I am running an experiment, and I would like the community's help with it and the community's verdict on it.
The question is this: can an AI translation, corrected by the players who speak the language, be good enough to put in the game? There is now a test build on Steam where you can try it, and a new section on the website where you can tell me what is wrong with it. Depending on what comes back, this either becomes part of Astro Protocol or it does not.
Why this is an experiment and not a feature
Astro Protocol was built in English and translating it was never part of the plan. Astro Protocol started as a side project and a professionally made localization of it would cost more than the game has earned. So this is something that only exists because a new way of doing it appeared.
What is in the test build
Every line of the game including menus, tooltips, faction and ship names, the anomaly stories in seven languages:
- French
- German
- Polish
- Spanish
- Portuguese (Brazilian)
- Italian
- Turkish
They were not produced by dumping the game's text into a chatbot. Each language was translated against written rules: how formally the game should address you, how buttons are phrased, what the factions are called so their names stay consistent everywhere they appear, and a long list of decisions about the game's own vocabulary and lore.
What all of that still cannot give me is a native speaker's ear. The rules keep everything consistent. Whether a sentence actually sounds like something a person would say in Polish, in Turkish, in Italian is not something I can judge, and not something the AI can be trusted to judge about itself. That is the part where I ask for your help.
How to try it
The test build is on a public Steam beta branch called "translations". It is opt-in, and switching back takes ten seconds.
- Right-click Astro Protocol in your Steam library and choose Properties.
- Open the Betas tab.
- Pick translations from the dropdown. No code needed.
- Let Steam update, start the game, and choose your language in Options → Game.
To go back to the normal game, pick None in the same dropdown. This branch is a work in progress and will be updated as the text changes, so expect it to be rougher than the release build.
How to help
Playing it is useful. Telling me exactly which lines are wrong is far more useful, and there is a place built for that:
nullvectorstudios.com/games/astro-protocol/translations
Sign in with an email address then pick your language. You will see the English original next to the translation, one line at a time, and for each one you can:
- mark it good or bad,
- say what is wrong with it,
- write a better version yourself,
- or agree with a better version someone else already wrote.
There are keyboard shortcuts for everything, and the lines nobody has looked at yet come first, so several people reviewing the same language spread out instead of all judging the same twenty lines. You do not need to finish a language, or even a screen of it. Twenty lines from someone who actually speaks it is worth more than anything I can do on my own.
The English is reviewable too, if a line in the original is a typo, or confusing, or just clumsy, you can flag it exactly the same way. And your reviews stick to the text: a line you approved stays approved for as long as it stays the same, and any line that gets changed in the game comes back for a fresh look, since the thing you judged is gone.
Everything you mark goes straight into the next translation pass.
Known issues
There are still some known issues. Not every part of the interface scales to fit longer translations, and some of our fonts are missing accents, umlauts and other special characters. I will keep working on these.
Tell me what you think
I chose these seven languages by demand and viability to translate with an LLM. Please let me know if you feel that a language is missing which the LLM could do a good job with.
And should the game be doing this at all? AI translation in games has a poor reputation, and a lot of it is deserved. The alternative here was not a professional localization, it was no localization, indefinitely. But "better than nothing" is a claim only someone who reads the language can check. If a language comes back judged not good enough, it does not ship. That is a real possible outcome of this test.
Leave a comment, come tell me on Discord, or use the translation review system to make your voice heard.
Zeikko