Volunteer Japanese language has many people who take care of them when playing a PC game overseas. This time, we asked the volunteer translation leader of the tactical RPG (SRPG) Gloomhaven Gloomhaven , which has just been completed. Also note the interesting theme of volunteer Japanese language and reward that jumped out in the interview.
Japanese is to make foreign games play in Japanese. Among them, unofficial Japanese translation by users, which is not an official Japanese language by developers and publishers, is called volunteer Japanese translation . It is generally performed by volunteers and is distributed free of charge.
Volunteer Japanese translation can be performed within the range that developers and publishers are permitted, and those that are unauthorized. Recently, there have been cases where volunteer Japanese language is adopted as an official Japanese version, mainly indie games.
In the 20th series, we asked Tomato Juice, a volunteer Japanese-language project leader of the tactical RPG GLOOMHAVEN based on popular board games.
GLOOMHAVEN Japanese MOD (Steam Workshop)
As a volunteer translator, as a video distributor
–Please introduce yourself.
Tomato juice (hereafter, title abbreviation) is a tomato juice of a volunteer translation project leader. In addition to volunteer translation, he operates a YouTube channel called Mat Juice Game Live Channel, and usually performs slow live commentary for PARADOX Interactive’s big games and various colony simulation games.
―― Please tell us the charm of this work.
The tomato juice GLOOMHAVEN is a cooperative tactical RPG that combines table talk RPG and board games. It is attractive that one solo play can be enjoyed with up to four multiplayer, and you can enjoy the unique exchange of cooperative play in multiplayer. For example, it is a game where you can play with excitement, such as when a critical comes out and you can defeat the enemy as expected, or if you have a fumble and have a friend comfort when you can not defeat the enemy.
―― I heard that this work is the original board game?
The tomato juice Gloomhaven is very famous in the board game world, and has been ranked first in the world’s largest board game information site, BoardGamegeek, since 2017. The board game version is very expensive because it contains overwhelming components such as cards and figures, but the PC version is reasonable and easy to recommend.
――What did you get to be involved in volunteer Japanese?
The work that triggered the tomato juice was CITY OF GANGSTERS. He got a comment in his game live video saying, I can play if it is translated into Japanese, so I found out that it could be easily translated into Japanese. So, when I asked the developer to the source, he immediately updated the Japanese display.
-How did you contact your developer?
I contacted the official Discord of the tomato juice game. Then, it was possible to translate in a ton-ton beat, but otherwise it would not have started Japanese.
――What do you think is the most necessary ability for volunteer Japanese?
If it is a Japanese language instead of a tomato juice translation, it is Japanese language ability.
――What is the difference between translation and Japanese translation here?
The tomato juice translation is a perfect translation performed by a professional translator, and Japanese is a translation that prioritizes that games can be played in Japanese.
――What is your ability to speak in Japanese in that context?
It is the ability to prove the Japanese in which the tomato juice DEEPL translation is returned to Japanese according to the world view of the game, which is easy to read. I think the appearance of DEEPL translation is a game changer for Japanese language work. The old machine translation had a bad impression, but DeepL translation is quite natural. The purpose of Japanese is to be able to play in Japanese, so if you are not particularly particular, it will be the main work to rework the Japanese translation Japanese.
―― Did you use DEEPL translation in the Japanese language of Gloomhaven?
Tomat juice DEEPL is the mainstay of our army. He knew he could use it as a mainstay in the Japanese language of CITY OF GANGSTERS, so he was not hesitant to use it. Without a teacher, Japanese language would not have been completed. However, DEEPL-sensei may fly the whole sentence as soon as I don’t translate this kind of translation, so it is necessary to have the ability to check in light of the original text.
――Why are you working in volunteers?
Tomato juice volunteers are volunteers, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to receive money in Japanese-style translation al1. In this Japanese language, many people participated, so I have no intention of rewarding.
— It’s an answer that seems to be a video distributor who sets it apart from the conventional translators.
If there is a mechanism that can exchange rewards such as tomato juice throwing, it may be that a professional translator who likes games will personally work on volunteer translation for the purpose of throwing.
-In that case, the permission of the copyright holder, including the reward, is likely to be required.
Tomat juice, of course. Many indie game developers want to support multilinguals but have no budget. If the player who plays the game can give thanks to those who can play in Japanese, I think that you can throw money comfortably. With such a mechanism, the number of people who work in Japanese or Japanese may increase. However, many Japanese language is by group, so it is difficult to distribute rewards.
――It’s an interesting idea. I would like to dig into the latter half of the interview.
In the middle of a good translation
――Please tell us how you get the permission of Japanese from the developer of Gloomhaven.
Tomato juice This work has a function to publish multilingual MODs in the Steam workshop, so it was unlikely to be permitted to publish the Japanese MOD itself. However, because it was necessary to modify the game program for Japanese, we checked the developer directly in the official game Discord and received permission.
―― Did you get the permission right away?
I was asked to get a reply immediately because I asked the tomato juice questions in the activity time z1. There were no particular conditions for permission, and it was a reply saying that there was no problem unless it was malicious remodeling.
――How was this Japanese-style team formed?
At the stage where the prospect of Japanese tomato juice could be translated into Japanese, we recruited participants through Twitter. After that, I proceeded with Japanese translation while exchanging with Discord. There are currently 7 participants.
――How did you work in Japanese?
The text in the tomato juice game was stored in CSV format, so I used a translation platform PARATRANZ that can start Japanese language work if I upload it as it is. When I used Paratranz in CITY OF GANGSTERS, I needed to convert the file, but this time I was able to work as it was, so I was saved.
—Paratranz has been often named in past interviews. How did you use it in this Japanese language?
The tomato juice paraTranz can easily check the work status of other participants, and the progress of the work is always displayed, so it has also been useful for motivation. Also, if you register a dictionary in the game in the game, there is a function that can call translations in one click when the same word appeared, which was convenient for unifying terms.
――The original board game of this work has an official Japanese version, and its publisher is different from the PC version. In other words, apart from this volunteer Japanese, there is an official Japanese translation of the board game version. Did you refer to the translation of the board game version in Japanese?
I asked someone who had a tomato juice board game to be supervised, and in the Japanese language of an important part where the game could not proceed if the interpretation was incorrectly interpreted, I checked the contents by looking at the board game version.
— Did you refer to the rules interpretation instead of using the same translation as the board game version?
Tomato juice Yes. As a result of checking, my interpretation was correct.
――What kind of ingenuity did you do to maintain the game atmosphere?
The opposite of tomato juice was the opposite, so I was struggling not to maintain the game atmosphere too much. The official Japanese translation of the board game version is like a translation that expresses the atmosphere of the game well, so I devised so that I would not be able to translate as much as possible in volunteer Japanese. Therefore, it is the translation of the board game version that can enjoy the original world view of the game, such as place names and items.
―― Then, where is the PC version better?
The tomato juice board game version needs to manually manually perform enemy behavior, damage processing, manage the order of action, and various calculations. On the other hand, the PC version is automatically processed, so you can focus on the tactical RPG part, which is the essence of the game. I play multi-played about 10 times with my friends in the PC version, but I am not confident that I can play the rules without mistakes in the board game version.
――What kind of tools do you use for Japanese translation?
We use an open source tool called XUNITY AUTO Translator to display Japanese fonts in tomato juice. Originally, it is a tool that automatically translates unity games in real time, but this work uses it only to display the text prepared separately.
――Is this tool applied to the Japanese language of other Unity games?
Some of the participants who participated in this Japanese form of tomato juice have started using this tool to make another Unity game Japanese. This tool has been taught by an acquaintance on the Internet, but I think it has contributed to the spread of tools through this Japanese-style project.
――Please tell us what was the most difficult in the Japanese language of this work.
Tomat juice, you still took care not to suffer the Japanese translation and wording of the board game version. The board game version is different from the PC version and the right holder with the Japanese language permit. There is a lot of information on board game versions on the net, so I desperately fighting the temptation that makes me want to use the wording.
――Are you happy with the Japanese language of this work?
Before the Japanese tomato juice was translated into Japanese, I couldn’t recommend the people who usually play with them to buy them. So I was happy when I first played multiplayer. In addition, I was happy to report that I played because it was Japanese, and I was grinning on Twitter.
―― Then, let’s return to the topic of volunteered and rewards that jumped out at the beginning.
For example, what if an indieveropper and a volunteer translator mediate a service that brokers reward exchanges?
After this, the ideas unique to Tomato Juice, a volunteer translator and a video distributor, came out one after another, and the interview was unexpected.
Continue to the next page!
