TWP fans translation

If you know it, why are you challenging him?
Do you want to upset him?

2 Likes

TWP translation tool works pretty well! Text and images can be modified very easy. I would make this official, so fans can add lots of new languages into the game. :heart_eyes:

I wouldn’t say that. A lot of games live a long time because of people caring for them and this includes modding…

But then the post is gone so maybe you were right :slight_smile:

3 Likes

True. Anyway, if I were a game designer/programmer, I would feel unconfortable knowing there is a tool out there, made without my consent, which can alter my son creature game in any way.
Nothing much I can do to stop it, probably.

2 Likes

Back in the days of the Thimbleweed Park Dev Blog, Ron said he liked the idea fans could change the text of the game to give a completely different meaning to the plot.

Probably things has gone differently, maybe it requires too much time to implement this function, that would have allowed also to make translations of the game with an official tool.

But as long as translators keep their work true to the original, and create mods to modify the language… where’s the problem? If they are able to enter the code and make such changes, it’s up to the players to buy an official copy of the game to mod with a new language.

Because as @Nor_Treblig said:

2 Likes

I don’t know why you would feel that way.

If I’d be the father of a cute little puppy and evil modders would poke its eyes out with their pointy sticks…
I still wouldn’t care. Because I still have my pristine clone of that very same puppy :smiley:

Currently it’s not easily possible to add additional languages without releasing new builds of the game.

With some code changes it would be imaginable to implement auto-detection of available languages (e.g. by checking for ThimbleweedText_* files and using fixed line IDs for voice/text language).
This would make simple text-based translation possible.

One complex issue is the translation of pictures since they are embedded into existing resources and cannot be easily extended.
Additional changes would be necessary to e.g. load language specific parts of a sheet from separate image files. This way there would be no need to modify existing resources and multiple translations could co-exist.

Currently the only suitable way I know of is to chose an existing language and overwrite its assets.

I would feel proud knowing that people care enough to want to be creative with it. The alternative of people not caring is surely a much worse fate.

Now sure, I might not be happy with everything they do, but so what?

1 Like

But it would be that poked out eye version of it that would end up in the Zoo and draw a crowd!

3 Likes

And then the Eyeless Puppy would become way more popular than the original.

And @Nor_Treblig would forever be known as “Eyeless Puppy Guy” :grinning:

5 Likes

Modding is very important for games, especially for those games that people love to play!
Every game is hacked today, it has been hacked even 10, 20, 30 years ago, that’s how it is.
Certain people need to prove themselves they can do it, they have the skills, maybe it has something to do with ego…doesn’t matter, we wont change it.
There were lots of cases modding bring up lots of good stuff to developers, and also modders were supported by the original creators that allowed them to do that, even create a new levels etc.!

SO! what are we talking about right here is JUST a translations! and translation does help the game. It also save lots of time, because fans will do all the work for him for free and enjoy it.

BTW, Ron knows the game was hacked, its nothing new to him.

2 Likes

My suspicion is that Ron doesn’t want such talk in the public parts of this forum because of when people who are new to this game come here.

They may not have played the game yet or they got stuck or they finished it and want to learn more about the story, the ending etc. (like we did).
Having immediately access to all internals could be demystifying for such people.

But this is just an assumption. Such posts get deleted without a comment (or notice), so maybe @RonGilbert could clarify what he thinks about this modding stuff and how we should handle it while being compliant to the forum rules.

Also @RonGilbert, do you have ideas specifically about handling new TWP translations, see the second part of this post:

4 Likes

I’ve already planned out the movie… I’d trade the rights to it with Disney though for something else…

-Nor “Eyeless Puppy Guy” Treblig

2 Likes

Doesn´t it feel great to know you have a legacy? :relieved:

2 Likes

I translated MI2 to Finnish 26 years ago (well, a part of it). The Finnish version was never popular. Then again, I was the only one who ever saw it. And I wasn’t that impressed.

4 Likes

I translated all LucasArts adventure games to Czech language and I also did voice overs for all of them with other colleagues. Even those, who never had any VO before. And it was popular. :slight_smile:

was fun exactly.

4 Likes

Yes, which means I didn’t notice my comment was gone (nearly a year ago) so I posted something similar a few weeks or months later. It’s only then that I noticed that the first one had disappeared.

Oh wow, are you planning to do voice overs for TWP too?

…probably not, without Ron’s permission. :no_mouth:

What if I film myself with my phone playing Zak and then read all the voices myself? :thinking:

3 Likes

A very, very good actor!