Game Translation

In need of a translation? Contact me or write a comment below.

When it comes to video games, Germany is a place full of contradictions. While the gaming scene is booming and becomes more popular by the hour in my home country, the old stereotypes (read more here) of socially inept and awkward gamers are still prevalent. It goes so far that many people shy away from mentioning their interest for games in public.
And while there are Germans who prefer to play their games in English to preserve the "clever writing" and "original message", there is a huge crowd of gamers who refuse to play or simply can´t understand English games.

Getting a German translation for a game is always a pleasant surprise, but it is often marred by very obvious translation errors. It happens often when you hire a translator who is not very interested in gaming and doesn´t even testplay the material he is working with. Not only do you need to convey the quirks of the writing and the personality of the characters in dialogues, you also have to consider differences in grammar when the game automatically creates words, like randomly generated equipment. Everytime I see "Iron Helmet of Cruelty" translated to "Eisen Helm von Grausamkeit", I cry a little bit.


Completed Project 1: Lords of Xulima


An epic RPG experience that can take 100 or more hours to complete. German translation was done by me in collaboration with Philip Hübner. You can see the German version in this Let´s Play.

German title screen of Lords of Xulima
Visit the game´s website for more information.

Reception of the translation:

"Die deutsche Übersetzung ist wirklich sehr gut gelungen und das Spiel macht einen riesen Spaß, auch wenn man mal eins auf die Nase bekommt. :)" - Cedunir
Means: "The German translation is done well and the game is enormously fun, even when it sometimes punishes the player. :)"

"Die Übersetzung ist großartig und das Game macht nun noch mehr Laune." - L S
Means: "The translation is great and the game is now even more fun."

2 comments:

  1. Yes! you're right there are many peoples who refuse to play or can't understand the language. You blog is nice & interesting to read. There are a lot of Game Translation companies are available in the market that make gaming easy. Thanks for posting & keep blogging!

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  2. Translation services in now an important part in every domain and business area. Nice writing with complete exposure to the topic. Keep writing!

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