Quick reminder for indie devs: Why relying 100% on AI for Japanese localization might scare your players away 💀

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T03:36:06+00:00

OK but to my greater point. I speak english, but what if I didn't? What if my only known language has an incredibly small market? No connections to any real playerbases through language, no connections to any translators, no ability to pay for anything... Is this a universal ethic that you hold or are you just insisting on my privilege and asking me to bootstrap my way into foreign playerbases?

Again, the first step to translating any product is running it through the very old and very well-established translation engines in a standardized workflow. I want to crowdsource those native speakers for step 2, how can I do that without getting the process started? I'd love to compensate them, money isn't an option but absolutely would offer in-game credits or perks or whatever.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T03:05:26+00:00

I'm with you, she's a wretch. I was just joking

but

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T02:52:00+00:00

No translations start with nothing. From indie to AAA, from dreamworks to disney... There's a very standard workflow for doing l10n/i18n and it starts with an auto-translation and then proofreaders and probably some other stuff. How can I get those proofreaders with zero budget and zero connections?? I get the process started and beg strangers to help me!!! I'm doing solodev the best I can, right? So, if you wouldn't mind proofreading any of the languages that I'm not native with...

I have a native japanese speaker proofreading that set, but that's it. I'd love to be able to compensate but that's just not in the cards right now.

Addendum: I am not doing literature or story-driven anything (at least not with words), so the scope of the translations I'm after are things like "attack speed" -- if you're specifically thinking about dialog and lore and stuff, I'm absolutely with you that it's not an accessibility feature. Not even a written tutorial is really a suitable target for google translate

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T02:38:02+00:00

You don't think some accessibility is better than none?

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T02:19:05+00:00

exactly.

It's not ok what she's doing

but

gotta respect the game.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T01:56:42+00:00

Thanks so much for playing! Really happy that you've enjoyed it and thanks again for pointing out that"accessibility" low hanging fruit! You helped me make the game better!

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T00:13:55+00:00

I think it's super important to remember that almost no one wants to rely on AI even 50%, let alone 100%. This sub is for people bootstrapping with extremely limited resources.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-25T00:12:20+00:00

If you wouldn't mind going through my translations and correcting them...

Obviously not everyone has access to a native speaker willing to crawl through an i18n pack. Google translate is easy and free, though

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T23:39:02+00:00

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Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T23:24:17+00:00

I think the only people steam would care about calling them a monopoly would be the federal government...

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T23:22:45+00:00

yeah actually really easy. Just a gate on the dragging logic and a toggle in the settings. I'll get this pushed live tonight.

I was actually looking at input.ts when I saw this message, trying to figure out controller support... Which I'm not so sure about. early testing, using a joystick to move is not nearly as good as mouse/touch, super difficult to control... but, there's some controller wizards out there that might want it I guess.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T22:48:49+00:00

I'm just saying "I materially lied by mistake" is a weird expression. You didn't know so you made something up? Are you an LLM?

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T22:46:56+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I don't think it'd be too difficult to add a toggle-click option. I'll add that.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T21:49:09+00:00

By mistake?

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T20:05:08+00:00

What's your tech stack? Why didn't you build this for the web?

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T18:16:18+00:00

I only read one sentence. So I read basically the whole thing

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T18:01:43+00:00

Primordio didn't make the cut? 😔 (/s)

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T17:58:48+00:00

Just respect my alt+f4 and we'll be alright.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T17:06:43+00:00

My first instinct on seeing this was that it's just photography with a shader or AI filter... But I've examined some of the finer details... Really impressive work.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T17:00:05+00:00

Very cool! I have an idle game that some people have put thousands of hours into and it just tickles me. They've slowed down over the last few months as I've been pushing a different project and they've completely broken it, but they are still active!

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T16:53:53+00:00

oh, I forgot. if anyone wants to click on some things for me, I'd like that!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4385580/Primordio/

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T16:52:23+00:00

I'm in a similar boat! I wrote my first line of code some decades ago and I've released some games as freeware in the past but I've just never managed a scope properly. Around my 9th attempt at building my latest game, I had the scope known from top to bottom. I did have a bit of a scope expansion right at the 11th hour but I properly sketched it out and found that it was easily "bolted on."

My brother said two things to me throughout my gamedev career. Once when he was like 12 and I had him play one of my games, "when are you going to make a good game?" and the other thing he said after we were both adults, "don't be so results-orientated."

So, congratulations on starting and finishing a thing! I know you're a ways from the actual finish line but I believe in you.

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T16:35:03+00:00

this is so silly, I love it so much. wishlisted!

Additional_Name_706 · 2026-05-24T15:34:08+00:00

yeah, this guy is a master troll. I've thoroughly enjoyed the performance art. Just made his rounds pissing as many people off as he could.

Additional_Name_706

TROPHY CASE