Japanese Translation

[erodola]

EDIT by Abisso: this post has been split from a previous one, since the topic has changed

Oh well that also explains your alias I guess Fun that I didn't notice, I'm usually the investigative type  

English is just fine with me and I like to keep it as international as it gets. Regarding the translation, I guess it's up to you then --if you need any help, I'll be there. I can also work on a Japanese translation if you're interested (I'm JLPT N3 certified and would do the work together with a native speaker) and if technically feasible.

I've learned about the project through indiegames.com if I recall correctly, or through the Adventuregamers forums perhaps. One of the two for sure.

[abisso]

Japanese? Wow, now this is interesting. Loom has been a successful game there (FM Towns version), so I suppose there still are some fanatics there!

Well, which alphabet are you going to use? Mind that I'm not that much of an expert but I know Japanese has 3 different alphabets: kanji, katakana and hiragana, if I'm not mistaken. But please consider me as a complete rookie and treat me that way in your explanation. Anyway, as long as there exist .ttf fonts capable of displaying one of them it's technically possible.

[Wonkyth]

It'd probably require at least the Hiragana and Katakana, with the Kanji as a bonus if it's possible without too much hassle. 
P.S. It shouldn't be any extra hassle, actually. ^_^

[erodola]

It'd probably require at least the Hiragana and Katakana, with the Kanji as a bonus if it's possible without too much hassle. 
P.S. It shouldn't be any extra hassle, actually. ^_^

Yes, I quote Wonkyth. To be honest, I'd personally prefer using kanji over syllable-only dialogues, but it'll also depend on font resolution and such. Technically I wouldn't know how to make it work, probably Wonkyth himself would be more of help there. There should be some gothic.ttf thing making the magic happen. Adopting sprite fonts in place of proper ones would also be feasible for hiragana/katakana, but close to unfeasible for kanji.

Oh, briefly explained, Japanese has two alphabets (hiragana and katakana), consisting of syllables and vowels, through which you are able to express (and of course, write) everything. Most of the words also have some kanji (ideograms) accompanying them, which helps to disambiguate polysemic words, allow for faster reading, and also decorate the text. Technically you can write everything in hiragana/katakana (as most famicom games did), but using kanji would be better. Say, for example, you have the syllable 'ka' appearing in a text, then it could mean 'mosquito', or 'fire', or it could be just a particle, or a counter, and so on. You should understand the proper meaning from the context. Now, put the mosquito kanji in place of that syllable and there you are, it was a mosquito after all.

[Wonkyth]

Something that just occurred to me: I'm assuming that for the Kanji, Furigana isn't something that needs to be considered? Obviously this is a game, but it is aimed more at the older generation of gamers. If it is something that needs to be considered, it may be necessary to have an option to simplify or even disable all Kanji.

[erodola]

Something that just occurred to me: I'm assuming that for the Kanji, Furigana isn't something that needs to be considered? Obviously this is a game, but it is aimed more at the older generation of gamers. If it is something that needs to be considered, it may be necessary to have an option to simplify or even disable all Kanji.

In my experience I've never seen a Japanese game allowing to enalbe/disable kanji or with furigana. That being said, I'm not a terrible expert of Japanese-language games, having played a total of 5, maybe 6 of them among adventures and rpgs. So I'm not sure if people would actually be expecting such a feature, in case.

Unfortunately I've never used AGS and never got into font programming or similar, so I don't know what you're talking about exactly.

[abisso]

Lol, I'm totally lost now! But as long as I learn something new, I've got no complaints at all. Well, all I can say is we can use one a .ttf font (actually I could change the one being used for each different dialogue line, but that would require a lot of unnecessary scripting so I'd say no).That font can be customized although this requires a bit of effort as well. So there's about 256 characters available in total. Dunno if it's enough.

[Wonkyth]

256 should be plenty.

[abisso]

Unfortunately I've never used AGS and never got into font programming or similar, so I don't know what you're talking about exactly.

Font editing is quite simple (if you don't have to design the characters, of course). But I suppose a font containing the 3 Japanese alphabets already exists somewhere. In case it doesn't, I will merge different fonts, discarding characters that are unlikely to be used. Although, for as much as I'd love the game to have a Japanese translation, this is not my priority of course.

I will get back to you as soon as the need for translation has come; after beta-testing, probably, so in a month and a half I suppose.