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Translation

Translation

Pelota should be playable in your language. Translation work comes in two parts: making the game’s texts translatable, and translating them.

Current state: only the menus that come from the game template are translated (English and French). The game’s own texts, such as menu labels, shot ratings (“PERFECT!”, “OUT OF POSITION”), the HUD, the umpire’s calls and the statistics, are not translatable yet. This is a great first task, for a programmer and a translator together.

How translation works in Godot

Godot translates texts by keys. A text shown in the game is written as a key, for example RATING_PERFECT, and Godot looks the key up in a translation table for the player’s language:

keysendefr
RATING_PERFECTPERFECT!PERFEKT!PARFAIT !
RATING_OUT_OF_POSITIONOUT OF POSITIONFALSCH POSITIONIERTMAL PLACÉ

Labels in scenes are translated automatically when their text is a key. In code, texts go through tr("RATING_PERFECT").

Translating

Find the table

The game’s translation table will live in the project (a .csv file like the one above, or .po files if more languages join). Check the issues for the current state and say which language you want to take on.

Add your language

Add a column with your language’s code (de, es, pt_BR, …) and translate each row. Keep the texts short; buttons and the shot ratings have little room.

Know the tennis words

Use the words your language’s TV commentators use: break point, ace, let, double fault, deuce, advantage. Many languages use the English word for some of them. When unsure, say so in your pull request.

Check it in the game

Godot imports the table and the language shows up in the options menu. Look at every screen for texts that do not fit or read oddly.

Making texts translatable (programmers)

  • Use keys instead of literal texts for everything the player reads, and wrap texts built in code in tr().
  • Do not glue sentences together from pieces; word order differs between languages. Use one key with placeholders: tr("SERVE_SPEED").format({"speed": 182}).
  • Do not edit the template’s translations in addons/; the game gets its own table.
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