenses are aligned, some like to jump them (like me). But feel free to adjust the tenses to your liking, make them in one single tense, if you. I usually switch to present when I want to show something a bit closer, more immediate, then I jump back to a more narrative past tense. Or you can make two versions! (just a joke ^_^'')

[Ren]

I had the same problem, the answer is always...adapt!
You don't have to be too keen on the original version if it doesn't sound natural enough:3
Meow!A French version<3

[Jake]

I had a look through last night, and while I was pretty tired and possibly missed some stuff, I couldn't see any Americanisms in there anyway - you seemed to have successfully sidestepped all those words they can't spell over there.

monele >> Your call, I'd say. There are some people who demand tenses are aligned, some like to jump them (like me).

I wondered about that, though, and also near the end there's a repetition of the word 'all' that I'm unsure about - something like "It's all all about asking the right question". Was that intentional? It seems a bit clumsy if it was...