SBT Localization: Report #39 (November 2018)

The winter is here and so are mid-term exams, slippery weather and bruised butts. Some of you may have started writing letters to Santa and planning out winter holidays already. Meanwhile, SBT Localization team is busy making plans and summing up its monthly achievements. Sadly, November was not as productive as we’d wanted and even somewhat difficult. Still, we all worked hard and have something to share.

Educational forays

SBT Localization Internships

Interns from among the students have been working within SBT Localization’s ranks for most of this past autumn, but now the time has come to say goodbye. It was a great experience for our editors, and something to remember for the students too, hopefully.

We did our best to keep our interns busy and engaged. Most of the third-year students that had come to us tinkered with Baldur’s Gate 2, and some even made an outstanding progress with Grimmwood and The Curious Expedition. Few were bold enough to tackle Hand of Fate 2, but even for them it proved too much. As a result, they bounced back to lower-difficulty projects.

It wasn’t all about games though—some SBT Localization’s interns took fancy in translating a comic or TV series episodes.

To maximize benefits from the internship, we not just did butt-kicking for goodness and weeded out rookie mistakes. Two webinars were held in November in addition to Sofia Shul’s September one. Both were hosted by Andrii Pekar. The recording of the one on translation automation was unfortunately lost, but the presentation is still available here (in Ukrainian). The second webinar was on economic, financial, and business translation. You can watch its recording on our educational Youtube channel—SBT Education.

Kudos to the most active and persevering students: Bohdan Tsymbaliuk, Nazarii Sydor, Oksana Ryvko, Anastasiia Rantiuk, Taras Protsyshyn, Anastasiia Kurylo, Viktoriia Kotyk, and Marta Zabolotna. Best wishes to you all!

Our heartfelt thanks also go to the editors, who mentored the students, directing them towards the light of proper translation practices: Andrii Pekar, Tetiana Cherednychok, Yurii Bisyk, Sofia Shul, Tetiana Kaliuzhna, Maksym Duvanov, Oleksii Ivanov, and Yanis Verminko.

In addition, Yanis Verminko and Sofia Shul published an article on the basics of video localization on our website. When it comes to video content localization, it’s hard to cover all the nuances in one material, but beginner translators will surely find something useful there.

SBT Localization on Vmistozher Podcast

Have you heard about Vmistozher? If you haven’t, it’s time that you discover it. It’s the first Ukrainian podcast on healthy consumption of content, and it’s full of cultural trivia.

In November, SBT Localization’s Tetiana Cherednychok was invited there to talk about the official Ukrainian game localizations and the localization process in general. So, if the topic is up your alley, don’t forget to check it out.

Game Localizations

There is not much to share about our progress in the field of game localization this month—we went all out on our secret project that will be revealed a bit later.

We have completed the localization of Siege of Dragonspear—Beamdog’s expansion pack for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. The Ukrainian language will be added into the game in Patch 2.6. The arrangements for crowd-sourced voice-acting have been made too, and we are waiting for the green light from the developer.

The localization of Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition has inched forward—0.66% of the text has been translated as of the time of this report’s writing. Although it’s just a drop in the ocean, interns and editors put a lot of effort to make this 0.66% count. The top contributors here were Sofia Shul and Yurii Bisyk.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is now almost 40% localized. However, its editing is somewhat stalling—the editors are busy on other projects. This month’s top contributors here were Iryna Makovska and Oleksandra Kutsan.

The project selected by our patrons—The Banner Saga—is slowly moving forward too. All three entries in the series are slated for localization into Ukrainian, starting with the third one. We have localized 4% of Banner Saga 3 strings and 8% of common files already. The developers insist that we focus on the latter for now. Oksana Bukanova contributed the most to this project in November.

Localization of The Curious Expedition is nearing completion at 90%. In addition to the core game strings, we have localized 4 mods: Arctic Hunter, Scientific Assistant, T-Rex and Yakul. Here, Mariia Polishchuk and Oksana Ryvko were the top contributors.

Some progress was also made on the editing of Hand of Fate 2 as placeholders became fewer and farther apart. Still, it is sitting at just above 6% now.

Other projects at a glance

SBT Localization keeps working on the translation of Outsider—a science fiction comic by Jim Francis. In November, we published another bunch of the pages translated into Ukrainian and merged the prologue into a single downloadable file. For links to all comic pages, see Our Projects section on this website.

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If you have a soft spot for short stories, visit the SBT Creativity section of our website. There, you will find a selection of literary pieces by our members. Last month, a new story was published there—The Necromancer.

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We had two Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition streams in end-November.

The first was hosted by Karina Voloshina and Sofia Shul. Nothing special there. First, they lost their way in an inn, and then embarked on an adventure, seeking a pirate treasure or whatnot. To learn what became of that—watch the VOD on our YouTube channel.

Hosted by Andrii Serbovets, the second stream was of a more hardcore kind. A D&D fan himself, he barely handled the punishment, dying time and time again just to get the city nearby. Let’s leave the Story Mode to girls, Baldur’s Gate is meant to be played on Core Rules difficulty. This stream’s VOD is available on our YouTube channel too.

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If you’re looking for something to watch with your kids, consider Hilda—an animated television series translated by our very own Dinadin Cross and Yanis Verminko and voiced by FanVox and AdrianZP. Download it from Toloka or watch online.

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Also, don’t forget to pay a visit to Boo the Hamster for the latest Ukrainian tips and M’Aiq for the meaning of English phrases. If you take interest in English expressions or have doubts as to the use of Ukrainian words, these guys are at your service.

Recruits

Students and editors suffered through the autumn not in vain—one intern proved fit to become a part of our localization team.

Her name is Oksana Ryvko and she joined the ranks of SBT Localization in November.

During her internship, this restless girl contributed to the localization of Grimmwood and The Curious Expedition. So, we wish her unflagging enthusiasm and success in her localization foray.

Paragraph of Fame

November’s top contributors were:

• Iryna Makovska (Kingdom Come: Deliverance)
• Oleksandra Kutsan (Kingdom Come: Deliverance)
• Sofia Shul (Baldur’s Gate 2, Hand of Fate 2, The Curious Expedition, the Outsider comic)
• Oksana Bukanova (The Banner Saga)
• Oksana Ryvko (The Curious Expedition)

On behalf of our entire organization, we also express our appreciation to other SBT Localization members who helped our cause in one way or another:

• Pavlo Donchenko
• Sofia Shul
• Yanis Verminko
• Andrii Serbovets
• Andrii Kozhushko
• Andrii Pekar
• Karina Voloshyna
• Oleksandr Lukianov
• Yurii Bisyk
• Tetiana Kaliuzhna
• Tetiana Сherednychok
• Oleksii Ivanov
• Ivan Yankovyi
• Yevhen Tkach
• Maksym Duvanov

Join us!

SBT Localization is always on the lookout for new talent. If you’re a game localization enthusiast or just want to try, don’t hesitate to contact us through our online form or PM us on Facebook, Telegram or Twitter.

Even if you have no time to partake in Ukrainian localization efforts directly, you still can help by donating. Send your donations to acc. No. 5169 3305 1649 7846 (if you do it through a terminal, be sure to provide your full name so we know whom to thank) or support us on Patreon.

Acknowledgements

Our heartfelt thanks go to all those who support SBT Localization on Patreon and by any other means. May you and your family stay healthy, successful and live well!

$100

$50

₴700

$10

₴245

$5

We’d also like to thank Oleksandra Kutsan ($2), Andrii Kozhushko ($2), Maria Polishchuk ($2), Volodymyr Hryhorash ($2), “Drifters” ($2), Pavlo Donchenko ($2), “Step” ($2), Yurii Brehman ($2), Taras Syniuk ($2), Oleksandr Lukianov ($2), Oleksii Ivanov ($2), Pavlo Chernitsov ($1), and Serhii Voloshyn ($1).

A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO IRYNA AND YARYNA FROM CROWDIN FOR THEIR SUPPORT!

The latest Video Report will be published on our YouTube channel soon. Don’t forget to subscribe!

UKRAINIZATION OF THE UNIVERSE MARCHES ON!

04.12.18