Technical Stuff – Update 2 – Part 3
In this part 3 series of Technical Stuff, I will be discussing about the methods that has been used to change the Text and Texture.
The information of the flag when user selects it, is store in file. The file is auto managed by unity and its class is static, so the data can be retrieved from any class.
For Main Menu Localisation, we had to work on various aspect of the scene.
- Title of the game
- Background
- Buttons
For Game Over localisation,
- Game Over text,
- button
- Background Image
Technical Stuff – Update 2 – Part 2
Tutorial Scene is design for player to familiarise with controls of the game.
The movement of main character is assigned to keyboard keys “w”, “s”,”a”,d” and direction and gun fire is to mouse.
For the country who use standard keyboard, we have tutorial with standard keys and the research shows that all the country that we are supporting except Russia use standard keyboard layout. So for Russian localisation, we have different keyboard layout.
| Standard Keyboard layout | Russian Keyboard layout |
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A script has been written to manage the tutorial scene.
List of GameObject / Sprite Attached to the script |
To Change the default layout to russian layout |
To manage the Sequence / animation of keys |
Technical Stuff – Update 2 – Part 1
My goal for this post is to discuss about the techniques used in game to localise it.
| Things that were implemented in the game. |
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Animation For Storytelling purpose
Most of the animation for story was done within Unity. Whereas the FollowCar script was written to automatically fall the movement of the car.
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| FollowCar Script |
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| In addition, Animation Manager Script was written to manage the animation scene and its timing. |
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Working on Localise Texture
So I have been looking into how I can change the texture of main character “Police” as well as police car in Unity / C#.
I finally managed to change the texture according to the chosen language in main menu.
At the moment I’m testing with button all over the main menu :). But this will be changed late on with flags.
Following is a quick demo for localisation of texture.
Tutorial Scene
The main purpose of the tutorial scene is to remove control option from the main menu as well as to teach the player the movement mechanics of the game with minimal text use.
This will help both player as well as indie developer. As indie developer don’t need to translate any text from control panel were as player benefits by familiarising with the controls before playing the game.
| As discussed, we are localising DND game into following language. |
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Research shows us that, only Russian keyboard layout is different than default english keyboard. So we will be using standard keyboard layout for all the country except russia.
Quick Demo for the tutorial Scene
Storytelling
As discussed, we wanted to have a story for the game but didn’t wanted it be in a verbal e.g. in text or in speech. The reason was that, it will only add more task for localisation. As our priority is for indie developer, we wanted to show the other ways of storytelling for the game. In addition, we wanted to create a story that can be understood just by watching it. So we are creating a short animation within the game to show the beginning of the game without any text or speech.
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The animation was done within unity. This is a car crash scene before the game. It has car animation and camera script written to follow the car.
Second Update:
First Update :
Technical To Do List – [Update]
To Do list for the project
1. We need to create animation scene – Scene 1
2. We need create tutorial scene – Scene 2
- Tutorial scene should do the following things..
- a. Display Health UI / Gun UI with fade effect
- b. Display UI controls and it should blink red until user presses it
- c. For Shoot, Zombie should be present..
- d. After completion, launch Level 1
3. We need to create main menu – Scene 0
- It should have play icon, and flags list.
- -When flag is selected, it should change texture of police and car
- And should change the Game Over text to that language.
- Also should change the text under logo to that language.
4. Change the blood of police
5. Maybe change the UI background of Main Menu / Game Over according to flag?
Technical Research on Game Localisation
According to Apple’s guideline for Developer
“Localization is the process of translating your app into multiple languages. But before you can localize your app, you internationalize it. Internationalization is the process of making your app able to adapt to different languages, regions, and cultures. Because a single language can be used in multiple parts of the world, your app should adapt to the regional and cultural conventions of where a person resides. An internationalized app appears as if it is a native app in all the languages and regions it supports.“[1]
Although the guideline only discuss about the apps, it is very useful for game localisation too. Both apps and game should feel like a native apps or game in the localised version.
So guideline can be as a primary source for localisation of games for Mac and iOS.
Likewise, Google has also provided a guideline for localisation for android system. It talks about finding out the market, various flexible design layouts, Support of RTL (Right-to-Left) script, and other useful dos and don’t dos. [2]
Similarly, smashing magazine has also some good guidelines for localisation of website which can be useful for game localisation. They talk about taking out strings from the source file and storing in separate format like XML, .XLIFF. In addition, other useful tip for keeping source code from strings are discussed in their article title “Twelve Commandments Of Software Localization“. [3]
Likewise, a very interesting take on Localisation from Technical point of view has been published on Title “Localization Engineering: The Dream Job?” by Bert Esselink. He says “localization engineering is probably the main difference between localization and translation. It’s all that “technical stuff” that needs to happen when a software user interface is translated, or an online help file, or even an HTML file.“[4] He further discuss about the process and explain in detail about what Localisation Engineering means.
An article title “Best Practices for Game Localization” Initial Draft by Richard Honeywood, and Second Draft by Jon Fung explains about different approach to game localisation. They say we should focused on “culturalization” and explains about what they meant and how can it be localise the game. Furthermore, they discuss about “INTERNATIONALIZATION” which they explain it as a cosmetic translation of UI, Fonts, Subtitle etc. In addition, they further discuss about the use of ISO standard for file naming. In addition, the article talks about the common pitfall in game localisation and useful recommendation for all discipline in Game Development.[5]
//Reference:
- https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/Introduction/Introduction.html
- http://developer.android.com/distribute/tools/localization-checklist.html
- http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/12-commandments-software-localization/
- http://www.fti.uab.es/tradumatica/revista/articles/besselink/besselink.PDF
- https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/65D89F6D-3BD8-46EA-B32E-BE34236408D5/Best-Practices-for-Game-Localization-v21.pdf
Roles of Technical Lead
Although the game localisation itself has a least priority in a game development process, it is with no doubt plays a vital role in getting a game into wider customers.
In terms of technical requirement, various things should be considered early on in game development process to have a smooth localisation of the game. The localisation of the game requires various aspects of game to be translated such as strings, audio, character design, colours and effect, and many more.
As a Technical Lead, my primary goal is to lead the technical development of the product, working closely with game programmer and design team to develop prototype and iterate on game mechanics and systems. In addition, evaluate and stay current on the best practices and evolving technologies in gaming across all platforms. Likewise, define and document policies, standards and guidelines that directs the selection, development, implementation and use of technology for the game.
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