Multilanguage Game. What's the best way?

[Freank]

In the last period I played a lot of rpg maker games made in japan and translated in english or other languages.

I noted one thing. A lot of games are uploaded as different games. For example "Game Name - ENG", "Game Name - RU", "Game Name - ITA", etc.
Few games used the "Select language" system at the start of the game.

I'm also a (little) dev and I can image that is easiest make ctrl+c / ctrl+v and replace all the text messages.
But, as player and "marketing-side", I know that it's better to create a variable in the game called "language" and create several "if conditions" for each language. Why? Because, at first, it's better to have 200 dowloads on one game than 50 downloads for 4 games (with the same title) and if there's a bug in the game, you have to fix and update just one game.
But I know that to create a variable to add in every events it's not so easy and fast.

What's your experience?
Tips?

 

[TheoAllen]

I used to have dual language game. And my method was to use the switch.
It's good if you only there to patch the game for fixes. And the game content is already final.
If you still keep adding content, crosschecking the translation is still a hassle.

In my case though, I ditched the language switch altogether. Not worth for my trouble.

 

[ArtikDart]

Hi, i recently developed a system for rpg maker mv to choose the language as soon as you start the game.
I used these 3 plugins: "HIME_PreTitleEvents", "JKL_PersistentData", "iavra_localization".

With "HIME_PreTitleEvents" I start the game in a map with an event in automatic execution mode, in which the images of the flags have been inserted and each once selected, writes the chosen language to a variable.
The variable is saved permanently thanks to "JKL_PersistentData".
After choosing the language, return to the game title and from there you can start the game with the language chosen previously. I think it's quite simple if you work with these 3 plugins. I did everything in a few minutes.

I would like to insert some screenshots, but it's all in Italian and I do not think it would be understandable to everyone. ^^

 

[Wavelength]

One game I play called Astral Heroes uses a novel approach for multi-language support by hard-coding NONE of the text in the game, and instead, using placeholder fields that draw from one of any number of Language text files, such as english.txt, spanish.txt, russian.txt, etc. This has allowed the fan community to create support for new languages (which the devs will integrate into the official package in the next patch), allowing people the world over to play the game without any additional cost (or significant effort) from the devs. Very smart.

 

[gstv87]

hard-coding NONE of the text in the game, and instead, using placeholder fields that draw from one of any number of Language text files, such as english.txt, spanish.txt, russian.txt, etc

commonly known as *localization*

the only issue is that in these types of games, you're often constrained by the size of the text block you can display at once, and what you write in one language might not occupy the same space in another language, and screw up your timing if you have synchronized sequences.

 

[Freank]

I used to have dual language game. And my method was to use the switch.
It's good if you only there to patch the game for fixes. And the game content is already final.
If you still keep adding content, crosschecking the translation is still a hassle.

In my case though, I ditched the language switch altogether. Not worth for my trouble.

oh, right, the switch can be a solution. It's as to use the variable. Always with an if condition (also because if you create several page-events, it can be a problem)

One game I play called Astral Heroes uses a novel approach for multi-language support by hard-coding NONE of the text in the game, and instead, using placeholder fields that draw from one of any number of Language text files, such as english.txt, spanish.txt, russian.txt, etc. This has allowed the fan community to create support for new languages (which the devs will integrate into the official package in the next patch), allowing people the world over to play the game without any additional cost (or significant effort) from the devs. Very smart.

... this Astral Heroes?

 

[Padramyr]

Hi, i recently developed a system for rpg maker mv to choose the language as soon as you start the game.
I used these 3 plugins: "HIME_PreTitleEvents", "JKL_PersistentData", "iavra_localization".

With "HIME_PreTitleEvents" I start the game in a map with an event in automatic execution mode, in which the images of the flags have been inserted and each once selected, writes the chosen language to a variable.
The variable is saved permanently thanks to "JKL_PersistentData".
After choosing the language, return to the game title and from there you can start the game with the language chosen previously. I think it's quite simple if you work with these 3 plugins. I did everything in a few minutes.

I would like to insert some screenshots, but it's all in Italian and I do not think it would be understandable to everyone. ^^

I did the exact same thing and used those three plugins. It works perfectly for me ^^

 

[TheoAllen]

oh, right, the switch can be a solution. It's as to use the variable. Always with an if condition (also because if you create several page-events, it can be a problem)

My game used the same method as Wavelength mentioned. It uses an external file to switch the language. However, due to a technical problem, it was harder to maintain because the game wasn't started with dual language in mind. But still, my 2 cents are stick with one language until you really sure that the content is fixed or finished. Then start translating it. I mean, who knows if you in the middle of the development want to change the game flows for whatever reason that you have to change the dialogue.

 

[Wavelength]

... this Astral Heroes?

Yes, that Astral Heroes. The presentation and marketing are not so good, but it's a geniunely good game.

All of the text you see (cards, Ability hovers, summary log, etc.) would smoothly be translated to a different language if you set your language to something other than English (in fact, I believe the default and most common language is Russian).

 

[cabfe]

I use external text files for all the text.
Everything in the engine is a reference to a keyword that looks up its match in the selected language file.
It's even easier to translate into another language, as the engine is no longer needed. Just provide the text file!

 

[Freank]

Yes, that Astral Heroes. The presentation and marketing are not so good, but it's a geniunely good game.

All of the text you see (cards, Ability hovers, summary log, etc.) would smoothly be translated to a different language if you set your language to something other than English (in fact, I believe the default and most common language is Russian).

I played it few time ago. The card game with the best IA ever. It was incredible. (but few cards and no updates. so, day by day, it's boring)

So here we are talking about the rpg maker games... I don't know if it's the same for all kind of game.