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One trick I’ve learned from the mobile game world is to make sure your localization files are separate resources — don’t compile them in. They way, when your ga

by addaon 4y ago

One trick I’ve learned from the mobile game world is to make sure your localization files are separate resources — don’t compile them in. They way, when your game is first cracked, you’ll get a pretty decent Russian translation immediately that you can, with no moral concerns, “steal” back for your next update — and within only a few weeks you’ll have a pretty rich set of languages floating around for your distribution. I do recommend testing with CJK text first to set up your free labor for success.

folli 4y ago
That's actually really smart, I would have never thought of this. Why CJK text first?
- addaon 4y ago
  Most scripts will mostly work if you support localization, but have only tested English. You'll most likely find issues with scripts needing compulsory ligatures (Devanagari) and CJK; so test them to make sure that someone trying to hack in an alternate localization doesn't run into a missing font, bad line breaking, unreadable text size, etc. [Edit: "first" meaning "before releasing", not meaning "before other scripts."]
  - toast0 4y ago
    It'd be good to test with Right to Left languages as well. That's a big one that can mess things up in unexpected ways.
crazygringo 4y ago
This is one of the funniest ideas I've ever seen on HN. Clever. The best part is that while it's technically illegal (you didn't pay for rights to the translations), they're never going to reveal who they are to come after you (since they don't have the rights to distribute their translation).
baud147258 4y ago
I remember that a video game editor once released a collector edition of one of their titles, where the bundled OST was copied from a torrent (which had presumably been ripped from the standard edition); apparently the file names or metadata made the origin clear.
- justsomehnguy 4y ago
  GoG is/was notorious for shipping a legal product with patches and cracks from the scene.

by addaon 4y ago

folli 4y ago

That's actually really smart, I would have never thought of this. Why CJK text first?

addaon 4y ago
Most scripts will mostly work if you support localization, but have only tested English. You'll most likely find issues with scripts needing compulsory ligatures (Devanagari) and CJK; so test them to make sure that someone trying to hack in an alternate localization doesn't run into a missing font, bad line breaking, unreadable text size, etc. [Edit: "first" meaning "before releasing", not meaning "before other scripts."]
- toast0 4y ago
  It'd be good to test with Right to Left languages as well. That's a big one that can mess things up in unexpected ways.

crazygringo 4y ago

This is one of the funniest ideas I've ever seen on HN. Clever. The best part is that while it's technically illegal (you didn't pay for rights to the translations), they're never going to reveal who they are to come after you (since they don't have the rights to distribute their translation).

baud147258 4y ago

I remember that a video game editor once released a collector edition of one of their titles, where the bundled OST was copied from a torrent (which had presumably been ripped from the standard edition); apparently the file names or metadata made the origin clear.

justsomehnguy 4y ago
GoG is/was notorious for shipping a legal product with patches and cracks from the scene.