Translating Shield Cat

Warning!	The information detailed on this page may not be in the present available build, and may only be available in an upcoming build! Therefore, all information here is to be considered volatile and could change or be removed without notice.

Shield Cat supports the ability for translations, including custom translations that aren't part of the original package.

Translation Details

This page is a stub. Roxy will probably come along later and add more to it.

Text Commands

The game uses the format [key:value] for text based commands in most cases. However, some keys do not have a value, and as such those will use [key].

All of the text commands are detailed below.

Special Note	Most of the instructions regarding dialogue trees, message box styles, who's talking etc. is handled by the game itself, so you only need to worry about translating the presented text and keeping the text instructions that are present intact.

[eol]

End of line. Use [eol] to signify the end of a line. This allows multiple paragraphs of dialogue from the same character. The game will stop writing text to the screen and wait for the player to press the button.

[nl]

New line. Use [nl] to force the text to start drawing on the next line. Please note that it is not necessary to use this for wrapping text, as the game will wrap text automatically. Instead, it should be used for emphasis in the dialogue.

[wait:value]

Specify how many frames to wait until continuing to draw text on the screen. You can use this to create dramatic tension in a scene. Please note that the game will not wait if the player has pressed the button to skip dialogue.

Since the game runs at 60fps, you can use [wait:60] to wait 1 second, or [wait:120] to wait 2 seconds. The maximum value for this is 300 which is 5 seconds.

[icon:value]

Controls the character graphic that is used in this dialogue. Often this is specified by the game itself, so it is not necessary to start dialogue with this. However, you can use it in the middle of dialogue to change expressions.

Value	Results
none	Changes to not having any avatar on the screen.
lance_xx	Uses one of Lance's expressions. Replace xx with the following: 00: Default neutral 01: Smile

Please note that this table will be filled out with graphics as the game is developed.

[col:value]

Color. Use this to specify the color that text will be drawn with from now on. Important note: the game will swap back to the default color when it changes language strings, but not when you use [eol] to move to a new paragraph. Be sure to specify the color at the start of the language string, even on sequential language strings.

Value	Results
default	Changes the color to the default color.
item	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about an item that is found in the game.
ability	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about one of Lance's abilities, such as the Shield, Air Dash, etc.
location	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about a location in the game that the player can visit.
name	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about the name of a character in the game.
action	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about one of the actions that Lance can take. This differs from his abilities and it used to describe actions like swimming, spinning, or for instance if we're telling the player they can press the "Ok" button then this is the color to use.
button	Changes the color to signify that we're talking about a button or key that the player can press on the keyboard. For instance, if we told the player that they can press the "B Button" to spin, "B Button" would use this color, and "spin" would use the Action color.
rainbow	All text drawn from now on will use a rainbow color, which will be continually cycled through until the text is removed from the screen.
cc_rrggbb	Specify a Custom Color to be used. Replace rrggbb with an HTML hexcode color. It is not advised to use this though, as it may not show up against certain message boxes, so please use with caution.

[emoji:value]

This will display a sprite from the game's database of graphics instead of a text character. It is used for example to display a picture of a button the player can press. It can also be used to put a picture of a character from the game.

Important	Custom colors do not apply to emojis.

This page is a stub. Roxy will probably come along later and add more to it.

[ruby:value]glyph

When using complex glyphs in languages such as Japanese, you can use this to display the simplified form above the complex glyph. This will help younger players who are not familiar with more complex glyphs to be able to read the dialogue. Here, value is where you put the simplified text, and it will be displayed over the next character in the text string.

an example of how this works will be presented when it is implemented in the game.

[effect:value]

Text Effects. When using this command, all characters that follow will use the text effect given. Please note, it is not possible to combine text effects - specifying a new one will overwrite the previous one. Also, the text effect will be reset when the game changes to a new dialogue string, so be sure to specify the text effect at the start if it's necessary.

Value	Result
normal	Resets the text effects. New characters drawn to the screen will do nothing fancy.
wiggle	Characters will smoothly slide up and down, depending on its x position on the screen.
shake	Characters will shake, like they are scared.

[intro:value]

Text Introduction. Specifies how a character will appear on the screen. These can be combined with text effects to make unique dialogue.

Value	Result
normal	Text will appear in the default manner (dropping in)
zoom_in	Text will start small and then scale up to its normal size
zoom_out	Text will start at double size, and then scale down to the correct size.
slide_in_rand	Text will slide in from a random direction.
fade_in	Text will fade in.

[scale:value]

Text Scaling. This specifies what text scaling to use. Please note that this effect is reset when the dialogue string is changed, so be sure to use it at the start as necessary.

Value	Result
normal	Characters are drawn at their default size.
half	Characters are drawn at half of their normal size.
double	Characters are drawn at double their normal size. Please note that some blurriness of text will occur with this.
halfwidth	Characters are drawn skinny.
doublewidth	Characters are drawn very wide.
halfheight	Characters are drawn at half their height.
doubleheight	Characters are drawn at double their height.

[voice:value]

Text Voice. The text being drawn will have a unique sound to it depending on who's speaking. This is usually initialized by the game itself, but it may sometimes be necessary to change voices during a dialogue involving a single character.

Value	Result
none	No sound will play when text is being drawn.
normal	Default text sound, used for reading signs or investigating objects.

In addition to these, the following characters have unique dialogue sounds that can be used by putting their name:

• lance
• parker
• suzette
• ruby
• trent
• olivia
• claire
• daniel
• roxy