How I translated Leisure Suit Larry

One evening I stumbled upon another news about the development of Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded , although the game had already been collecting money for Kickstarter for half a year at that time. But then I wondered - will there be a Russian version? It is clear that Taralej & JaboCrack SoftWare will not put a hand to it. The site of Russian developers among the supported languages ​​was not at all. Of course, there could be a fan version on the torrents with the translation pulled out of the original, but what about honest buyers? To play in their native language, they would have to download pirates.

Having wrapped this thought in three paragraphs in English, I wrote a letter to Al Lowe himself, the creator of the cult series. It was December 23, the Americans probably prepared for the holidays (Christmas on the nose), so I almost did not hope for an answer. However, after 3 days I received it. Al wrote that he is grateful for the desire to help and has already sent my letter to the developers. That same day, I received a letter from Kevin Kettler, director of corporate strategy for Replay Games . They were interested in my proposal, but at that time the script was only 50% ready. We discussed the deadlines, and in the middle of January, Kevin sent me the NDA and IP Release for signing. Then the finished half of the script fell into my mail so that I could begin work while the writers finished the game.

Flashback

Timing

I told Kevin that I could manage in two weeks, if the text was the same as the original. In general, I thought that in the wake of the euphoria I would manage for the weekend. The yard was January 12th. I sent the final version of the translation on April 23.

Initially, the release of the game was scheduled for March 30, and my transfer deadline is March 15. Two weeks before the deadline, I realized that I did not have much time, but I still had to send ≈ 10% of the script. But then came the news of the postponement of the release on April 30, and I sighed with relief. However, in order to meet the new deadline, I still had to work even more actively. As a result, a beta test was launched on April 30, and the release was postponed until the end of June.

Work organization

The entire script was contained in a single Excel file, within which were several columns: Object, Action, Speaking, Audio File, English, and Russian. From time to time, Kevin would send the updated script file, and I had to transfer all my work to it. In each new version there were lines marked in orange - this meant that it had changed and had to be translated again. So everything is simple - the files are sent by mail, no svn, complex software or protection.

Sometimes I received screenshots of locations indicating the active zones, so that you can understand what is happening and what the objects from the script look like. This was done because the game became more - new locations, opportunities, characters, and some places were redesigned.

How I translated

Picture to attract attention

I immediately got to work, just jumping over those cells in which at least one unfamiliar word was found. If I could translate the phrase right away, but I knew that I could formulate it more beautifully, I would mark the cell with a different color: from light yellow (it would come down, but I would like to modify it) to dark red (horror, be sure to paraphrase). I was thinking about such places at a time when there was no access to electronic devices (on the way to work, training or to the university), turning over options in my head. The main script file has always been stored in my Google Drive. If there was no computer at hand, I simply opened the file from the phone and continued to work. Uncomfortable, but quite possible.

Translation was not easy. There were plenty of new words and idioms, I often had to open Google Translate . When I came across another idiom (and they are here at least a dime a dozen), I just googled it, choosing the best option from the first three sites. It’s almost meaningless to search for their interpretation in Russian right away - if you find the translation of the desired phraseological unit, it will most certainly not be in the sense that the writers conceived.

The best helper for understanding slang is the urbandicitionary dictionary. The abundance of vulgar jokes and euphemisms in Leisure Suit Larry rolls over, so I dropped in there almost as often as I did to the translator.

Language jokes are always the most difficult, they rarely have direct analogues in Russian. Therefore, translators come up with something close in meaning. If this does not work, you have to invent a new joke yourself. By the way, in the whole game “gag” will meet only a couple of times. Many times I came up with a successful translation with preserving the meaning and style of the joke only a few days later, or even weeks. It is difficult to describe the pleasure that you feel at the time of maturation of such options in your head.

A small digression for oldfagov.
It was impossible to transfer all the old pearls to the new game. For my beloved, “Larry drove by car, all smeared over the tire” there simply was no room left, since the dialog box with the cause of death no longer exists. The famous password “I am from SAE” also had to be left in the past, because the “Ken sent me” text is clearly visible in the HD graphics. But the old men of SAE and MVK (authors of the translation to “Larry” of 1991) are not forgotten, you can easily find a tribute to them.

In some places, there are funny phrases in the translation that have already become firmly established in our lives, thanks to translators of the series “Courage-Bambay”, “Cube in Cuba” and others. He did not want to plagiarize, only to amuse the players with familiar jokes.

Checking the age of five questions before the start of the game also did not go away. I transferred the most successful of them, part simply translated, and I invented half myself. If the question was tied to American culture, it was replaced. Direct transfer received only well-known things and events. Toward the end of the work in the script began to fill columns with other languages ​​- French, German, Spanish. And even without knowing them, I saw that other translators also creatively approached the translation of questions. It's nice to feel that somewhere there, in other countries, there are people who work with you on the same project and think on the same wavelength.

Seriously, I also approached the issue of text formatting: I always taught myself to write the letter “e” instead of “e”, where it is needed; all dashes are long only, not hyphens, and all quotes are “Christmas trees”. If earlier I could type the text, occasionally peeping at the keyboard with one eye, now I write everything blindly.

Few numbers

In the final version of the translation:
9000 phrases
76,000 words
410,000 characters (no spaces)

What for?

Just for lulz. Sometime in my free time I was translating subtitles to notabenoid serials . If you ever watched “House”, “California”, “Simpsons”, “American Dad” and other TV shows with Russian subtitles, then it is quite likely that I participated in their creation.

It was necessary to distract from current projects, and the occupation of one of my hobbies, which I hadn’t spent time on for a long time, seemed just perfect. True, this work took much more time and effort than I had planned.

Damn it, but I joined the "adult" game dev (if only a translator) and talked to Al Low himself!

But the most important goal is to deliver the correct translation to the players, in the spirit of tube T & J. I hate mistakes in translations, and they are in each. Movies, games, TV shows - everywhere I meet bloopers that prevent people from perceiving a piece. It is especially offensive when a translator spoils luxurious jokes or starts building a censor out of himself. So that people who do not speak English, could get acquainted with a remake of one of the best quests of the 90s, I took up the translation.

How much did you get paid?

A question that everyone loves so much. The game just came out, and I was finally able to tell my friends what I had been working on for several months. Everyone asks this question first. I answer: 0.00 $.



I myself offered to help Al with the translation absolutely free. However, the guys from Replay Games decided not to remain in debt and promised me a collectible version of the game, including some of the awards from Kickstarter.

I hope you enjoy the old new Leisure Suit Larry and its translation. We are happy to answer your questions in the comments. Have a nice game!

Yesterday, June 27, the game was released on PC, Mac and Linux.
You can buy Leisure Suit Larry on Steam for 399 rubles.
Or without DRM on the developer's site , but for $ 20.
An iOS version is coming soon. A remake of Leisure Suit Larry 2 is already in development.