Do you remember the Tower of Babel? Ah, the good old days when mankind, though united in purpose, was divided by a confusion of tongues. One would imagine we’ve come far since then, but I see similar patterns in the world of gaming today.
Once upon a time, an indie developer – let’s call him Jeff – created an absolute masterpiece. A role-playing game named “Shadow Crusade.” Its rich storyline, stunning graphics, and smooth controls had all the makings of a blockbuster hit. There was just one teeny, tiny problem. “Shadow Crusade” was designed exclusively for the English-speaking audience.
In his blind race for a quick launch, Jeff ignored the potential gold mine that the non-English-speaking market represented. And what do you suppose happened when “Shadow Crusade” hit the international market? Well, the game floundered, lost amidst a sea of poorly translated subtitles and alienated players.
Jeff’s folly was not an isolated incident. Many a time, brilliant game developers overlook the intricacies of language localization. The loss is monumental, both in terms of revenue and audience connect. The solution, my dear friends, is the GameMaker Studio 2 Locale JSON file. Quite the unassuming name for something so powerful, isn’t it? It’s like a silent whisper that brings a symphony of languages to life in your game.
Let me guide you on this fascinating journey to craft your very own Locale JSON file, a journey as riveting as my escapade in the backstreets of Acapulco Bay, but that’s a story for another day. For now, let’s dive into the beauty of language localization in gaming.
We start our journey by creating a new .json file in your project directory. Think of this as the canvas for our linguistic masterpiece. I suggest naming this file “locale.json” for the sake of simplicity.
Now, open this file using your favorite text editor. Could be Notepad, Sublime Text, or perhaps VS Code if you’re feeling adventurous.
We shall fill this canvas with objects representing each language we aim to support. Each of these language objects will contain pairs of ‘key-value’ elements, much like the tandem of yours truly and GMS 2, though in our case, the ‘keys’ are English phrases from your game and the ‘values’ are their translations.
Let’s illustrate this with an example:
{
"en": {
"welcome_message": "Welcome, adventurer!",
"exit_message": "Farewell, brave soul!"
},
"es": {
"welcome_message": "¡Bienvenido, aventurero!",
"exit_message": "¡Adiós, alma valiente!"
}
}
In the aforementioned example, the English language (‘en’) has two key-value pairs, the ‘welcome_message’ and the ‘exit_message’. The Spanish translations (‘es’) of these messages serve as their corresponding values.
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to provide translations for all the text within your game. Yes, all of it! Every quest description, every character’s dialogue, every tutorial message. A Herculean task, you might think, but the rewards are just as magnificent.
Next, we incorporate this localization data into your game. An ‘if-else’ logic block within your code will do the trick, selecting the appropriate language based on the player’s settings. And voila, you have a game that speaks the language of its players.
There you have it, a crash course in crafting a GameMaker Studio 2 Locale JSON file. When you contemplate the potential benefits of language localization, you will realize it’s not just about broadening your audience reach. It’s about showing respect and consideration to your global community of players. Because a great game, like a timeless tale, transcends all barriers.
Remember, Jeff and his “Shadow Crusade”. You could avoid his fate, add value to your creation, charm players across the globe, and most importantly, prevent your own Tower of Babel from crumbling down.
Until next time, when I may regale you with tales from Piazza and the lessons they hold for game developers, always remember, the devil is in the details, and those details, my friends, make all the difference.
