N v1.5: THE INITIAL OFFICIAL THREAD

[nevershine]

I could do the German translation, you know.

[Gan]

Here's the Italian one :D

[enespanol4268]

I think we should have:

• English
  Spanish
  French
  German
  Italian
  Portuguese
  Norwegian
  Swedish

That should be enough.

[chocollama]

You can do a gangster translation with gazoogle.com

[999_Springs]

I think we should have:

• English
  Spanish
  French
  German
  Italian
  Portuguese
  Norwegian
  Swedish

That should be enough.

Why stop there? Why not extend to, erm, Dutch, Slovakian, Chinese, Latin, Pig Latin, Martian, Klingon, 13375p34k, the list goes on...

[Gan]

What a terrible irony.
English
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Norwegian
Swedish

This is a good list, anyway: do we really need the Swedish and the Norwegian? How much people play N from these countries?

[SlappyMcGee]

Mandarin and Japanese are good ideas, as well.

[aids]

The fuck, people? Just have the translations on the website. I for one didn't download this game to read it, and I don't even read the text there beside the opening screen text. Also, how the hell do you translate 'thwump' and 'zeroth' and 'userlevels'? If you've ever played this game know that the language of the text is unimportant compared to the ease of play. So, stay with English.

[SlappyMcGee]

The fuck, people? Just have the translations on the website. I for one didn't download this game to read it, and I don't even read the text there beside the opening screen text. Also, how the hell do you translate 'thwump' and 'zeroth' and 'userlevels'? If you've ever played this game know that the language of the text is unimportant compared to the ease of play. So, stay with English.

You're an idiot if you don't realize that translating the game and websites for the game will make the community much larger. It's easy enough for you to tell other English speakers to just not read the game, but what about configuring the controls or teaching people how to use NED? There's a reason that we have a forum that is largely based in North America, and it's because the game needs to be translated to reach a larger audience.

And that is what the fuck.

[crescor]

You're an idiot if you don't realize that translating the game and websites for the game will make the community much larger. It's easy enough for you to tell other English speakers to just not read the game, but what about configuring the controls or teaching people how to use NED? There's a reason that we have a forum that is largely based in North America, and it's because the game needs to be translated to reach a larger audience.

It wouldn't enlarge the community, it would just make another one, with another language. If people can't speak english (or if they don't even understand the basics), then (unfortunatly) they can't become part of this community. I could start speaking dutch here, but who would want that, and who would even understand that?
Because if you don't understand the grammar that's ingame now, how are you going to be part of an english speaking community? Sometimes I still have trouble understanding everything that's said here.

I think translating would be a stupid idea.

[Universezero]

It wouldn't enlarge the community, it would just make another one, with another language. If people can't speak english (or if they don't even understand the basics), then (unfortunatly) they can't become part of this community. I could start speaking dutch here, but who would want that, and who would even understand that?
Because if you don't understand the grammar that's ingame now, how are you going to be part of an english speaking community? Sometimes I still have trouble understanding everything that's said here.

I think translating would be a stupid idea.

You seem to think the primary focus of N is to collect community members. The whole point of translating it would be to get more people to play N. And the more people that play N, the better for M&R. If some people joined the community, that would be a bonus too. Obviously, they'd be the better English speakers of the people to play the translated versions.

[Kablizzy]

Sometimes I still have trouble understanding everything that's said here.

Dingleberry Poon-Rocket.

[ska]

The fuck, people? Just have the translations on the website. I for one didn't download this game to read it, and I don't even read the text there beside the opening screen text. Also, how the hell do you translate 'thwump' and 'zeroth' and 'userlevels'? If you've ever played this game know that the language of the text is unimportant compared to the ease of play. So, stay with English.

You're an idiot if you don't realize that translating the game and websites for the game will make the community much larger. It's easy enough for you to tell other English speakers to just not read the game, but what about configuring the controls or teaching people how to use NED? There's a reason that we have a forum that is largely based in North America, and it's because the game needs to be translated to reach a larger audience.

And that is what the fuck.

Very well said, Slapps.
Edit: I'd also just like to add that we shouldn't be alienating people from this community just because their grasp of English is not as good as ours due to the place they were born let alone being denied using N to its maximum potential... besides, what's the big deal with translating it? How is this such a bad thing - A few extra kilobytes for an expanded audience is essential in my books. Remember, this game is globally released after all...

[aids]

You're missing the point, the text of the game shouldn't be important. As long as a person can easily learn how to play it, the text doesn't matter. Keep the translations on the website, not the game.

[ska]

You're missing the point, the text of the game shouldn't be important. As long as a person can easily learn how to play it, the text doesn't matter. Keep the translations on the website, not the game.

I've been playing this game for 6 years, and part of this community for 5 years and I have never seen any translations - and I understand English...

[Universezero]

I agree with ska; it's not as if it can have a negative effect, and even the possibility of a positive effect is something worth aiming for. Why not?

[SlappyMcGee]

You're missing the point, the text of the game shouldn't be important. As long as a person can easily learn how to play it, the text doesn't matter. Keep the translations on the website, not the game.

Why? We have many member volunteering to translate the game! We could even package the different languages separately. Your objections are ludicrous. It's like you are actively trying to alienate non-English speakers.

In regards to not attracting members to the community, a community that was large enough to support a multi-language subsection of our forums sounds wonderful to me. Imagine #italiaN. Imagine having a large enough userbase that we would not have lost the Indie Game Competition.

So, in sum:
-I want as many people as possible to have a good experience while playing the ninja game.
-You think people who do not understand English should have a worse game experience in spite of the ease of translation

[raigan]

We should actually have translations somewhere over here for most of the text in N in most languages since N+ XBLA was localized to pretty much every country; the real challenge is that it complicates UI since we have to move from a "static menus/layout" to a dynamic system. Especially e.g Japanese and German cause problems because they take up a lot more space onscreen, so for instance the "press space to start playing" prompt could conceivably obscure more of the screen.

This is definitely something we're going to consider as we plan the new UI system though.

[PONTO]

Well, now you know where to look for translators. :)

[Donfuy]

I must say I hate most Portuguese translations - it's hard to make it sound just right.
Example: "press space to start playing" would be "preme a barra de espaços para começar a jogar" which just sounds bad.
(preme está a soar-me mal de crl - existe mesmo? O_o)

So yeah, we gotta do it right.

[origami_alligator]

You're missing the point, the text of the game shouldn't be important. As long as a person can easily learn how to play it, the text doesn't matter. Keep the translations on the website, not the game.

This is like telling the guy who translated Cave Story into English to not translate Cave Story. As long as you know how to control the player in the game then the text shouldn't matter, right? Except you don't know what the fuck you're doing if you don't know Japanese.

New idea, languages are an unlockable feature after completing the first column. Until then you're stuck with having to read the Chakobsa translation.

[ska]

Another (better) community column would be swell. :)

[origami_alligator]

Why does it have to be a column? I'd much rather see maps put in the places they need to go rather than specifically map for the 80's column again. There were far too many easy maps in the 80's column that could have replaced a few maps from the 30's, 40's and 50's columns.

[atomizer]

Speaking of translations, I can do the russian one, if you need it.
(Seems like you don't.)

[ska]

Speaking of translations, I can do the russian one, if you need it.
(Seems like you don't.)

In soviet Russia, N translates you.