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Someone I know is making a computer game set in pre-revolutionary Russia. The game itself is not in Russian, but she would like the buttons to have Russian words attached to increase the atmosphere of the user interface. We are wondering what the command buttons are called in a standard Russian game.

The buttons in her game are:

  • Start game (which I understand is usually translated by "Играть" or "Игра”)
  • Read file
  • Pictures - leads to a page with special pictures from the game
  • Music ("Музыка")
  • Settings ("Настройки" or "Опции")

  • Exit ("Выход" or "Выйти")

  • Menu ("Меню")

  • Save game
  • Recap - shows a screen with the last few blocks of text shown to the player
  • Automatically progress - the standard setting is that the player needs to click before the next block of text is shown; activating this setting would let blocks of text automatically appear one after another
  • Properties - numbers that control character progress
  • Fullscreen
  • In window
  • Back (on menu, recap or properties page, which would lead the player back to the game)

I was able to find some screenshots of the main page of some games, but not all the terms we are interested in could be found in this way. (Apologies if some of the English terms above are non-standard in a game; the game is not in English either and I have little experience playing computer games.)

Valiowk
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    Thank you for doing this research because most people who make games/movies about Russia don't bother. – alamar Feb 02 '15 at 17:50

1 Answers1

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I think it is not exactly a pefect question for this particular forum, but here it is. I am a game developer, fortunately. As you asked, I tried to provide sort of "typical" names for such options in a real game rather than precise translations

  • Start game = «Новая игра» (New game), sometimes «Начать новую игру» (Start a new game)
  • Read file = If it is about savegames, better «Загрузить» (Load) or «Загрузить игру» (Load game). "Файл" is not the word you'd use here... but if you really mean (literally) reading some files from your HDD, it would be "Прочитать файл" or "Загрузить файл"(Load file), or maybe "Открыть файл" (Open file).
  • Pictures = «Картинки» (Images, Pictures) or «Галерея» (Gallery). «Альбом»(Album), if you want to be really fancy (not a typical word for images gallery inside the game, but there isn't anything wrong about using this methaphor)
  • Music = «Музыка»
  • Settings = «Настройки»

  • Exit = «Выход»/«Выйти»/«Выйти из игры». Also, if you have seprate options for quitting to main menu and to the desktop, they are «Выйти в главное меню» and «Выйти из игры/ Выйти на рабочий стол»

  • Menu = «Меню», Main menu = «Главное меню»

  • Save game = «Сохранить игру» (Save game), «Сохранить» (Save)
  • Recap — no standard name, of course, so getting creative here. You could use «История» (History), «Предыдущие» (previous ones; non-standard), «Ранее» /«Раньше» (Earlier). For going further back into the old info, maybe «Записи», «Записки» (Notes), «Блокнот» (Notepad), «Журнал» (Journal, Notes), «Дневник» (Diary, Journal).
  • Automatically progress = «*Автопромотка**», «Проматывать текст автоматически», «Проматывать текст» or "реплики"(lines, cues) instead of "текст". In a modern setting «Автоскролл» would be just about right but «скролл» isn't a word in Russian, so it really sounds off and slangy for a historical game.
  • Properties — kinda fuzzy. If you mean the character screen with their different stats, you can use «Персонаж» (Character), «Навыки» (Skills), «Параметры» or «Характеристики». More literal "свойства" is really bad here: first, it kinda sounds like "settings" or "options", and second, you'd rather expect "свойства" to describe properties of some object or substance than living being. Not really used for character stats screen in Russian.
  • Fullscreen = «Полноэкранный режим», «Во весь экран»/«На весь экран»/«На полный экран»
  • In window = «Оконный режим», «В окне»
  • Back = «Назад» (the moooost standard and ubiquitous), «Вернуться»

These days games also tend to have a single main menu option to "continue" playing from the savegame made the last time you left the game (people do have to sleep once in a while :) ). So if you don't fail or replay stuff, you don't even need to go to the load screen much:

  • Continue = «Продолжить», «Продолжить игру»
Shady_arc
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  • Thank you very much! The properties screen would show things similar to money, health, etc. (I'm not sure whether it would be better to call it "(Character) Statistics"), so none of the above sound quite right, but I guess «Статистика» is not right either? ;) – Valiowk Feb 02 '15 at 10:23
  • Статистика is something way too formal. Again, as a gamer slang "статы" could work. Otherwise, "Персонаж" or "Окно персонажа" is probably the closest match (especially if you have other windows with stuff that does not describe your character but rather something else). "Параметры" is the most precise but I never quite liked it (sounds a biiit too mathematical and detached). You might use it, though. – Shady_arc Feb 02 '15 at 10:28
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    На полный экран is an Anglicism. The good, idiomatic Russian is Во весь экран. – Nikolay Ershov Feb 02 '15 at 14:09
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    @Valiowk if you're aiming for some pre-revolutionary atmosphere, you may call character statistics screen "личное дело". That's a document that bureaucrats keep on a person. – alamar Feb 02 '15 at 17:59
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    "in pre-revolutionary Russia"! Hence "Выходъ", "Назадъ" etc. :) – Avi Gordon Feb 02 '15 at 20:27
  • @NikolayErshov Yeah, good point. – Shady_arc Feb 02 '15 at 22:29
  • @AviGordon If anyone knows an online tool that enables one to check pre-reform spelling, I would be glad to do it! :) – Valiowk Feb 03 '15 at 02:31
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    @alamar, "личное дело" is not at all restricted to the old times, the phrase is still used meaning "personal record". "Характеристика" (characteristics, a letter of reference) is another suitable word, especially for describing a character. – J-mster Feb 03 '15 at 06:44
  • @J-mster Thanks' I've completely forgotten that "характеристики" is also used for character's stats in games. – Shady_arc Feb 03 '15 at 07:30
  • @Valiowk I'm a gamer, and it's usual that "окно персонажа" would contain portrait, health, stats (like fortitude, wisdom, etc), gold, maybe some rank, inventory. If there are several screens for these things, you might want to find more exact names. But if it is all in one screen, then "окно персонажа" is just fine. BTW, take a look at russian version of WoW, they do have a pretty nice translation. – Alissa Jun 27 '16 at 15:41