Question regarding English proficiency

[Mymy]

I have a vague question to ask.


How important is English quality in adult games for you guys?


I am asking this cuz I am developing a game myself now and, since I am not a native speaker, I am a bit worried with this issue.


I know it would differ by the specific genre of the game but still, in general, I want to know what ppl think.

 

[moskis22]

You mean using simple vocabulary and expresions or having grammar mistakes?
I mean, i'm not native either (as you can see xD), do i don't mind at all (as long as it makes sense), but for a native i guess the second one at least it's compulsory

 

[Droid Productions]

If your native English isn't up to scratch:
1) Get an account with

You must be registered to see the links

; it won't magically make your English amazing, but it'll catch a lot of weirdness
2) Find a native English proofreader, or editor, to help you out.


It's a visual *novel*; if your writing sucks, you'd better hope your visuals are amazing.

 

[gunderson]

Just to make things a little less ambiguous, I am going to answer the OP as though they asked two separate questions rather than one vague question.

1) How important is amazing quality English writing in adult games?
A: Not particularly important at all. There are a lot of totally decent porn games made by fairly average-skilled but literate English writers, and it's all good. Doesn't necessarily make or break an adult game depending on if they have Hemingway (replace with your preferred famously talented English writer if you're not a Hemingway fan) on the writing staff.

2) How important is avoiding terrible quality English writing in adult games?
A: Essential. If I spend more time looking at spelling, grammar, and/or word choice mistakes in your game's intro than I spend looking at boobies, ya done fucked up.

 

[m00nsh1ne]

The main thing is that you're trying and someone who puts in effort to make their script readable will always shine through. But I agree with Droid Productions. The best thing you can do is find someone who speaks english and likes your game to proofread it for you or at least the most important scenes. You're never going to get it perfect but as long as the effort is there I doubt you'll ever get crucified for it.

 

[Cryswar]

It depends on the game - obviously, I'm gonna care more about the writing in a text based game than in a fighting game with H and like 20 lines of '''story''' in total.

In general though, I personally don't care much about the occasional typo but tune out pretty fast if the writing isn't above average. If it's extremely bad - lots of typos, ugly abbreviations, really bad conversations, content I intensely dislike, etc - I'll usually turn on skip or uninstall the game regardless of visuals.

I'll second the ideas of getting a proofreader and/or editor. Presentation can be very difficult, as I've learned the hard way, but it's still important.

 

[Mymy]

You mean using simple vocabulary and expresions or having grammar mistakes?
I mean, i'm not native either (as you can see xD), do i don't mind at all (as long as it makes sense), but for a native i guess the second one at least it's compulsory

Thank you for taking time to answer, pal.

I guess I should really put more time with proof-reading..

 

[Mymy]

If your native English isn't up to scratch:
1) Get an account with

You must be registered to see the links

; it won't magically make your English amazing, but it'll catch a lot of weirdness
2) Find a native English proofreader, or editor, to help you out.


It's a visual *novel*; if your writing sucks, you'd better hope your visuals are amazing.

I really appreciate your kindness.

I think I can do the first option at least, and maybe second one as well in the future I hope.

 

[Mymy]

Just to make things a little less ambiguous, I am going to answer the OP as though they asked two separate questions rather than one vague question.

1) How important is amazing quality English writing in adult games?
A: Not particularly important at all. There are a lot of totally decent porn games made by fairly average-skilled but literate English writers, and it's all good. Doesn't necessarily make or break an adult game depending on if they have Hemingway (replace with your preferred famously talented English writer if you're not a Hemingway fan) on the writing staff.

2) How important is avoiding terrible quality English writing in adult games?
A: Essential. If I spend more time looking at spelling, grammar, and/or word choice mistakes in your game's intro than I spend looking at boobies, ya done fucked up.

Lol, I am the writer in my team, and nowhere near Hemingway caliber by all means. Anyways, it is encouraging to know that I don't have to be a prize winning novelist to write a porn game text.

So the bottomline is to write an adequte, readable text, I suppose.

 

[Mymy]

The main thing is that you're trying and someone who puts in effort to make their script readable will always shine through. But I agree with Droid Productions. The best thing you can do is find someone who speaks english and likes your game to proofread it for you or at least the most important scenes. You're never going to get it perfect but as long as the effort is there I doubt you'll ever get crucified for it.

Thanks for the answer.

I surely will do my best xD.

 

[Mymy]

It depends on the game - obviously, I'm gonna care more about the writing in a text based game than in a fighting game with H and like 20 lines of '''story''' in total.

In general though, I personally don't care much about the occasional typo but tune out pretty fast if the writing isn't above average. If it's extremely bad - lots of typos, ugly abbreviations, really bad conversations, content I intensely dislike, etc - I'll usually turn on skip or uninstall the game regardless of visuals.

I'll second the ideas of getting a proofreader and/or editor. Presentation can be very difficult, as I've learned the hard way, but it's still important.

Yeah, sounds about right.

I haven't put much time in proof-reading, but after reading all you guys comments and advice, I am getting more time

to proofread thoroughly.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Very important, unless it's an action game, in which case it can be MTL for all I care. Not just ero-games either; if I see more than the occasional typo or grammatical error, I tend to be put off by the game in general. Most of my favorite games are well-written, the rest at the very least avoid too many errors. Could be because most of my fetishes, especially when it comes to games, are of a more cerebral type (corruption, mindbreak, hypno, coercion etc.) rather than visual. And by the same token, when I come across a game that hits my fetishes but is really awkwardly-written (Corruption), it does nothing for me.

 

[desmosome]

Your English proficiency in this thread seems fine. You might not be able to write the most eloquent dialogues or describe things in beautiful detail, but as long as you avoid glaring and constant grammar issues, you will be fine.

Grammar aside, another big hurdle is to actually impart some personality and character traits through the dialogue. There are some devs fluent in English who writes every single character to sound exactly the same (cough... Dots... cough). Others may have some issues with grammar, but they still manage to write convincing characters and interesting scenes.

A bad writer might produce totally monotonous characters. A mediocre one may create some differences by using tropes (cute, bitchy, slutty, etc.). A good writer will bring the characters to life with discernible speech patterns, mannerisms, personality, desires, motivations, etc.

 

[Mymy]

Very important, unless it's an action game, in which case it can be MTL for all I care. Not just ero-games either; if I see more than the occasional typo or grammatical error, I tend to be put off by the game in general. Most of my favorite games are well-written, the rest at the very least avoid too many errors. Could be because most of my fetishes, especially when it comes to games, are of a more cerebral type (corruption, mindbreak, hypno, coercion etc.) rather than visual. And by the same token, when I come across a game that hits my fetishes but is really awkwardly-written (Corruption), it does nothing for me.

Thank you.

Since my game has those cerebral type of contents in it, English quality should matter a lot as you said.

I am going to study some well-written games to enhance the quality of my game.

Once again, thank you.

 

[Mymy]

Your English proficiency in this thread seems fine. You might not be able to write the most eloquent dialogues or describe things in beautiful detail, but as long as you avoid glaring and constant grammar issues, you will be fine.

Grammar aside, another big hurdle is to actually impart some personality and character traits through the dialogue. There are some devs fluent in English who writes every single character to sound exactly the same (cough... Dots... cough). Others may have some issues with grammar, but they still manage to write convincing characters and interesting scenes.

A bad writer might produce totally monotonous characters. A mediocre one may create some differences by using tropes (cute, bitchy, slutty, etc.). A good writer will bring the characters to life with discernible speech patterns, mannerisms, personality, desires, motivations, etc.

Yes, aside grammar, I am struggling hard to make the characters fells different through the dialogues.

I really appreciate your detailed explanation. It does give me some good ideas on where I should start.

 

[Doorknob22]

1. A language glitch is a glitch like any other: graphic glitches, code bugs, cumbersome UI etc. If they are few and far between, most players will ignore them and focus on the rest of the content. The more jarring and frequent they are, it is more likely that you will lose players.
2. English is not my first language either (Hebrew is) and my methods of releasing high quality English are:
-I Read the hell out of my text. I Go over the dialogs again and again. Slowly, reading every word.
-Renpy allows you to extract the text. I copy the text and paste it in Google docs, it has great spelling mistake correction capabilities.
-Find volunteers who are into your game and are fluent in English, or at least better than you are. I personally spent a few hours proof reading a game for a fellow developer a few months ago.

If you go with all three suggestions, I find it very unlikely that your game will suffer greatly from your lack of experience in writing in English.

 

[Mymy]

1. A language glitch is a glitch like any other: graphic glitches, code bugs, cumbersome UI etc. If they are few and far between, most players will ignore them and focus on the rest of the content. The more jarring and frequent they are, it is more likely that you will lose players.
2. English is not my first language either (Hebrew is) and my methods of releasing high quality English are:
-I Read the hell out of my text. I Go over them again and again. Slowly, reading every word.
-Renpy allows you to extract the text. I copy the text and paste it in Google docs, it has great spelling mistake correction capabilities.
-Find volunteers who are into your game and are fluent in English, or at least better than you are. I personally spent a few hours proof reading a game for a fellow developer a few months ago.

If you go with all three suggestions, I find it very unlikely that your game will suffer greatly from your lack of experience in writing in English.

Hey, thanks for taking time to answer my question.

I will definetely take my time to proof-read and polish my text.

In addition to a language glitch, you pointed out other important factors which I will surely take time to look into.