[Roper Klacks]

Well its their lost tbh, they're passing on a lot (in this niche market obviously) of sales from non-german audiences.

[Jackal]

I don't have any factual basis for this, but I strongly suspect TAC is struggling just to keep its head above water these days. They still publish the odd already-finished game, but the cost of localizing and distributing an original game is possibly too much for them these days.

(And if they are going to take a gamble, it seems less and less likely it'll be on an adventure.)

I'll be really disappointed if this game disappears into the void. With the original German publisher also bankrupt, I can easily see it falling into no-man's land where no one does anything with it.

Originally Posted by Phaid

Wha... That applies to the US only or the English version in general?

Both, in theory, though I don't know they ever had any plans to release it outside the US. No other publisher has signed it for anywhere else, though.

[crabapple]

Anyone know a site where someone from the US can order the German version?

[Neptin]

Originally Posted by Jackal

In the ongoing on-again-off-again soap opera that is the Book of Unwritten Tales, I've now been told (by their PR rep) that TAC has canceled the game.

Which of course means it could release any time between now and never. But that's the latest word, anyway.

It's such a shame!

Originally Posted by crabapple

Anyone know a site where someone from the US can order the German version?

If you really want to buy the original version, try Amazon.de (they ship worldwide) or download via Gamesload / Gamesplanet (Metaboli). You won't be disappointed

[crabapple]

Originally Posted by Neptin

If you really want to buy the original version, try Amazon.de (they ship worldwide) ...

Thanks, Neptin. I didn't realize Amazon.de would ship PC games to the US.
Last time I tried to order a game from Amazon.co.uk they wouldn't do it.

(In case anyone else in the US is interested, Amazon.de charged me 30.80 Euros for the game, which they said was equivalent to a little over $40 US.)

[Simplex]

So the English version of Books of Unwritten Tales was definitely cancelled? Any chance of unofficial fan translation of just the subtitles?

Man, I'd really like to play it game, but my knowledge of German is virtually non-existant.

[jadekitten]

so there's no hope anymore, they haven't reconsidered?? who wants to teach me german lol

[mataku]

Originally Posted by Simplex

So the English version of Books of Unwritten Tales was definitely cancelled? Any chance of unofficial fan translation of just the subtitles?

Man, I'd really like to play it game, but my knowledge of German is virtually non-existant.

someone "translated" the subs and posted a link on youtube, but playing that "translated" version it was immediately clear that he just used google translator (or worse) on all of the lines, because they didn't make much sense.

[Simplex]

Originally Posted by mataku

someone "translated" the subs and posted a link on youtube, but playing that "translated" version it was immediately clear that he just used google translator (or worse) on all of the lines, because they didn't make much sense.

True, it does not - but was it translated ingame, or just subtitles were added to the video on youtube?

[Igor]

The translation was done ingame.

[Simplex]

Cool, now we "just" need a translator who is willing to translate the subtitles into English

[nonax]

It indeed looks technically doable for all texts are in xml files. The voices are in wav format, so an overenthusiastic fan could also re-record these. However besides the legal implications, there's an awful lot of text to be translated

[Simplex]

Just hypothetically - perhaps the guys who did Broken Sword 2.5 would be capable of translating the texts into English, but there would still be legal issues of copyright infringement (although in Poland there was a group of people who translated movie subtitles without any kind of authorization that was sued by a movie distrubutor, and the court pronounced them innocent).

[lakerz]

Damn! This sucks if true! I can't believe this game will never be released for the English speaking audience. What a crappy sequence of events to end up with this great game now in limbo.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by Simplex

Cool, now we "just" need a translator who is willing to translate the subtitles into English

It' s been done and released here last year but later deleted due to copyright issues.

[crabapple]

As far as I know, the only "translation" is the one done with the automatic translator. That one can be found using links at Youtube. I don't know of any translation done by a bilingual human.

[Phod]

is this really confirmed canceled again?

[diego]

well, it's not over until the fat lady JoWood sings - as they announced today they will publish The Book of Unwritten Tales until the end of 2010.

Now, let's look at those screenshots once again.

[Bout]

Some of the translation was hand made with my wife and dictionary.
And most of it was with combination of some programs i used.

I also got a private message from one of the ppl woh made the game from germany and he told me they were happy to see the translation.
Since this day the release date of the game gone.

I hope my translation didnt make them to cancel the game release in english since many ppl downloaded my translation and bought the german version of the game. I dont know but since my translation i did there was no any release date anymore. strange.

My translation can be found here: LINK REMOVED - do not repost this

And this is the message i got from one of the ppl who made the game:

First he wrote to me in german:

Bin grad durch Zufall auf dein Video gestoßen und konnte erstmal gar nicht glauben, dass du wirklich _alle_ Texte übersetzt hast. Ich dachte erst, da wäre vielleicht was bei der offiziellen Übersetzung (die durchaus - auch wenn noch nicht offiziell angekündigt - hinter den Kulissen in Arbeit ist, was ich natürlich streng genommen nicht sagen sollte, aber in Anbetracht deiner Mühen einfach mal tue) in die falschen Hände geraten. Wie lang hast du denn dafür gebraucht? Und wie bist du dabei vorgegangen?

Ich werd dass mal den Kollegen zeigen... enthusiastische Fan-Projekte wie deins sind immer mächtig gut für die Arbeitsmoral! )

~Thomas


And then he wrote to me in English:

Excuse me - somehow I took it for granted that you'd speak german given that you've translated all ingame texts of a _german_ game. Now that I learn that you don't I'm even more curious about how you managed to create the english version of all the texts & dialog! :O

I'm one of the programmers involved in creating the game so I know that all the data is easily available in a pretty human (and machine) readable format and easy to modify but my first guess was that some work-in-progress data from the official localisation had gone into the wrong hands! I just thought I'd drop you some lines to let you know that you really impressed me there... Curious to see what my collegues have to say about it when I'm back from vacation. It's great to see how much effort and enthusiasm fans put into creating walkthroughs, reviews, posters or even english subtitles. )

So thanks for that nice surprise and rest assured - an official translation is coming! I'm really impatient too but on the other side I'm glad they (as the developer we have only provided the tools but are not involved in the localization) don't rush it. Part of what made Bout a success in germany is the quality of the dialog, the humor and the great voice acting... there's so much to mess up when not localizing it properly.^^

Cheers,
Thomas

[Bout]

Im not sure why they dont release in english the first game maybe cuz my translation and since ppl bought the german version and used my translation they think not many will buy it now. I dont know. Cuz since i published my translation the release date of the first game in english gone. strange.


Another strange thing is if you search in www.amazon.com for book of unwritten tales so you find two games: one is the original called book of unwritten tales and if you go inside you see they dont know when the game will be released:

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.




But in the search page you also see this:

Book of Unwritten Tales: The Chronicles by Dreamcatcher Interactive (DVD-ROM - Aug. 31, 2010) - Windows Vista / XP

And the chronicles is the sequel! its a new game. So its strange the first one isnt out yet in english and the new one is coming so soon.
Again maybe its my translation and maybe something other.

http://www.adventuregamers.com/gameinfo.php?id=1557
The german page of the new game the sequel you can see there 3 new screenshots. The page say release date for german language 2010 but its not updated there for long time.

The amazon.com say english release 31 of august this year !
Other site say release date is 1 of september !

So its coming soon