Board Game Arena

Hi All

I'm getting reports on one of my alpha games about translations (which have purportedly been translated) still appearing in the base language. Just wondering if any of you have had similar reports in your games?

Cheers
Adam

Hi,

I dont see my game in alpha in translation at all, so hard to say..

Adam

Probably they access the translation with the URL by modifying the game ID. It's not displayed, but accessible this way.
Not sure what should be done about that: display the translation for all members of the game group, or block translation for alpha games?

Opinions?

Blocking translations potentially limits your reviewer pool, but given that games and strings are liable to have changes during alpha this does stop the duplication of work where certain strings might be translated multiple times otherwise.

I’d personally therefore block translations until the games are approved, but you’ll know better than us the demographics of the BGA reviewers.

apollo1001 wrote: ↑05 May 2020, 22:06 Blocking translations potentially limits your reviewer pool

Not really. Speaking English is already a requirement to become a reviewer (the reviewer must be able to communicate with the developer).

apollo1001 wrote: ↑05 May 2020, 22:06 , but given that games and strings are liable to have changes during alpha this does stop the duplication of work where certain strings might be translated multiple times otherwise.

Yes, but it's a fringe problem, and translators would be aware of it, so they can choose to take their risk.

apollo1001 wrote: ↑05 May 2020, 22:06 I’d personally therefore block translations until the games are approved, but you’ll know better than us the demographics of the BGA reviewers.

Ok, thanks for your input!

During game development and the bug fixing alpha the only important thing really is that the strings that need to be translated are in fact marked to be translated. The actual translations are done separately. Also as mentioned above, descriptions are likely to be tweaked at this stage.

What might actually be useful is to have a dummy translation of the english prefixed with a (to translate) marker to allow people to report any untranslated strings

Loreroth wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 00:00 What might actually be useful is to have a dummy translation of the english prefixed with a (to translate) marker to allow people to report any untranslated strings

This is planned for the studio, no reason to wait for alpha to check on that. When time allows... This item has been in my list for quite a while already

Een wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 00:15
This is planned for the studio, no reason to wait for alpha to check on that. When time allows... This item has been in my list for quite a while already

If this is planned, then for me the best way is to block transaltions for alpha. Also strings might change during alpha improvement so better wait with translation to full release

Adam

Ok. With the next release only the developer will have access, to check on translation strings.

I don't really mind that it gets blocked if that's what most devs prefer, but don't the translations reset if the original string changes?
If that's the case I can definitely see a point on letting alpha players begin the translation of the game, as that'll mean people translation the game will have deeper knowledge on it and the translations will have a better quality and in some cases get released into beta already translated probably generating more interest on the release.