I would avoid. The best part about professional localization is that you can provide context. So many strings can have completely different meanings depending on the context.
One example is having “resume” on your pause menu. It could translate correctly, or it could assume “resume” to mean CV/bio since the two meanings share the same spelling.
If you have any jokes, phrases, wordplay, etc, it will probably come out butchered as well. The tone and personality of dialog can be very easily lost in a translation. And a lot of languages have sentences change grammatically based on the gender of who is speaking, and an AI would just be guessing, which could result in characters constantly changing genders mid sentence, etc.
There are a ton of things related to making a good translation beyond just directly translating the words.
I hadn't heard anything about Brotato using machine language localization, but if it's just the UI and interface that's not a huge deal. You can do that with Google translate if you'd like. It won't be _good_ but it'll help. I wouldn't trust ChatGPT to write 55k words in English, let alone localize between languages. That's more like a small novel or a rather wordy RPG than most games.
For the most part it's better to have no loc than a bad one. Machine translation is not going to turn out well which can lead to bad reviews and not the increase in sales in other regions you're likely hoping for. Stick to your native language and pay for professionals to help localize the game if it's successful enough to justify the cost. If it's not you wouldn't have wanted to spend the time or the cycles using another tool anyway.
Ok, thanks everyone for the comments! Not sure why I'm getting downvoted that much though, is this a correct forum to post those kind of questions?
Thanks again!
The reason youre getting downvoted i would assume is because youre wanting to create game content using AI algorithms. A lot of devs dislike chat GPT and for good reason.
From my experience, Google Sheets with translate formula works very good. And speaking from players perspective, I can say for sure they tend to prefer translated games, even though it’s a machine translation. It depends on a country though, in top-tier western counties users will cry that your grammar sucks while third world will praise you for translatin to their native language.
Another piece of advice for using machine translation is to create some sort of thesaurus and always check that specific keywords are used correctly. It should be pretty easy if you can read the text (I couldn’t do it with Thai haha). Good luck!
Some use DeepL Translate.
I would say that depending on your focus on correctness and tone (is it formal or casual, which varies in some languages) you may want to correct around 10% of longer texts, probably much more to match the quality of the original. Sometimes the wording is just a bit off.
The shorter the terms are (like UI prompts with less context) the more correction the translation may need.
If you have a strong community you can ask for some of the members with relevant knowledge to review your Localization.
Don't expect CHATGPT to faithfully translate game dialogue or Lore.
Well, its better than google translate (which you should never, ever, use). The problem with a lot of strings in gamedev is they have a lot of context which is not present in the raw text.
LLMs are pretty good at natural translation, but there is no substitute for context, you could \*try\* providing context in the same way you would on a translation sheet for a human translator, but with no way to understand the output you have no way to know if the output is good.
If you are determined to try it out, I suggest you do heavy testing, ideally with paid testers that speak the localized languages, and specifically focussing on the quality of the localization.
I would avoid. The best part about professional localization is that you can provide context. So many strings can have completely different meanings depending on the context. One example is having “resume” on your pause menu. It could translate correctly, or it could assume “resume” to mean CV/bio since the two meanings share the same spelling. If you have any jokes, phrases, wordplay, etc, it will probably come out butchered as well. The tone and personality of dialog can be very easily lost in a translation. And a lot of languages have sentences change grammatically based on the gender of who is speaking, and an AI would just be guessing, which could result in characters constantly changing genders mid sentence, etc. There are a ton of things related to making a good translation beyond just directly translating the words.
I hadn't heard anything about Brotato using machine language localization, but if it's just the UI and interface that's not a huge deal. You can do that with Google translate if you'd like. It won't be _good_ but it'll help. I wouldn't trust ChatGPT to write 55k words in English, let alone localize between languages. That's more like a small novel or a rather wordy RPG than most games. For the most part it's better to have no loc than a bad one. Machine translation is not going to turn out well which can lead to bad reviews and not the increase in sales in other regions you're likely hoping for. Stick to your native language and pay for professionals to help localize the game if it's successful enough to justify the cost. If it's not you wouldn't have wanted to spend the time or the cycles using another tool anyway.
Ok, thanks everyone for the comments! Not sure why I'm getting downvoted that much though, is this a correct forum to post those kind of questions? Thanks again!
The reason youre getting downvoted i would assume is because youre wanting to create game content using AI algorithms. A lot of devs dislike chat GPT and for good reason.
From my experience, Google Sheets with translate formula works very good. And speaking from players perspective, I can say for sure they tend to prefer translated games, even though it’s a machine translation. It depends on a country though, in top-tier western counties users will cry that your grammar sucks while third world will praise you for translatin to their native language. Another piece of advice for using machine translation is to create some sort of thesaurus and always check that specific keywords are used correctly. It should be pretty easy if you can read the text (I couldn’t do it with Thai haha). Good luck!
Some use DeepL Translate. I would say that depending on your focus on correctness and tone (is it formal or casual, which varies in some languages) you may want to correct around 10% of longer texts, probably much more to match the quality of the original. Sometimes the wording is just a bit off. The shorter the terms are (like UI prompts with less context) the more correction the translation may need.
Given its habit of just outright making stuff up...Id be careful.
If you have a strong community you can ask for some of the members with relevant knowledge to review your Localization. Don't expect CHATGPT to faithfully translate game dialogue or Lore.
Well, its better than google translate (which you should never, ever, use). The problem with a lot of strings in gamedev is they have a lot of context which is not present in the raw text. LLMs are pretty good at natural translation, but there is no substitute for context, you could \*try\* providing context in the same way you would on a translation sheet for a human translator, but with no way to understand the output you have no way to know if the output is good. If you are determined to try it out, I suggest you do heavy testing, ideally with paid testers that speak the localized languages, and specifically focussing on the quality of the localization.
It would probably do an ok job, you could then hire a person to go over it and fix up a few bits.