Is it worth becoming a game translator or Modder?

[Pieguy2]

So the thing is i only know English i would most likely use ai to translate if i go down this rabbit hole, also im not sure how game modding would work.

But is it worth doing theses things, like what is the point if i might ask? if its worth doing what is the best way to start?


Feel free to add onto this but please be kind.

 

[Ungawa]

Simply put, you have to be a little bit insane to do it.

I'm not joking. I've been a part of scanlation sites that do it for love and organize typesetting, translation, and work hard on accurate posts and try to garner interest among other things.

AI can get you close but you still have to work to make the right call on how to give proper context and translate the game accurately. If you can't do it, work until you get it.

And with modding? Start small. Work with an engine be it Ren'Py, Daz, or whatever, and try small little things that help you learn how those engines work and tick then help in making bigger mods. If you're not sure right now, don't take on a big project. You have to build up your skills.

For the translation, English can be a bitch.

For modding, the engine can be a bitch.

But the rewards of having a game that you helped bring life to or a mod that makes a game easier is certainly a reward all its own.

Hope that helps.

 

[anne O'nymous]

So the thing is i only know English i would most likely use ai to translate if i go down this rabbit hole, also im not sure how game modding would work.

Then, why do you want to do one or the other ?

But is it worth doing theses things, like what is the point if i might ask?

Well, the point in game translation is to offer, to people who are far to be fluent in English, the possibility to play the game in their native language.
As for mods, the point is to modify the game in a way or another. Either to make it better, add functionalities that players want to have, or sometimes to make it purely different.

if its worth doing what is the best way to start?

To start what ?

 

[Hagatagar]

By "Is it worth" do you mean if it's financially lucrative?

People usually do this because they like to do it, not for money. If you don't have an interest in it, you should look for something else.

 

[exer]

Being "worth it" is entirely subjective and entirely depends what your end goal is.

Do you want to make money? Then it's probably not worth it. Especially if you aren't even translating it yourself. A machine translation is never going to be particularly good, especially when it comes to the more in-demand translations. Stuff like Japanese to English. Machine translations are notoriously and laughably bad when it comes to context heavy languages like Japanese, and really isn't going to produce anything of quality. Throwing something through a machine translator is also something literally anyone can do. There are even programs already available that do that exact thing for games, and they do it live while you're playing.
If you're looking to make money off of translation, you need to actually learn the language you're trying to translate. Then you can do things like fan translations to get some experience and build a portfolio of work to give to companies who may hire you. But otherwise, you're not going to be making much money. Even in this scenario, if you start something like a patreon, you're unlikely to get enough support for it to be worth the time investment of learning a language and then doing the actual translating. Since translating is more than just directly translating the words. You also need to know things like the local slang so that you can properly localize it. For example, if I were to say, "You're cool," as a way to say that something is no big deal and is okay, but you didn't know that cool had multiple meanings in English. You could translate it as, "You're cold ." Which would be completely inaccurate and make absolutely no sense. Which is one of the big problems with machine translation. It doesn't always know the context and gives more direct translations like that that make no sense.

And when it comes to modding, you're also unlikely to make much money there, so if that's your goal, it's not a great idea to get into. It's going to take a LOT of time just to learn the basics of things like basic coding and how an engine works. Unless you're trying to learn how to do things like make and inject assets into a game, or learn how game coding works from the inside out so that you can eventually get a job. Then you can use modding as practice and a way to make a portfolio of work to give to companies who may hire you. But you're extremely unlikely to get anyone to pay for your mods. Especially when starting out.

If you're not looking to make money and are just bored or want to translate or mod some of your favorite games, then there's no real reason not to. You can at least try and see what happens. If you don't like it you can just stop. If you do, you can keep learning. But if you're looking to make money, it's not a great idea. You're extremely unlikely to get anywhere with something like a patreon, especially if you aren't doing the work and are relying on things like shoddy machine translations. And it's not like people are going to outright pay for fan translations or mods.