Hello everyone!
This is just a quick post to let you fairy fans and tights aficionados know what we've been up to recently.
The translation project is making slow but steady progress. 43% of the total script have been translated into English, people are working on localizing the graphics — buttons, signs, title cards, etc. —, and Kakashi is living in my mattress. Let's hope only two of those things are true!
Now that you're up to speed as far as the progress is concerned, I thought I'd mention a thing I learned about translating video games recently.
When you casually think about how to translate a game, you might think it's pretty simple. Just a matter of going through the script and converting it to English line-by-line. In reality, it's one heck of a lot more complicated.
As an example, the other day I translated a quiz game within Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love. Tingle has to answer several questions correctly to get someone to do something for him (spoiler averted... for now!). These questions are about people, things, and places in the game. For example, one question asks what text is written on a sign on the wall in another room. To translate the answer to that specific question, insert the English version of the text on the sign. Simple enough, right?
But what if you — or another translator on the team — later decide to tweak the translation of the text written on the sign? If they forget that the text on that sign is the subject of a quiz question somewhere else in the game, the player will be in deep trouble later on. Since the text on the sign and the answer the game expects from the player (i.e., the pre-tweaked sign text) no longer match, giving the correct answer to the quiz question has become impossible! Thus, translators constantly have to check cross-connections like this to make sure the translation is consistent.
This is just one example of the things you have to keep an eye on to do this right. But it's all going to be worth it in the end, right?
...
... right?
A project dedicated to getting Tingle's one and only point and click adventure game on the NDS translated.
god bless you
ReplyDeleteYou guys are doing great work. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteThe quiz game is really fricking hard,especially compared to the other minigames in the game. I can understand why you are having trouble with it. Glad that we're almost halfway! Keep going!
ReplyDeleteNintendo should just release te game to western gamers. I loved the first game (until the final battle) and would gladly pay to ad this game to my Zelda collection.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm verry happy you guys are maken it possible for manny gamers to enjoy the game this way. Keep it up!!!
Thank you
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to finally play this game in English! It's a shame, it hasn't been released in other languages, aswell. You're doing a great job and I want to say thanks a lot for your hard work. It would be nice, if you can figure out a way to make it run on the Nintendo 3DS, aswell. I definitely would pay for this! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteYou can run it on a 3ds, you just need a flashcart that's compatible (DSTwo for example)
DeleteAnd thanks, even though it doesn't seem like it, I read every comment that gets posted here, and I really appreciate the encouragement from everyone.
Im really looking forward to seeing the finish product, lets just hope it's not going to take another three years! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI've been checking this project every few months for awhile, and I'm shocked by how fast everything is progressing. Sure there's still a while to go, but your work definitely isn't being taken for granted. If I knew any Japanese, I would jump to help you guys in a heartbeat. Thanks for all your hard work and I'm so excited to finally be able to play this game!
ReplyDeleteIt's the same thing with keeping a steady naming convention for things in the game, and you and the team should have a shared archive of all things linked together in the game as you come across them, to avoid this sort of problem, like a google doc, I don't know, with where it is in the game, to what area/part of the story it pertains to, where it is in the game files/game code, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnyway thanks for the status update :). Looking forward to this being finished !
Thanks guys! It will be worth, definitely ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you! Im looking for this!
ReplyDeleteIt makes me so happy to see a translation being worked on for this! Thank you to all involved.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a fan translation ROM project for the DS myself, and I gotta say: keep on truckin'! It's tough sometimes, but it is worth it and a great way to meet really awesome people online.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we found *very* helpful for our team was the creation of a Slack channel - basically like pretty IRC. Makes team interactions really come alive, and it is totally free.
I'd love to hear more things about your translation process to see if there are any things you're doing that we should be learning from - this is my first ROM translation project as well.
Happy translating - you rock!
Thanks for the encouraging words. A Slack channel is actually a pretty great idea, I'll certainly think about it.
DeleteA project like this certainly can seem overwhelming at times, so it means a lot if people keep commenting on the blog and cheering us on. Likt TingleFan, I read every comment, even if I don't reply very often.
Good luck with your own project as well!
If you start losing a lot of followers, you could possibly do a translation for either Tingle's Balloon Fight DS or Too Much Tingle Pack. I'm sure they won't take nearly as much effort. And releasing one might boost your viewers again.
ReplyDeleteRegardless keep up the good work!
Tingle's Balloon Fight DS is actually something I've looked at. Believe it or not, I actually found out about Balloon Trip of Love because of Balloon Fight.
DeleteWhile I can't speak for the rest of the team, I do plan on at least attempting Balloon Fight after this project. As for the Tingle Pack, I'd love to do that, but unfortunately it was removed from the dsiware store a while ago, and no dumps of it have surfaced.
Thanks for the suggestions though! Maybe I'll take a look at Balloon Fight in a little while, iirc it wasn't that text heavy.
In that case, is there a way to apply the patch to the physical game using Action Replay? I'd really like that to happen, because it still uses the original software.
ReplyDelete^ That was in reply to another comment about being able to play on a 3DS flashcart, and my phone screwed up and put it in the wrong place.
DeleteI'm excited you're doing this! How do we get Big N to notice that we want this?
ReplyDeleteOkay, here's a Twitter handle to send @NintendoAmerica
ReplyDelete#GiveUsTheLoveBalloon
And I sent this message:
I'm writing today to inform NoA that there is a crowd that would very much like to have an English localization of "Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love." Please consider a VC release soon for Tingle's game series' 10th bday! #GiveUsTheLoveBalloon
Yo! It's been a few months, can we get another update soon? The wait is killing me...
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to the tingle translators, we appreciate your hard work!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait! I'm Tingle-ing with anticipation. Sorry. I couldn't resist.
ReplyDelete