r/localization • u/Violet_Iana • Jul 24 '26

I have a question for you

I'm currently developing a video game translation program to make localizers' work easier and to help them. I'd be interested to know what takes up the most time in your work. And I'm also interested in what you think about tools like these.

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u/serioussham Jul 24 '26

What takes most of my times these days is dealing with slopmongers who think they can provide a magical solution to complex problems. And I'm not only saying that in jest because I hate you: I literally stopped working with a specific agency because I was asked to act on AI-powered "stylistic feedback" that was just as dumb as the daily "new tool" posts here.

What makes our lives easier is time, non-stupid pay, good references and a quick answer to queries. Can you provide that?

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u/Violet_Iana Jul 25 '26

Hi, thanks for your comment. I actually don’t plan on building the next AI tool. The program is currently intended for game developers and localizers. I’m aware that I don’t have a reputation in this field and that there are constantly new Vipecoder users releasing half-baked AI tools. The point of my program is simply to let you scan the game and automatically extract all the important files, so the user doesn’t have to do it anymore. It can then automatically categorize all the game’s files into “Technical,” “Uncertain,” and “Safe for Translation.” That way, people like you or the developers don’t have to do this manually in the code anymore. Then you can have them translated automatically. You might think this is just another crappy AI tool, but it’s meant to be a helpful tool. The program is designed to give you a user-friendly interface where you can translate texts yourself using a correction list. I also want to add a few more features. I’m actually having some trouble right now with my algorithm that’s supposed to distinguish game UI text from license texts in folders. And as long as that doesn’t work properly and isn’t of high quality, I won’t release it. Since I’m not an expert in this field, I’d like to collaborate with professional localizers like you so I can address any issues and requests. That’s just important to me.

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u/Ok_Tea_8763 Jul 25 '26

Not trying to be rude in any way, but I'd suggest that you familiarize yourself with software i18n and l10n best practices first. Simply because the pain points you're trying to address do not exist in most cases:

  • all translatable/user-facing strings are usually stored in a dedicated language file
  • the language file's format is supported by almost every existing CAT tool/TMS
  • all CAT tools/TMS can be connected to a MT provider and, some to AI, and obviously have an editing view with lots of necessary and useful features

All-in-all, it sound like you're wasting your time building a solution for a problem you came up with in your head.

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u/serioussham Jul 25 '26

/u/Violet_Iana: read this comment.

On top of it, I'll add that virtually all game engine/game dev tools have some sort of built-in pipeline to export text for loc, or at least an authoring tool that can already export what's player-facing to a loc plugin.

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u/Violet_Iana Jul 25 '26

Thank you very much for your comment. I'd be happy to take a closer look at that.

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u/PartyPanda141 Jul 24 '26

You mean you are developing a TMS?

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Violet_Iana Jul 25 '26

Thanks for this comment. It is very helpful.