Translation guidelines

The collaborative translation system is meant to make it possible to translate Board Game Arena into any language, in order to enable more people to discover and play board games, even when not knowing English or French. For example, if you want to play 'Dragonheart' with your 10-year-old nephew and he doesn't speak English yet, no problem! Just help us translate Board Game Arena into your language!

What can be translated?

Every string of text for the main site interface and for the games' interfaces are 'internationalized' and can be translated. For now, forum posts and articles of the website (such as this one), cannot be translated. Maybe sometime later...

Who should translate?

This is important: only translate text into a given language if you are a native speaker of the language. When translating a game, the translator should know the game thoroughly and if possible have a box and rulebook of the game in the destination language to check for consistency. Translators should take into account the level of language and the formal/informal pronominal rules usual for the gaming audience of their country.

The source/reference language for translation is English, since the site and games development is made in English.

English is not necessarily the mother tongue of all developers, so the English strings are open for review and correction by native English speakers under the same conditions as the other languages, with a warning indicating that the change affects the source language and asking for confirmation.

About context

Some strings can be translated differently depending upon the context. When this is the case, you should use the most obvious translation. Then when the site has been released in your language, native speakers will spot incorrect forms (if any) while playing and be able to correct them.

Also, you can ask us for context in the translation forum (in English or in French), and we will try to look it up and provide the information.

When will the site be made available in a new language it is being translated into?

As soon as a sufficient number of the strings have been translated into the new language in order for the site to make sense into that language, the Board Game Area team will make the site available in the language.

I fixed some translations, but they don't appear to have changed on the site

Translation files are updated nightly, so you just have to wait till tomorrow for your changes to appear on the site.

How long will it be possible to change the translations?

The first translations may not be perfect (as explained in the 'about context' section). So they can be modified until they are 'validated'. Validation occurs when a translation has not been modified for 30 days straight. It is then considered stable and valid (golden icon) and cannot be changed anymore.

Is there some reward for translating?

Yes! Every translator that gets 100 translations validated (golden icon) will get one free month of 'Board Game Arena Club' membership (and one more month for every batch of 100 new translations validated).

This is of course only a symbolic gesture of thanks for people participating in making BGA accessible to more and more people. The possibility to enjoy board games with people from many countries is the greatest reward of all!

Translation tips

• Use the 'TAB' key to go from one text box to another. This is easier than clicking.

• Strings such as ${SOMETHING}, %SOMETHING, <SOMETHING> are markup strings for formatting or substituting text and must be left as is. Their position in the overall string can be changed as appropriate in a given language (for example for pronouns such as ${you}).

• When in doubt, leave a comment for the next translator.

• When you fix someone's translation, leave a comment if the reason for the change is not obvious.

• When the translation can depend on context which is not explicit, go with the most straightforward translation. If it is not correct, it will be spotted and fixed later by native speakers while playing.