Translation

Yesterday I found a video of the start of Nancy Girl up on YouTube - translated into Vietnamise.  I suspect they used a tool like translate++ for the translation - which is a bit of a shame because rather than producing a sharable translation we can all use, it just patches the distribution package.

So, I am currently looking at a way of including a user translation kit into the distributable.  Basically it'll use Ren'pys translation engine and you'll be able to change your language from within the game.  Initial tests are looking good, just a couple of programming issues around synchronizing translating variables and character names with language changes.

The game will include a tl/dummy set of translation files.  To make a user translation you'll need to take a copy this directory and rename it to the language you want, then go through and update the individual .rpy files in it, first to fix the language and second to add the translations. What you haven't translated yet will still be in English, so you can playtest as you go.

The best bit is that when you're done you can zip up your language directory and send it to me. I'll add it, along with a mention in the credits and a url link to the main game so others can enjoy it too.  Best of all, because it's managed in the Ren'py code, there is no chances it'll break the game logic - unlike translate++.

Initially it'll be an update to Koitest1, so folks can experiment with it for minimal time investment, then I'll add it to new release games.

So, the question is, who would find this useful and be willing to use it?  Would anyone like it retrofitted to the games I've already published?