Would you like to translate The Cat Lady?

[markymint]

The following translations (text only) already exist in your copy of The Cat Lady (go to main start screen menu, options, language):

French
Spanish
German
Italian* (new!)
Russian* (new!)
Portuguese* (new!)
Hungarian* (new!)
Finnish* (new!)
+ Polish* (exists as a work in progress in ver 1.5)

* Included in your Steam copy only (not available in DRM-free versions)

Therefore we do not need translations of these languages, thank you!

We are not currently seeking additional translations. Thank you for all your help. Should we continue to add translations, this message will be removed and this thread updated. For now here is the previous info (but not currently relevant):


How to translate The Cat Lady

1. Download the Translation script file: http://www.thecatlady.co.uk/media/TCL_TranslateMe.trs

NOTE: You will also need to see this post about some additional text that is required copy+pasted into the end of the TRS file: http://steamcommunity.com/app/253110/discussions/0/522730076210866620/#c34096318835376661

2. Open it with Notepad. Follow the instructions at the top of the file.

> You must write the translation in the blank lines

> You must copy any code completely, for example if a line begins with "&567" your translated line MUST start with "&567". The "&number" tell the game which voice file to play. ANY errors lead to the game playing the wrong voice file for the line, so take maximum care there!

> Accidentally adding an extra line space (by pressing enter) will cause the script to be out of sync with the game, so when it should be displaying the first line, it will display the second istead, again, take great care not to ADD or REMOVE any lines/line spaces.

> There may be parts which look like code, and include such things as "%s" - you must copy any code looking items word for word. "%s" for example tells the game to pull up a previously translated word. If you're unsure, just leave the blank line BLANK and the game will use the first (English) line. We can also sort out any major issues here once your initial translation is done. Focus on the dialogue and obvious words that require translation.

> NOTE: The translation script does include some things that never made it into the game, for example you'll spot in one of the first lines "Hello Mr Roboto" which was part of an original build and just a "programmer's comment". Although there aren't too many lines like this, you will come across some and wonder, "where on Earth does THAT fit into the game?" - again, you can translate or just leave the blank line blank.

3. Save it. It must be returned to us in the same way it was when you opened it, meaning, no extra line breaks, no extra line spacing - it must open in Notepad.

4. Fonts and compatibility focus. EFIGS uses ANSI encoding of the TRS file and no special font is required. Russian requires font mapping, Cryllic font conversion and various extra steps. If you know of any additional info about your language (ie what type of font to use and if any special font mapping is required) PLEASE do tell us.

5. Send the TRS file back to us: info [at] screen7 dot co dot uk with the email title "s7 The Cat Lady translation" - due to our email filters if you do not put "s7" in the title the email may be missed or disregarded.

We cannot guarantee it will work out for every language. We cannot guarantee your translation will be used. But now you have the appropriate script file, anyone and everyone can give it a go.

There is NO payment for this. You will get to see your work or collaborative work on Steam and as part of updates at all other distributors selling The Cat Lady. We will discuss credits once you have sent us back a file that can be included.

We may use our own contacts to do some proof reading/additional translating, but we hope that people out there may be able to provide a high quality translation.

So, if you're Portuguese (you guys have been asking ever since release) or Chinese now is your chance to give it a try.

Deadline: A major update to languages will occur end of Jan/early Feb 2015. Thank you to everyone who wrote a translation! We may make future updates with other languages in the future at our discretion.

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to giving your translation a try in the game.

Any other questions/problems - please post in this thread - do not email - we will be constantly checking this thread, it is the one stop shop for this translation project. Thanks!

FAQ
===
q. Why not do this in-house and hire your own people?

a. We only ever intended for the game to be EFIGS. We're under no obligation to provide the game in multiple other languages, but we'd like to find a way to make that happen fairly and without us having to spend thousands more on translations.

q. What about quality control?

a. We will make sure the translations are good quality, however you have to understand we're not a multi-language publisher or developer, we know English, and Polish. That's about it... So it's not like we can sit down and check a Chinese version, we just have to hope the people are honest enough to make a good job of it, and that players/fans/proof readers will spot the mistakes and help with corrections!

q. Which languages should be translated?

a. We recommend user created translations of Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish... but the list is never ending. It's just a matter of time.

q. What about the original EFIGS, I found some errors...

a. Our FIGS translations have been proof-read more recently, but we have not updated these versions just yet. We'll do that asap, and then you can decide if you think the FIGS versions need more work.

User translations (languages) we know are being worked on/made contact currently:
Swedish (McDucky) [In progress - test version sent]
Czech (Blokatt (ง ◉◡◔)ง) [tbc]
Turkish (Krocker & t_ice) [in progress]
Greek (Lord Panos) [tbc]

WE HAVE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING .TRS FILES - THANK YOU!
Korean
Polish
Italian
Russian
Portuguese BR
Hungarian
Finnish
Japanese

THE STATUS OF EACH RECEIVED TRANSLATION (AS OF JAN 17) IS:
Italian: Added and available now - translated by Massimiliano
Russian: Added and available now
Hungarian: Added and available now
Portuguese BR: Added and available now
Finnish: Added and available now
Polish: Still in testing, exists as work in progress in ver 1.5
Korean: Still in testing
Japanese: In line for testing

[Lawh]

How are you translating the MI games?

[ShadowNate]

It's a bit offtopic here, but...

For the special editons I have written a few tools of my own to simplify the task (you need to translate several files and also add fonts for the greek characters and finally repack the result).

For the classic editions, I used some already available community tools to export the text and images, translated them and re-imported them back. It still required adding the greek characters for the various fonts that the game used.
I didn't work alone on these (except for Loom and Indy 3 which were kind of personal projects).

[tka]

Hi, can I send you my Japanese translation? It's nearly done at this moment. I still need to make sure I made as little mistakes as possible, but it should be ready in a couple of days.

[markymint]

Yes you may. But I'm going to be totally frank - GOD knows if I can make these languages that read right to left or just have insane graphical fonts for characters to work with it. Please be aware, it's not easy for us (but we will always give things a try).

[Lawh]

Hey, I sent you a draft of my translation yesterday! Did you receive it?

[tka]

Автор сообщения: Screen 7

Yes you may. But I'm going to be totally frank - GOD knows if I can make these languages that read right to left or just have insane graphical fonts for characters to work with it. Please be aware, it's not easy for us (but we will always give things a try).

I just sent you the translated text. I understand the difficulty, but I’ll be glad if you can give it a shot. I don’t think I can be much of help on font issues since I don’t really know anything about technical stuff. I would very much like to try a test version though, if it will be available in the future.

[ShadowNate]

I can't seem to be able to get in contact with the people who mentioned working on (or interested in) working on the greek translation. I am still interested in helping to finish it if someone already made most of the work, or working with a team to do it, but I am not interested nor have the time to do it on my own.

Also, I am told there is an issue with greek fonts and AGS. I have faced fonts issues in my other translation project which I had to resolve (extending the game's fonts and remapping some characters) , but I never did this for an AGS game. Is this an issue for Cat Lady? Is there a way to test if greek text would display properly within the game, so that if not, we would be able to work on getting around that?

[Kaftann]

Any update or ETA for Polish translation?

[markymint]

I'm afraid I've hit a problem. I've reached a font limit in the engine. It won't allow more than 14 fonts, and considering each non European language needs 3-4 fonts to make it work (different sizes creates multiple imports of the same font), I currently cannot add any more languages. I'm going to get the Portuguese, Russian & Hungarian translations online over the weekend. After that, I will try compiling the game with a newer version of the engine and see if the font limit has been lifted. In the meantime, Polish and other languages are on hold, cos I physically cannot import the fonts to get them working at this point. Sorry about that. But as I say, after the next update, I'll try again with the most recent version of the engine in hopes the font limit is raised so I can add more fonts. If none of that works out, I may be able to create an additional version with all the *other* languages, but not until I've figured out if the current problem is permanent or temporary. Thanks for your patience

[Lawh]

What about the finnish translation I sent you? I still haven't gotten a reply. Would be great to know whether I should just forget about it or not? We only have 2 extra letters in our alphabet.

[markymint]

Good point. I've just tried it (Finnish) and it seems to work okay (using the Hungarian font). It certainly displays the ä - is that one of the two letters, what is the other letter please? regards

PS. It's a font (Hungarian, Finnish) mapped to IsoLatin2 - so if any other languages are known to work with that type of font feel free to let me know, it will be easy to add.

PPS. Polish: I'm still trying to get it to work. Watch this space.

[Lawh]

Автор сообщения: Screen 7

Good point. I've just tried it (Finnish) and it seems to work okay (using the Hungarian font). It certainly displays the ä - is that one of the two letters, what is the other letter please? regards

The two letters are Ä ä and Ö ö. The german alphabet has these letters. Glad to hear from you btw!

[Kaftann]

Автор сообщения: Screen 7

PPS. Polish: I'm still trying to get it to work. Watch this space.

Take as much time as you need guys, It's great that you're doing your best to make it work! Lots of my viewers will surely appreciate it! Thanks! :-)

[etozheshell]

Well, where is the update? I want to play as soon as possible in Russian! :3

[Sakagari]

Автор сообщения: etozheshell

Well, where is the update? I want to play as soon as possible in Russian! :3

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