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How to deal with variable tags in videogame localization from EN to AR.
Thread poster: hanin ben abdelkader
hanin ben abdelkader
hanin ben abdelkader
Algeria
Apr 3, 2022

I'll be straight to the point,
While localizing videogames sometimes you're faced with variables such as in this line as an example:
Quantity+%d
here is my question :
1- is the word Quantity here is the only thing to be translated ? (I assume that's the case)
2- the "%d" tag I know it refers to a number, which the game engine will replace with a real number, doing this in Arabic, considering it is RTL should I flip the "%d" so it would be : "d%+الكمية" or thes... See more
I'll be straight to the point,
While localizing videogames sometimes you're faced with variables such as in this line as an example:
Quantity+%d
here is my question :
1- is the word Quantity here is the only thing to be translated ? (I assume that's the case)
2- the "%d" tag I know it refers to a number, which the game engine will replace with a real number, doing this in Arabic, considering it is RTL should I flip the "%d" so it would be : "d%+الكمية" or these kind of tags like "%d" and "%s" should be left untouched. and If so, can these tags be moved around the sentence freely? such as what prompted previously "d%+الكمية".

Another example if I wasn't clear
say I have a segement in English that goes like : "you have %d bullets left"
to translate this into Arabic would I do :
1- ..... d% ..... ..... .....
2- ..... %d ..... ..... ..... ▲ Collapse
 
Luca Tutino
Luca Tutino  Identity Verified
Italy
Member (2002)
English to Italian
+ ...
Based on my EN to IT localization experience Apr 3, 2022

1. Never change variables and tags in any way. Be extremely careful about this.
2. If you can make sense of the sentence, move the variables and tags in the appropriate place for the target language.
3. If you cannot, or are unsure, always ask a question to your client as early and clearly as possible. Ask as many as you think necessary.
4. In some cases you might be encouraged to use your best educated guess. Same applies if you do not get an answer. You might want to interpre... See more
1. Never change variables and tags in any way. Be extremely careful about this.
2. If you can make sense of the sentence, move the variables and tags in the appropriate place for the target language.
3. If you cannot, or are unsure, always ask a question to your client as early and clearly as possible. Ask as many as you think necessary.
4. In some cases you might be encouraged to use your best educated guess. Same applies if you do not get an answer. You might want to interpret this as: QA sessions are supposed to fix it later on.
5. Apply a consistent behaviour as much as possible. It generally helps the correction process, if necessary.

(A variable with d in it has more probability to be a number than a text but you cannot take this for granted.) ▲ Collapse


hanin ben abdelkader
Yossi Rozenman
Jan Truper
Luca Colangelo
 
hanin ben abdelkader
hanin ben abdelkader
Algeria
TOPIC STARTER
understood Apr 3, 2022

Luca Tutino wrote:

1. Never change variables and tags in any way. Be extremely careful about this.
2. If you can make sense of the sentence, move the variables and tags in the appropriate place for the target language.
3. If you cannot, or are unsure, always ask a question to your client as early and clearly as possible. Ask as many as you think necessary.
4. In some cases you might be encouraged to use your best educated guess. Same applies if you do not get an answer. You might want to interpret this as: QA sessions are supposed to fix it later on.
5. Apply a consistent behaviour as much as possible. It generally helps the correction process, if necessary.

(A variable with d in it has more probability to be a number than a text but you cannot take this for granted.)


What I learned:
1- move the variable or tag in its appropriate place is my job, but don't touch the direction of the tag even while dealing with RTL language
2- its the client's job to tell me as a localizer how to deal with the variable or tag in my RTL context

Thank you so much for clearing my confusion.

[Edited at 2022-04-03 22:19 GMT]
 


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How to deal with variable tags in videogame localization from EN to AR.






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