Ukrainian localization: August-September 2024 (#86)

August turned out to be not only hot, but it also turned out to be a real marathon of intellectual activity for ‘SBT Localization’. And September in this sense was also not bad. While others (at least we hope so) were enjoying their vacations and were sipping lemonade on the porch in the mountains or at the table on the beach, we were actually working on translations! And it would be a shame not to share our fruitful work in this area.

HOW TO TRANSLATE 50 THOUSAND WORDS AND NOT GO MAD?

First and foremost, let’s start off by saying that our translators translated 50 000 words of the iconic game Planescape: Torment! To make it clear, it is almost like translating Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, only our ‘book’ had all sorts of undead creatures, magic and, naturally, existential crisis. Besides, we were not just sitting and translating, but were plunging into the world of mystical planes and whimsical beings. Now, without a doubt, we know so much about philosophical debates that we are able to compete with any literature department. And some still say that games are for kids. Ugh!

These 50 000 words were not just a text, those were lively conversations of the characters, complex moral choices, emotional depths and entangled schemes. And where could we go without racking our brains over puzzling terms and names?! There is certainly a lot of work ahead of us, as there are a million words in the game, of which we have managed a little less than half (40%)… Nevertheless, we are chipping away at this mountain without a break.

DICECON IN LVIV: A LECTURE ON CYBERPUNK RED

Do not think that we have been sitting in our rooms with our laptops and dictionaries. This time, we got out and went to DiceCon in Lviv to share our translation secrets with board games and RPG fans.

Our Yuriy Pavliuk gave a lecture about the sinuosities of translation, challenges of adaptation and intricacies of board game localization using Cyberpunk RED as an example. From the stage, he explained how we adapted the game with the peculiarities of culture, language and style in mind to preserve the original setting and what difficulties we encountered in the process. You can read more about it here – News – Dice Con 2024

BOARD GAMES? GIVE US TWO!

But Cyberpunk RED is not the only thing in our treasury of translation achievements. In August, we finished working on the board game Medici. In a nutshell, this game will give you an opportunity to try on the role of a merchant during the efflorescence of the Florentine Republic. This auction game for 2-6 players is meant to immerse you in the beauty and bustle of the 16th-century merchant trade in Florence of that time. The game is already being prepared for printing and will soon be available for pre-order. The details can be found here, on the publisher’s website – Магазин Настільних Ігор з Мініатюрами | ALLGAMES.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition from the wonderful publishing house Geekach is also worth mentioning.

We are happy to share the latest news: the game is already at the layout stage and will be available for pre-order soon. And while we’re all waiting, you can try out a test drive: Our Projects – Savage Worlds. Test drive.

CUISINE AND WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WHEN THE GAME BECOMES A PART OF THE COOKING

And if you think that SBT is limited only to games and lectures, you are deeply mistaken! In August we proudly presented a World of Warcraft cookbook translated into Ukrainian.

Yes, now everyone can not only plunge into the world of Azeroth, but also try to cook dishes that Thrall or Jaina Proudmoor would definitely approve of. Lok’tar ogar, ladies and gentlemen, or as someone wrote somewhere in the comments: “Anu belore de yum-yum!” You can read the article by Bohdana Vozniuk about the translation and the book itself on our website: Articles – World of Warcraft: Azeroth cuisine.

WHAT IS NEXT?

We would also like to note that our translators are still working on a certain secret project, where the progress is already ~17%. We are slowly increasing the pace, so we hope that soon we will see our mother tongue in another great game!

Also in August, a new version of the Video Game Terminology document 2.0 was released, and we were honored to join the work on it. If you have any suggestions, please use the special form. Work never stops!

HALL OF FAME

On behalf of the SBT Localization team, we sincerely thank the most active members in August and September:

Alina Farafonova
Pavlo Kuliamin
Yehor Vlasov
Oleksandr Vlasiuk
Vladyslav Kravchenko
Petro Kudriashov
Dmytro Holovchenko
Yura Dragon
Yanis Verminko
Ivan Yankovyi
Sofia Shul
Anna Chyrva
Tetiana Cherednychok
Oleksii Ivanov
Yevhen Tkach
Bohdana Vozniuk
Iryna Andrieieva
Anna Tsvira
Taras Korzhyk
Oleksandr Lukianov

JOIN US

SBT Localization is always happy to see new talented, enthusiastic people, who want to take part in localizing gaming worlds. Visit our Vacancies page, and join us.

If you’re too busy for this, but still care about having Ukrainian available in your games, you can help us in one of these ways:

1) become our patron on Patreon;

2) support via Monobank.

GRATITUDES

We sincerely thank everyone who supported SBT Localization in August and September on Patreon and through other means. To you and your families, we wish good health, safe skies, success and wealth!

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