Video game translation test: help about tags
Thread poster: Maïlys Marquay
Maïlys Marquay
Maïlys Marquay
France
Local time: 20:27
English to French
+ ...
Sep 28, 2017

Hello everyone!

I'm a french translator and I have a translation test for a video game company. It's my first time so I'm not sure what to translate in tags like the ones in the photo:


tags

Also, do you translate what's after # and %?

Last time I did this was during my masters, 4 years ago, so I'm a little rusty.

Thank you very much for your help

Maïlys


 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 20:27
English to German
In memoriam
Never touch the code Sep 28, 2017

Hello Maïlys,

in any translation like this it is most important to leave everything unchanged that might be code. That means that you normally don't change any html tags and whatever might be in them, and things like "\n" and "#whatever" and "who_knows_what" and "%could_be_code%" and everything else that looks cryptic are also left untouched, except if you have been expressly advised to translate (and how to translate) these. Code like this might represent a variable that will be f
... See more
Hello Maïlys,

in any translation like this it is most important to leave everything unchanged that might be code. That means that you normally don't change any html tags and whatever might be in them, and things like "\n" and "#whatever" and "who_knows_what" and "%could_be_code%" and everything else that looks cryptic are also left untouched, except if you have been expressly advised to translate (and how to translate) these. Code like this might represent a variable that will be filled with content later, so it might be useful to know what this variable is for, in order to move it to the right place in your translation and produce a natural sounding result in your target language. Code might also represent modifiers like font change, color change, or other control code like line breaks and so on. So you might move these things to the appropriate place, but not change them.

There might be exceptions, it could be possible that a html tag contains readable content that should be translated (normally this translatable content would be in quotes within the tag, but even then you cannot be sure, therefore in these cases you should check with the client).

If you are working on a bigger game translation project, the client should provide you with a syntax description of the tags and code and how to deal with it, particularly if it's some sort of self-invented syntax. Knowing HTML syntax would be a good idea in any case if you want to be a video game translator.



[Edited at 2017-09-28 10:09 GMT]
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Ali Magdy
EHANLI
 
Alejandra Garcia Romero
Alejandra Garcia Romero  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:27
English to Spanish
+ ...
A little bit of HTML can help :) Sep 28, 2017

Hello Maïlys,

You need to know what those HTML tags mean. Tags such as "<>" are opening tags while tags such as "</>" are closing tags (there are exceptions though). You basically have to translate what is in between <> and </> and not the content inside those tags. So, in your case:

<font style="">TEXT TO BE TRANSLATED</font>:this applies some kind of fancy style to the text placed in between. Don't trans
... See more
Hello Maïlys,

You need to know what those HTML tags mean. Tags such as "<>" are opening tags while tags such as "</>" are closing tags (there are exceptions though). You basically have to translate what is in between <> and </> and not the content inside those tags. So, in your case:

<font style="">TEXT TO BE TRANSLATED</font>:this applies some kind of fancy style to the text placed in between. Don't translate what it is inside the tags.

<img src="path" width=X height=X />: it places a picture somewhere in the document. You do not have to touch this.

As for the # and %, they are usually variables. They can give you hints about the context, but they must not be translated in any case.

Every video game is different. However, I would recommend to take a look to this page and learn some HTML: https://www.w3schools.com/

I hope this helps!

Best,

Alexia
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Ali Magdy
 
Maïlys Marquay
Maïlys Marquay
France
Local time: 20:27
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks! Sep 28, 2017

Thanks to the both of you for your answers, it's very helpful.

I'll follow your advice and have a look at the HTML lesson to refresh my memory. I don't have a deadline for this test so I'll have time to look into it.

Best,
Maïlys


 
LocalizeDirect
LocalizeDirect
Local time: 20:27
check our blogs Sep 2, 2020

We have several blogs about how to do game localization correctly. Feel free to take a look. https://medium.com/@localizedirect

 


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Video game translation test: help about tags






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