Translation Proposal: Making the Game Multilingual for a Global Experience

[Winor]

Dear Developer,

 

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the amazing game you have created. It is by far the best Pokémon fan game I have ever played. I am a streamer and I discovered this game a few days ago, and it was a real pleasure to discover it with my community. However, the inability to change the language does not allow us to fully appreciate the game. As a French speaker, English is not my native language, and when I play Pokémon, I prefer not to have to think about translating. I know that many players are in the same situation.

I am aware that this topic has been discussed in the past, and I have seen the various posts on your forum. However, years have passed, and I would like to bring up the subject again. You have the best Pokémon MMO game in the world, and I find it really unfortunate to limit it to English-speaking players. I understand that it takes a lot of work to translate, especially since your story dialogues have been written from scratch and do not reuse the base game dialogues. That is why I have thought of different phases for the translation:

 

First phase: It would be necessary to translate the game menus and options.

Second phase: Translate the names of the Pokémon, the moves, and their descriptions. Even if we manage in English, it remains very complicated and tedious to translate move names. With the attack lists available on the internet, it would not be a translation job but rather a transcription job. A script could do the "copy-paste" work.
Third phase: Translate basic dialogues using tools like Deepl or Google Translate. Of course, it will not be a perfect translation, but by informing players that the language option is not yet 100% accurate, it would still be better than playing in English.
Fourth phase: Correct translation problems via the tools from phase 3 or retranslate incorrect passages with a translator. You could create a forum specifically dedicated to reporting translation errors and mistakes by language.

I understand that all this can take time and require a lot of manpower. That is why I imagine different solutions:

Community and volunteer help: I believe that in every country, it is possible to find Pokémon and game fans who would be able to help with the translation voluntarily. Not to mention the various coders and developers who would be willing to lend a hand.
Crowdfunding campaign: If you prefer to keep the code in trusted hands and it will take time, why not go through a remuneration process? You could launch a participative campaign to fund the translation into certain languages. For example, by selling purchasable skins in the game like a flag of their country, and once a certain number of flags are bought, you finance the translation into that language.

Recruitment: Publish an announcement explaining that you are looking for French-speaking translators who can both translate and code. I am sure you will find trustworthy people willing to join your ranks for this mission.

I am addressing you today as a French person, but my message concerns all non-English speaking people. I am aware that this is a game made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts and that the sale of cosmetics is only meant to pay for the servers. However, I am convinced that if the game were translated, it would open up to a larger community of players from all over the world, which logically would also increase your cosmetic sales and be more profitable for you.

 

I know that many players, especially those in my community, quickly get tired of the game due to the difficulty of understanding the dialogues or the tedious task of constantly translating moves, items, and dialogues. They are not the only ones. Many other French-speaking players share this feeling and would love to enjoy the game in their native language.

 

You have by far the best Pokémon MMO game in the world, and it would be a shame if the whole world could not enjoy it.

 

Thank you for reading my message, and I look forward to discussing this with you and the community.

[Zoubicool]

This guy is spitting facts ! This game is fire and could be far more enjoyable if translated in french !

[Greg277]

I agree too , as a french player , it will be suitable to have a french patch to play in our native language. Plus the experience of gaming is awesome but this is one of the point who bring frustation if we don't know the specificity and complexity of english .

[Starlight]

+1 to this

 

Personal opinion here, I'd even say things like translation project and updating the Pokemon PC Box storage system should have been given priority over making Astrella.

Edited June 4 by Starlight