what languages should we support?

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:35 pm

What languages should we support in our upcoming xbox live shmup? I know shmups are huge in Japan, so we should support Japanese. What other locations and languages should we be looking at?

worstplayer · Post by **worstplayer** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:02 pm

I don't think you need any other languages besides English and Japanese.
If your shmup isn't playable without understanding texts, you're doing it wrong

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:00 pm

worstplayer wrote:If your shmup isn't playable without understanding texts, you're doing it wrong

Yeah...especially if the language of your game is in Swahili.

I got that from Game Over: the World's Most Inaccessible Game.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:46 pm

worstplayer wrote:I don't think you need any other languages besides English and Japanese.
If your shmup isn't playable without understanding texts, you're doing it wrong

You can play it without text, but changing the difficulty and selecting solo/dual play might be tough to understand.

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:14 pm

how about some clever pictures to explain?

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:15 pm

Well the nice thing about shmups is that there is minimal text. Why not just make a database for each menu string with support for expansion as necessary? I don't imagine you need more than 2 or 3 translations.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:00 pm

mr_m0nks wrote:how about some clever pictures to explain?

I would like to do this, but we may not have time (money) or even skill to do this type of polishing. I would love to do it though.

Pixel_Outlaw wrote:Well the nice thing about shmups is that there is minimal text. Why not just make a database for each menu string with support for expansion as necessary? I don't imagine you need more than 2 or 3 translations.

Indeed, minimal text is great. We want a database like that. I just wanted to pass it by the experts on this board to see if there's any languages I should make sure we don't miss!

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:04 pm

Another idea is to purposely leave the game in English, and English only. This would force us to make sure the game is playable by ALL languages.

We would be forced to do graphics and animation for settings such as Solo Play / Dual Play. Show one thumb moving the left thumbstick and one figther moving in a circle for solo play. Then show two thumbs moving both thumbsticks and two fighters moving in circles for dual play.

This would also allow us to skip by the potential bad translation of "dual play" into "2 player game" and other such things.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:09 pm

The proper way to do localization is to have a database of strings, and because shooters have limited text, this is not a big deal to do. The only real issue is getting proper translated text (anyone speak Japanese here?) or the time to create images to explain the text. I have a feeling anyone can figure out our game out with minimal effort. But it is nice to have the polish to help the process along.

Perhaps merely showing "1UP" with a line to the players that player #1 controls is good enough (both in game when it starts, and as a little image showing two ships both with 1UP next to them when selecting Dual Play)? I'm sure Japanese have seen the English text "1UP" and "2UP", etc. many times and know exactly what it means.

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:31 pm

1UP is extra life/extend. Do you confuse it with 1P for 1player?

Emph

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:50 pm

emphatic wrote:1UP is extra life/extend. Do you confuse it with 1P for 1player?

It also means player one, and 2UP also means player two.

"1-up" was first seen in multi-player pinball and other arcade games. In these games, "1UP" meant that it was player one's turn. Likewise, "2UP" meant it was player two's turn, and so on. In some cases, arcade games also used this terminology to designate which score was whose. "1UP" followed by a score indicated it was player one's score, for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1UP

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:51 pm

I know 1UP is for extra lives. But I'm sure that I've seen many arcades use 1UP, 2UP, 3UP, and 4UP meaning player #1, #2, #3, and #4, along with CPU for computer controlled players.

Aha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-NwQpqF1Po
Click "watch in high quality" and watch 20 seconds into the video.

Post by **nZero** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:05 am

Jason wrote:(anyone speak Japanese here?)

A number of people, actually. Probably even more with enough functional knowledge to copy over the Japanese messages from some PS2 shooter with the same options.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:49 am

nZero wrote: ...some PS2 shooter with the same options.

Are you talking about "double play" in Raiden III?

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:59 pm

well, i've seen in major releases in he XBLA that games usually come in english and a couple more languages.

since im a native spanish speaker, i can lend you a hand in that... i speak some japanese, but its not like im proficient enough to help you with that.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:25 pm

one question...
i just went to the XBLA marketplace, adn entered the tab of the comunity games, and didnt see your game listed there... so, when are you gonna rlease this baby? and how much will MS charge for it?... right now, i have 400 MP in my account, and would like to send them your way if i like your game (so far im loving it, but need a demo to decide).

so, again, when is it gonna be released, and how much will they charge for it?...

thx in advance for any info.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:43 pm

We did not get Duality: ZF developed in time to meet the November 19th, 2008 launch. I posted about this and many details on our xbox.com forum thread. I'll paste it here for you:

The November 19th, 2008 launch date has not been met. DUALITY: ZF is not finished. The current launch date is set for the end of November, 2008.

DUAL PLAY lets you control both fighters with the left and right thumbsticks. The d-Pad also controls the "left" fighter.

DUAL PLAY is optional. Use it only if you want. Solo play is default.

DUAL PLAY is for beginners and experts alike. Beginners should dual play in the easy modes. Our weakest beta tester, who never plays video games, beat level one with dual play.

DUAL PLAY is not difficult to grasp in gameplay. All our beta testers managed it within a few game plays. Most Xbox gamers are already used to controlling each thumb independently fo separate purposes.

DUALITY: ZF is not an expert-only bullet hell (danmaku, bullet curtain) shoot'em up. Anyone can play it. A four year old beat level one in the easiest mode, including the intimidating boss you see in the YouTube videos.

DUALITY: ZF grows to match the skill of every player on the planet with unlimited unlockable difficulty modes. Elite players will have a "bullet hell" style experience, but this is out of the ordinary. We are excited to see gameplay captures of these most elite players.

DUALITY: ZF allows eight independently controlled fighters on the screen at once. This is possible via four players each playing dual play. The impact of eight times the firepower blew us away, and forced us to offer additional unlockable difficulty modes to challenge such extreme gameplay.

The DUALITY: ZF scoring system awards points proportional to the enemy strength and attack. The same scoring formula used for all difficulty modes. If the enemy is twice as hard to kill, you get twice the points. The scoring system does not "care" about the difficulty mode, only how tough the enemies are. It was important to make scores from all difficulty modes compatible, and we acheived this.

DUALITY: ZF will sell for 200 Microsoft points, unless we cannot meet the (difficult) 50MB size limit and are forced to sell for 400 points. We will do everything we can to meet that limit. Please understand the game is still in development.

Thank you all for your interest. We hope to offer one of the more exciting and fun shooters on the Xbox 360, not just counting Community Games.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Doucette / Xona Games
game: Duality: ZF

http://forums.xbox.com/23504455/ShowPost.aspx

It excites us to no end that gamers are checking for our game on Xbox LIVE. This is an awesome time for us, and we hope not to dissapoint! A sequel is already in the plans.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:41 pm

ah... end of november you say?... well, i'll keep my points in check just to try and get that baby...

and, whenever you're betatesting the secuel, sign me up.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:25 pm

We should be able to give a two day notice before the game hits Xbox LIVE Community Games! There is a two day review process we must pass first. I'm sure we'll spend those two days trying to get the word out!

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:37 pm

like i said, i have 400 MPs in my account, and am willin to buy your game and some other (sadly, that other game is worth 400... so i need an extra 200MPs)... so, i'll be waiting for that notice to go and try your game.

one thing... how many levels will the game ship with?

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:51 pm

Kaspal wrote:how many levels will the game ship with?

Eight levels. Just seemed like a perfect number of levels to me. There is always the ultra rare chance this will be reduced to six levels to make the 50MB cut. To make this 50MB limit, we are more apt to sacrafice audio content than actual game content.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:10 pm

Matthew Doucette wrote:
Kaspal wrote:how many levels will the game ship with?
Eight levels. Just seemed like a perfect number of levels to me. There is always the ultra rare chance this will be reduced to six levels to make the 50MB cut. To make this 50MB limit, we are more apt to sacrafice audio content than actual game content.

let it be audio content please... eight levels is just a magic number!!!...
btw, i think im gonna buy myself another 4000 MPs, cuz i just spent the last 400 MPs i had with a game named "Weapon of Choice", from the comunity games tab.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:53 pm

any news on when is it gonna be released?... im waiting for the baby to be born!