Language and Translator support.

[SWAT One]

Recently I have met a few people who had come from Steam, who spoke foreign languages- one of them, French, and one of them, Portuguese.  While talking to the longsuffering Frenchman, he spoke through Google Translate, a process that when involving Alt+Tab, is very tedious.  The Portuguese guy was really patient and kind, and I really tried to help him understand that I didn't speak Portuguese.

With the influx of players around the globe, I think we should look into having a translator feature for Blockland, as well as a selection for the preferred/natural language when starting a server.

Thanks for reading.  Discuss.

[Ad Bot]

[Demian]

I really think we need translation support. It would great to have more players from around the world. We already have lots of people here whose native language isn't English so with crowdsourced translations we could probably translate the game to ~5 different languages in under a week. I suppose the main problem is more extensive Unicode character support.

Edit: Just got a German thread on the Steam forums.

[SWAT One]

I hope that Palatino Linotype supports more characters.  It would be a shame to give that up- it's something that stuck on me with Blockland.

[Dante77]

so how would this work? everyone can translate what they want or will there be someone assigning people for the task? i'd like to translate the game

[Matthew Padilla]

You could just use google translate, I would make it if I knew how to pump the site's information back into the game.

[SWAT One]

so how would this work? everyone can translate what they want or will there be someone assigning people for the task? i'd like to translate the game

That is for Badspot to decide should he decide to implement this feature.  It may be a part of the game hardcoded in, a support hardcoded in with a languages folder, or maybe some kind of support for the creation of language files, Ex: Language_Modern_American_Engl ish.zip

We may find out later, but the more community involvement there is, the more possibility for error there could be.  These are my personal concerns.  I know that there are intelligent users in this community who can pull it off, but their knowledge of languages only goes so far.

You could just use google translate, I would make it if I knew how to pump the site's information back into the game.

Google Translate has a reputation for mis-translating.  I think that there needs to be some kind of coordination to make an in-game feature.

[Dante77]

You could just use google translate, I would make it if I knew how to pump the site's information back into the game.

Yeah google translate really sucks at translating. It's better if an actual person does it.

[Alkatjo]

I'm all for this, its a good idea.

[Titanium Man]

i'd translate to russian

[Demian]

Some hope left? Cyrillic mod: http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=193220.0
Edit: Never mind the link is dead.

[SWAT One]

Is the Steam German thread linked back to this one?

[Demian]

Is the Steam German thread linked back to this one?

No. Why would it be? It was just some dude looking for someone to play with. The person who started the thread deleted it.

[SWAT One]

Oh, that's unfortunate.  I think awareness on something like this, which could mean ten thousands of players buying and consistently playing Blockland.

We've probably sold ten thousand keys through Steam already, but there are bound to be many more to come.

[Demian]

Oh, that's unfortunate.  I think awareness on something like this, which could mean ten thousands of players buying and consistently playing Blockland.

We've probably sold ten thousand keys through Steam already, but there are bound to be many more to come.

I believe we're close to 15k now.

[SWAT One]

I believe we're close to 15k now.

Jesus that's huge.

Also, languages such as Greek, Russian, other Slavic Languages, Far Eastern Languages, and Middle Eastern Languages will be difficult due to the characters being not compatible with the current font.