Can we help with Chinese Localization?

[canny]

Hello,

My name is Canny, we are Project Gutenberg for Video Games, a Chinese localization volunteer organization, which are powered by indienova.com, an indie game portal for both players and developers.

We can provide FREE and HIGH QUALITY Chinese localization service for your amazing game Owlboy. We are especially interested in Owlboy, as we believe it's the type of games that could resonate well with the Chinese audience if it's localized. And we can also help promoting your game via our network and partners and give you feedback regarding the Chinese game market.

We have been running the most read indie news portal in China for some years and now we are looking to bring some of the best indie games from the West. That's why we started Project Gutenberg, which is aimed on limiting the effect of the language barrier.

You can read all the details in our website: indienova.com/corp/gutenberg, but basically, we take care of the localization process for you. At this moment, we are doing this for free. We only ask that you add our company in the credits and that you share with us the marketing info in China market once the language update is live, to see the impact that the localization had in this project.

BTW, as an indie game publisher based on China market, we would always like to bring some good titles into China market including Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, iOS and Android platformer. Welcome to contact us if you interested in it.

Please, let me know if you have any question or comment.

[henrik]

Hi, thanks for getting in touch! Perhaps we could discuss this more closely via email? We're available at [e-mail].

[canny]

Originally posted by henrik:

Hi, thanks for getting in touch! Perhaps we could discuss this more closely via email? We're available at [e-mail].

Sure, I have already sent an email to your address. Thanks for reply.

[AcetylCoA]

It will be so great if OwlBoy has a Chinese version!
As a student I have to hold a dictionary while playing the game given that i dont want miss any part of this story.

[canny]

Originally posted by Tiger:

It will be so great if OwlBoy has a Chinese version!
As a student I have to hold a dictionary while playing the game given that i dont want miss any part of this story.

Yeah, such a great game deserves a High quality Chinese localization as its official one. We have already translated some games like Beholder, Replica, Reigns, Okhlos and so on.

[canny]

Originally posted by henrik:

Hi, thanks for getting in touch! Perhaps we could discuss this more closely via email? We're available at [e-mail].

Hi, I have already sent you an email. We have localized some games like Beholder(nearly 550 000 words in 3 days)and The Curious Expedition(280 000words) and Replica and have a great cooperation with them. We really looking forward to work with you.

[henrik]

Hey, I saw your tweet. I'll poke the others to make sure they check out your email. Sorry for the delay - they're in a different time zone taking a bit of time off and promoting the game, so we're a bit slower than usual with getting back to people.

[canny]

Originally posted by henrik:

Hey, I saw your tweet. I'll poke the others to make sure they check out your email. Sorry for the delay - they're in a different time zone taking a bit of time off and promoting the game, so we're a bit slower than usual with getting back to people.

Oh fine. I just thought my email might lay in your trash box :D. We have already helped with Chinese Localization of Beholder(nearly 580 000 words) and The Curious Expedition( 280 000 words) and had a great cooperation with them. Looking forward to working with you.

[AcetylCoA]

i'm waiting for this.... 等待真是漫长

[Yomar]

Hi, I have already sent you an email. We have localized some games like Beholder(nearly 550 000 words in 3 days)and The Curious Expedition(280 000words) and Replica and have a great cooperation with them. We really looking forward to work with you.

I really hope that's a typo, because being able to do 550,000 words in three days would make you more powerful than God. The average translator translates 2000 words per day (you can Google that). You need 550,000 / 3 / 2000 = 92 translators or 31 incredibly fast translators working simultaneously to be able to make that, and that is assuming they all use exactly the same writing style and terminology, which has never happened in history. Even then, you'll still need 10,000 euro software to be able to manage the whole process.

The above is a typo, you are a liar or your translators use machine translation with disastrous results. Sorry to be so blunt, but these are the facts.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and I urge the developers to tread very carefully.

I'm a professional game localizer, one of those guys actually charging money for it, with more than 23 years of full-time experience (Japanese and English to Dutch). I have an MA in Japanese and have some basic knowledge (HSK 4) about Chinese, in case you doubt my words.

[canny]

Originally posted by Galious:

Hi, I have already sent you an email. We have localized some games like Beholder(nearly 550 000 words in 3 days)and The Curious Expedition(280 000words) and Replica and have a great cooperation with them. We really looking forward to work with you.

I really hope that's a typo, because being able to do 550,000 words in three days would make you more powerful than God. The average translator translates 2000 words per day (you can Google that). You need 550,000 / 3 / 2000 = 92 translators or 31 incredibly fast translators working simultaneously to be able to make that, and that is assuming they all use exactly the same writing style and terminology, which has never happened in history. Even then, you'll still need 10,000 euro software to be able to manage the whole process.

The above is a typo, you are a liar or your translators use machine translation with disastrous results. Sorry to be so blunt, but these are the facts.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and I urge the developers to tread very carefully.

I'm a professional game localizer, one of those guys actually charging money for it, with more than 23 years of full-time experience (Japanese and English to Dutch). I have an MA in Japanese and have some basic knowledge (HSK 4) about Chinese, in case you doubt my words.

Dear Galious,

I totally understand your concern.

But I just want to say, we really ARE capable of doing that. We have already helped with the Localization of Beholder, which has about 560 000 words in total. FOR FREE.
(In fact their last version of Chinese localization is paid to do and turned out to be not good. The company they cooberated with using machine translation. Same situation happened to the game Armello too.)

And all our work is not based on machine translation and our team has got about 120 members. You need to believe there really exists some people who are keen on games and want to do something for the good games.

But unfortunatly, the devs already have got other people to help with the localization of Owlboy.

Thanks for your kind words for the developers of the game anyway.: )

[canny]

Originally posted by Galious:

Hi, I have already sent you an email. We have localized some games like Beholder(nearly 550 000 words in 3 days)and The Curious Expedition(280 000words) and Replica and have a great cooperation with them. We really looking forward to work with you.

I really hope that's a typo, because being able to do 550,000 words in three days would make you more powerful than God. The average translator translates 2000 words per day (you can Google that). You need 550,000 / 3 / 2000 = 92 translators or 31 incredibly fast translators working simultaneously to be able to make that, and that is assuming they all use exactly the same writing style and terminology, which has never happened in history. Even then, you'll still need 10,000 euro software to be able to manage the whole process.

The above is a typo, you are a liar or your translators use machine translation with disastrous results. Sorry to be so blunt, but these are the facts.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and I urge the developers to tread very carefully.

I'm a professional game localizer, one of those guys actually charging money for it, with more than 23 years of full-time experience (Japanese and English to Dutch). I have an MA in Japanese and have some basic knowledge (HSK 4) about Chinese, in case you doubt my words.

Oh if your question is about IN 3 DAYS, I think I need to explain. Our work of Beholder is based on the last version of the localization. Because of the poor quality of the localization, the devs of Beholder find us and let us helped with retranslating work of this game.

[canny]

Originally posted by Tiger:

i'm waiting for this.... 等待真是漫长

哎 这位朋友 汉化开发好像交给别人做了

[Yomar]

Hi Canny,

Thank you for your answer. I believe your good intentions and that of your users, and fan translations are sometimes very, very good, but 550,000 words in 3 days is simply not possible. That said, you already indicated that you in fact did not translate 550,000 words in 3 days.

Of course you are right when you say that a paid translation can be as bad if not worse than a fan translation. Fees are by no means a guarantee for quality.

Developers need to be especially careful when dealing with agencies, most of which do what developers could have done themselves: opening up a database with people claiming to be freelance translators and then forwarding the work to them, whilst not being able to read the very stuff they sell themselves.

[AcetylCoA]

Originally posted by canny:

Originally posted by Tiger:

i'm waiting for this.... 等待真是漫长

哎 这位朋友 汉化开发好像交给别人做了

只要能做好，谁来做也许不是争论的要点。而汉化工作，会推动猫头鹰男孩在中国的推广，我喜爱这个游戏，我也希望其他人不要因为语言问题而无法享受到这个美妙的艺术品。我更希望中国产生的市场销售能进一步告诉作者-------这九年值得。
//其实我就是不想抱着字典边玩边查。。。

[emcer[☯]]

Originally posted by canny:

Originally posted by Tiger:

i'm waiting for this.... 等待真是漫长

哎 这位朋友 汉化开发好像交给别人做了

现在哪边接盘呢...是不是又咕咕了