Interesting details about the Czech localization of Dead Island 2

The Czech distribution company Playman presents an interesting infographic about the broadcast of the upcoming zombie event. Dead Island 2. We found out it was for the game translated into 250,000 words by four translators and two editors.

The translation has been going on for 1.5 years and the release of the game, as is customary, does not mean the end of the work for these translators. Further possible extensions and minor corrections will accompany the translator in the future, of course, depending on the success of the game.

The translators got down to business with passion, but it was not at all easy. The beauty of the Czech language is often a hindrance in complex RPG mechanics, and as such, the translator not only faces changing weapon names and upgrades, but also has to consider whether you choose to play as a male or a female. character. On the other hand, they certainly made up for it by coming up with names for various zombie mutations or translating funny NPC dialogue and creatively written dialogue and vulgarities.

“The biggest problem for the translation team (especially in this type of game) is that the player can play both male and female characters. From a localization point of view, this is a significant complication. This is due to the fact that different NPCs react to the player, so a male or female inflection is required (depending on the player). Therefore, it is necessary to reformulate the sentences of these NPCs so that they ideally do not require a gender change at all. However, such a solution is sometimes quite complex, and it is not always easy to find it at all.” presented by the translator Peter.

“The second problem was crafting. The player can create a number of different items in the game, the name of which is automatically generated in accordance with the components used and their properties. In order for such an artificially created name to always be graphically correct (regardless of the components used), it was necessary to carefully choose the grammatical form of the names of the individual components, which then form the final name of the manufactured object. Michal adds.

“The last problem is, of course, terminological consistency (names of enemies, components, locations, weapons, etc.), localization took about a year and a half and several translators worked on it, so it was necessary to enter certain terms into the dictionary and check their correspondence in translation”, Eva added.

“The game will undoubtedly be fun, brutal and bloody action. However, the authors of the script did not take napkins and conceived the game as a parody, so the players will be interested not only in killing zombies, but also in creatively written dialogues and a number of incomprehensible and funny NPCs that will make their stay in hell hellish. LA is nicer. Peter thinks.

“What I would like to pay attention to is the names of zombies, be it apples, bibs and others, that the player will meet in the game and about which he will be able to read a lot of interesting information in a unique zombiepedia. ,” reveals Honzo.

“Vulgarity has also been creatively approached, and players can look forward to even more juicy language than the original Dead Island.” Michael added.

Dead Island 2 will release on April 21, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.