Localized subtitles
Hello,
please translate at least the subtitles to other languages than english, or just provide an api, so fans can translate the subtitles. There's a huge community for movie subtitle-translation already and the quality is really good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)
@telltale management: You don't know how it's like in a foreign country where english is not the mother language. There a many adventure fans (especially monkey island), that don't speak english good enough to have fun with non-localized games.
If you invest some thousand dollars in a german, or spanish subtitle-translation, you'll get the investment back easily, because you'll get more customers. It's an easy calculation and that's why most of the game publishers do the translation!
Thanks,
root66
please translate at least the subtitles to other languages than english, or just provide an api, so fans can translate the subtitles. There's a huge community for movie subtitle-translation already and the quality is really good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)
@telltale management: You don't know how it's like in a foreign country where english is not the mother language. There a many adventure fans (especially monkey island), that don't speak english good enough to have fun with non-localized games.
If you invest some thousand dollars in a german, or spanish subtitle-translation, you'll get the investment back easily, because you'll get more customers. It's an easy calculation and that's why most of the game publishers do the translation!
Thanks,
root66
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...and this is exactly what will apply to Back to the Future, I am very, very sure of this.
http://www.telltalegames.com/company/ourteam/
Things should speed up from now on.
Wow, good catch, I haven't even had the position for a month yet. I'll have more to say on the subject in time...for now you'll just have to be patient.
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glass pipe
Let's not forget that you can only coordinate elements that are already there.
Nonetheless, great news!
Imagine what happens if there's NOBODY to coordinate them! :eek::p
It won't.
I can't say exactly what I'm doing at the moment but I can say that my planning for preparing translations of anything includes me spending at least 1 full day per episode of reading through all of the dialog and making notes about the context of conversations, why a joke is funny in English, etc., to help the translators make the best possible translations.
Unfortunately, I am not fluent in any other languages. I took Italian and Japanese in college and speak the Spanish that everyone born and raised in So Cal speaks (and no, admitting that is not saying we're doing anything in those languages), so there's still a chance that things will slip through but we're very serious about doing things right for our fans that speak other languages.
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Ferrari 166
The Namco/Bandai S&M2 desaster (and OMG it was a desaster) wasn't due to a bad translation, as far as I can tell, but due to plain bad dubbing circumstances. I'm ready to believe that the voice actors could have done so much better if they were actually allowed to take a look at the game or if they had at least a rough idea about the situation in which their character spoke a certain sentence.
The translation itself did whatever it could (including the ill-fated attempt to translate the Maimtron's 80's music references into actually understandable German counterparts), and the translators even seeked the community's opinion afterwards (if my memory doesn't fail, they even set up a live discussion about their work... let me research that).
/edit: Ahh, there it is. There was a "round table" at the developer's conference "Quo vadis" in Berlin in April. Naturally, because of this being a weekday, not many fans were able to attend.
I hadn't played that version but don't worry, I've got animation sync covered as well. If it has to do with bringing languages into the game, I'm on it.
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TZR250
I realize it was their choice, not yours, but if Telltale has now a localization coordinator, I hope he (she? it???) makes sure it never happens again.
Same thing happened to the Italian version. Italian gamers have been forced to buy the French/German version online to get Italian subtitles. :rolleyes:
First season of S&M had one, dubbed and subtitled and it was incredibly well done.
Also, the team working on the localization of the Runaway series is being praised by every critic, because they made an incredible job, with adaptating all of the jokes, providing quality dubs etc...
Maybe you could try to contact them ?
If such a french version ever exist for games like Monkey Island and Back to the Future (pleaaaaaase T_T)
Thanks anyway !
A German version would also enable me to play this game with my brother - I'd like that!
Micheal J Fox and Chris Lloyd 's french voices are still dubbing.
As I am witenessing with the new Kingdom Hearts game (featuring Disney characters), the english voices are pretty badly received, and some people even consider them to ruin the game because it doesn't match their childhood memories ... Well...
I hope if BTTF makes it to the european countried, it can be dubbed !
Funnily enough a couple of years ago both of them participated in a live audio drama depicting a fan-written BTTF4, with Mackensy (who's actually rather bald) sporting a white wig.
I saw snippets of that. It was reeeeally bad.
You're right, I'm not. But you can be like Jesse Jackson and keep hope alive.
I'm not familiar with the Runaway series. Can you send me a link? Thanks!
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buy vaporizers
The Runaway series is composed of three adventure/point and click games, using 2D graphics, in high definition, and has many references to old adventure games. The critics are pretty good. Many reviews compare it to the old Lucasarts games but in a "nowadays" shape and standards. Here's the link to their official website : http://www.runaway-thegame.com
The french localization has been done by a studio called Words of Magic, here's their website :
http://www.wordsofmagic.com/
There is an english version. (clicking on the shining stars gives you access to the different sections)
I believe you can check the section they called "our philosophy" to see the kind of people they are.
And they made a section called "press", where they put all of the french websites or magazines who reviewed the games and who were surprised by the quality of their work.
Though they didn't not translate the said articles (but this way it's easier to verify the sources).
Since I know you do not speak french, I'll translate just a few of them,
Runaway : A twist of Fate (the latest release) review,
"Yet again, the studio Words of Magic was in charge of the localization, and we have to say that they did an excellent job. Every actor is fully committed to his part, the dialogs feel right, the jokes are smartly done... A piece of art."
"Some lines are so funny that we actually have to go back to the old Lucasarts games to find anything as good"
"'It is made by passionate people. There are tons of easter eggs and references to cinema, video games...."
"The localization of the game is so well done, that it sets a new standard"
I think every french review has been more than positive about their work.
If that's also your personal opinion, I can live with that. I don't trust reviewers that much - the recent German adventure game "Lost Horizon" has very, very positive reviews and the "journalists" also state that the voices were exceptionally well done while in fact the dialogue is tedious, badly written, seriously lacks intonation and has no accents at all (extra-boring as the game is set in Hong Kong/ Tibet!). The game has its merits, obviously - the voices aren't one of them.
As I'm fluent in english, I usually play the Us and the french version of several games. And obviously, when there is a localization / dub, sometimes it's good (mostly the big projects like the Mass Effect series, Heavy Rain etc...) and sometimes it's really really bad.
As for adventure games, the old Lucas games were pretty well done, like Monkey Island 3,4, Full Throttle, Sam and Max... There was also the Blade Runner game (amazing game!) that was pretty well done.
But when I played the last Runaway, I was just "wow". They really nailed it. It's full of easter eggs, private jokes (for old school gamers), it's really consistent and everthing doesn't feel forced. And I thought it was impressive that they've been able to give the game a real identity. Cauz you know that translating english into french sometimes sounds very weird, and fails at conducting the original idea, especially when it's supposed to be funny. So they basically rewrote the whole thing (instead of just translating, they made every sentence make sense, while staying true to the original), and made sure that every actor understood the context (which is often why a dub in a game is failed, because the actors have no idea what is going on). It's a huge work, and you can really feel it as you're playing.
BTW, I don't know why, but every German adventure game is being completely trashed by a horrible localization ... Maybe they don't want to spend money for the France
The Spanish version of Simon 4 was also horrid, btw.