I came across Sunless Sea on Steam, got interested in it and eventually bought and played it. The game is good, atmospheric and enjoyable, I love it.
And I’d love to share it with my friends!
I live in Russia and most of my pals who would really like the game don’t know English good enough to read through all the text without losing the atmosphere and sometimes the message itself.
Are there any additional languages on the way? Especially, Russian (I know, not so popular in the world, but… Who knows?)
I’m eager to help to translate the game if it is possible and you would allow me to do it.
Hello, creators of games. I bought the Sunless Sea. I played it a few hours, everything was great, but I understood not all that I do, because I have weak English skills. So, I have to give up the game, so as not to spoil the impression, and stubbornly wait for the translation. Hard to believe that a Russian translation spoil the atmosphere. Let me say that all of you know that masterpiece Dostoevsky translated into English. And do you really think that the translation is messed up? There are guys who can help with the translation. Do not rush to refusing. You have amazing game, and she must “zee” the world. Don’t worry that spoil the atmosphere: the Russian language is extremely rich. I think, that you need someone to translate good literary skills. For example, not difficult to translate UnterZea as “Подземноморье” (Podzemnomorje) - the literal translation is “underground world of the sea.” This word sounds mysterious, dark and beautiful. Zea instead Sea can also be translated as “Zore” (Зоре) or, based on the logic that The SunleSS (SSS = Z), then in the Russian version it will be “Bessore” (Bes = sunless, [m]ore = sea), or “Usore” (Усоре), or even a lot of options. I write that to example. And, in the end, we already have Shakespeare’s translations. And they are quite decent. Thank you!
Shapeev, it’s not that a Russian translation would spoil the atmosphere, it’s that ANY translation of ANY creative work is an extremely difficult, delicate process, and with the sheer amount of words involved in Sunless Sea (hundreds of thousands IIRC? enough for, like, three novels) it would be a monumental task. Translations would be really cool, but Failbetter Games is just a small indie studio.
Fretling, thanks for reporting. So, I will hope, that some fanats will translate soon. You just can open text for us, we may translate independently from you. You have already made your work. That is possible - to open text or not?
Failbetter has stated that they are not going to work on translations for the game as they just can’t and stay solvent and sane, I’d imagine. Though they also said that the game will be open for community translations.
I learned a lot of bizarre Russian vocab playing a bootlegged Warcraft III translation back in the day. Maybe it’s time to clear out that dusty corner of my brain and learn the Russian for “Chelonate” and “Devilbone Dice”!
We, translators, have lost our minds and sold our souls to monkeys trying to translate Sunless Sea, but we managed to translate the words you mentioned. Chelonate is "Cherepashnik" now - "A place, which is related to a turtle". And "Devilbone Dice" we translated as "Kubiki iz kosti diavola" - "Dice made from devil’s bones" edited by Chivava on 8/11/2015
I think the trick is to render the idea that they are devil-bone. "Bones" is "kosti" in Russian. And "dice" is "kosti" too. And to preserve both meanings is a linguistic challenge, but on the other hand - isn’t that what a translation usually is? I hope the FBG translation team manages it if they are really working on the translation. I didn’t even know that, before I saw this thread. edited by Happy Londoner on 8/11/2015
Thanks a lot for your attention and appreciation, dear captains. We really love Sunless Sea and try to do our best. It is very hard to translate the text correctly, without losing its charm. In some cases it is just impossible. However, we discovered, that Russian players love Sunless Sea and play it even without translation, somehow sailing the vast dark ocean. To be honest, their lot isn’t gaudy - without correct understanding of what is going on, they turn their officers to red honey, they make proposition to officers without understanding the meaning of word "proposition" - to get shoked by results, they deliver blemmigans here and there… and so on. All these complaints we found at Russian Sunless Sea community page. That is why we did what we could… At least our captains understand now who they are, what exactly the hell is going on and why they should or perhaps should not help monkeys build a zeppelin. edited by Chivava on 8/11/2015 edited by Chivava on 8/11/2015
[quote=Nikolay Novitskiy]Thanks a lot for your attention and appreciation, dear captains. We really love Sunless Sea and try to do our best. It is very hard to translate the text correctly, without losing its charm. In some cases it is just impossible. However, we discovered, that Russian players love Sunless Sea and play it even without translation, somehow sailing the vast dark ocean. To be honest, their lot isn’t gaudy - without correct understanding of what is going on, they turn their officers to red honey, they make proposition to officers without understanding the meaning of word "proposition" - to get shoked by results, they deliver blemmigans here and there… and so on. All these complaints we found at Russian Sunless Sea community page. That is why we did what we could… At least our captains understand now who they are, what exactly the hell is going on and why they should or perhaps should not help monkeys build a zeppelin.
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You are doing a great thing. "Working magic" would be the words. But speaking of magic I will take a 180 degree turn from further acknowledging the work of translators (which has every right to be acknowledged) and say this: actually not completely understanding what the h_ _ l you are doing in the vast dark sea - is also magic. Of a strange kind may it be, but it is. I remember myself as a child when I played compuer games just the way you describe some players are playing Sunless Sea now: I didn’t know the language well, I half-understood half-imagined what was going on and it was the most absorbing part of it - it was pure mystery, you could interact, you could intuitively find your way. The world would react. And you would make something of it. Something. It was deep and beautiful, and you couldn’t (and needn’t) put it into words. The same with songs. Has anyone noticed how full of meaning they are when the language is unknown to you? But once you see the translation - the spell is broken. Everything is clear and shallow. edited by Happy Londoner on 8/11/2015
I know. See, I was thinking something that could refer to the idea of gambling, like "igralnye kubiki", for instance. (But this is a rather thin ice we are threading on, so I’ll just leave it be).
We are translating mods for Sunless Sea to Russian now. Some of them are ready to play. Unfortunately, there are a few of them. Nevertheless, today Russian captains may also enjoy Sunless Sea mods.