A lot of people have expressed interest in making fan translations of purrgatory. I appreciate y'all for helping us reach a larger audience! I'm glad to work with any volunteers, regardless of language or amount of experience. However, translating purrgatory is a big effort, with over 70k words and lots of puns and poems to translate. If you want to contribute, I've put together this guide on how to get started :)
How to get started
First, tell me (Niv) that you're interested so I can send you the translation template.
The best way to reach me is to join the purrgatory fan translation Discord server. This is also where you can ask me questions or work with fellow translators. If you prefer not to join, that's okay -- all the information you need is on this page. You can also comment on itch.io, make a post on the Steam forums, or email me at darvinheo@gmail.com.
The translation template
The translation template is a 21-tab Excel spreadsheet that looks like this:
If you don't have Excel or if you're collaborating with multiple people, the template can also be uploaded to Google Sheets.
The first 19 tabs include all the dialog and choice text in the game. Fill in the "translation" and "choice_translation" columns. The last 2 tabs contain other text that need to be translated, like the "flashback" scenes, menu options, and Steam page. The spreadsheet is color-coded, so all the cells you need to fill in are highlighted.
Existing translations
The following languages have complete, in-progress, or upcoming translations. If you're interested in helping with one of them, join the Discord server so we can chat. I want to make sure no one duplicates their efforts!
Simplified Chinese (complete)
Croatian
Dutch
French
Japanese
Brazilian Portuguese
European Portuguese
Russian
European Spanish (complete)
Ukrainian
That's all you need to know to get started! Purrgatory has over 70k words, so be prepared for a long haul. Read on if you want to know all the little details.
Name and gender customization
Before you get too far, you should work with me to decide how the pronoun and gender system will work in your language.
Purrgatory lets players choose what words are used to refer to them, including gender-neutral or non-standard alternatives like neopronouns. However, each language treats gender differently, so the customization options may have to look different. For example, since some Spanish words are inflected by gender, the Spanish version of purrgatory asks the player to choose a word ending such as -e, -a, or -o, as well as their pronoun.
Some care should be taken in languages without standard gender-neutral alternatives. For example, we made -e the gender-neutral word ending in Spanish because it seemed to be the most widely accepted among queer communities. However, we made sure to include an option to enter your own word ending, like -x or -i.
Custom name format
When writing dialog in the template, customizable text will show up in curly brackets like these: { }. Any time the player's name is used, write {player} instead. The game engine will automatically replace this with the name the player entered. Like this:
Custom gender format
You'll also use curly brackets for pronouns and other gendered words, but the specifics will depend on the gender system that we decide on.
For example, in English, pronouns are written like {they}, {them}, and {their}, and verbs that need to be conjugated according to the player's pronouns are written like {x/y} where x is the plural version and y is the singular version. The game engine will automatically replace these with the appropriate word. So, in the example below, the sentence "of course {they} {have/has} the time" could be replaced with "of course she has the time."
Other languages work differently. For example, in Spanish, gendered words are written like {x/y/z} where x is the masculine version, y is the feminine version, and z is the gender-neutral version, like in the below example.
Text formatting nuances
There are some formatting rules to keep in mind, but don't worry if you get something wrong. I'll be scanning through the spreadsheet to fix mistakes before it gets implemented. Also I sincerely apologize for how finnicky the spreadsheet is. I developed this system in literally a few days and never improved it.
喵的炼狱 / purrgatory in chinese!
purrgatory is now available in simplified chinese! wooo!!!!
there's been multiple requests for a chinese translation over the years, and it's finally a reality thanks to the hard work of syakudo. i'm so grateful that this game will be able to reach even more people than before. this update involved tons of dedication, humor, care, and even a little ancient poetry--i can't express what an impressive feat it is. so, i'll let syakudo tell you directly :)
Whats up! Here I am Syakudo, the Chinese localizer of Purrgatory! This is the first full game that I have localized independently, and man there are too many difficulties to say, with countless cat puns. Although I have altered some dialogues and almost all the puns, I think I have kept the spirit of the game and maintained the overall gameplay feelings. Of course, there are still places lacking polishing. If you are interested, feel free to send your opinion in the Discussions!
Also big thanks to Niv who patiently helped me with the numerous puns and memes in the game, I look forward to working with him again!
¡Purrgatory en español!
That's right! All seventy thousand words of Purrgatory are now available in European Spanish. You can switch the language on the main menu and in the options menu.
This translation is the masterwork of Samo, also known as Samuel de la Torre Galán, who is an absolutely lovely, talented, and professional translator. It's hard to overstate how big of an undertaking this was--do you know how hard it is to translate cat puns?? If you enjoy Purrgatory in Spanish, please show your appreciation to @samutoga on Twitter!
Also, Purrgatory now has autosave! I really should have implemented this a year ago.
Now some words from Samo!
What’s up, cats? I’m Samuel, aka Samo or Samutoga. Months ago, I started translating Purrgatory for my degree’s final dissertation on game localization (as you can guess, it was a translation and interpreting degree lol) and it was certainly a challenge. I found this game right after it was launched and just by playing it for a couple of hours, I knew it was going to be a rather interesting yet exhausting journey, but I think I managed to pull it off pretty decently after all. Apart from that, working with Niv has been a pleasure, he is surely an understanding lad if I’ve ever seen one – he was patient enough through the process and helped me whenever I needed anything, so it has been a very nice experience all in all. I’m so looking forward to working with him again in the future. And well, that’s pretty much all I wanted to say. Enjoy the game!
¿Qué os contáis, gente? Soy Samuel, alias Samo o Samutoga. Hace unos cuantos meses me puse a traducir Purrgatory para mi Trabajo de Fin de Grado dedicado a la localización de videojuegos (supongo que se sobreentiende que el grado era de traducción e interpretación lol) y ha sido todo un reto. Encontré el juego poco después de su lanzamiento y nada más con jugar un par de horas ya me imaginé que me esperaba un viaje bastante interesante y agotador, pero yo diría que me he defendido como gato panza arriba. Además, he de decir que he disfrutado mucho trabajar con Niv, la verdad es que es un chaval bastante apañao’. Ha sido muy paciente durante todo el proceso y me ha ayudado con lo que necesitaba, así que la experiencia ha sido bastante positiva en general y estoy deseando volver a trabajar con él en un futuro. Y bueno, creo que eso es todo lo que quería decir. ¡Disfrutad del juego!
2021-10-12 small bug fix
I THINK I figured out why people were getting softlocked on the tic-tac-toe minigame, and I THINK I fixed it. If that doesn't work, I ALSO added a "skip game" button as a workaround. If somehow the game is HORRIBLY BROKEN now please tell me.
Unfortunately if you had a save file which was broken due to this softlock, it will still be broken ):
2021-9-10 bug fixes + quality of life changes
Hey everyone, I prepared an update to address most of the bugs and suggestions reported by players. Hopefully I didn't break anything in the process...
Bug fixes
Added another opportunity to ask Elijah about Numa's poem in the museum
Prevented the screwdriver from being clickable, even though it was invisible, after the scene in the vent
Prevented Elijah from chiming in during dialog when he's not supposed to be present
Fixed missing text after "poor elijah's getting old..."
Fixed Oliver still showing up in his study after he wakes up from his nap
Lots of typos, as usual
Known bugs
Text was displaying improperly on the history page for some players. I MIGHT have fixed it, but some text might still be cut off.
Saving and loading into the tic-tac-toe minigame can apparently softlock the game by not letting you draw anything. I was unable to reproduce or fix this bug, so... be warned!
The screen turns pitch black in the pit climbing minigame for some players, preventing them from seeing and clicking on things. I couldn't reproduce this bug either, so I added a workaround where the ending dialog would be triggered automatically when the player reaches a certain depth. Unfortunately, it will still be hard to get one of the snowglobes if you can't see it...
Quality of life features
Added a low-contrast mode! Now Purrgatory won't hurt your eyes!
Added text at the end of the bad ending credits that reports how many people you saved, to make it more obvious that there are multiple endings
Clicking on the ladder and escalator now causes you to go to the next room, rather than displaying dialog, so people won't get stuck there
Added an arrow on the floor of that one confusing hallway where you have to go backwards to progress, so people won't get stuck there
The inventory now hides itself a few seconds after picking up an item
You can now call the slam by clicking on any part of the bell, not just the rope
