Help Translate Microlandia

Microlandia is a city builder full of tiny details. Localizing it is the same: lots of small strings that add up to a world that feels native.

If you speak another language, you can help us ship better translations (and catch the occasional AI weirdness) by joining our Crowdin project:

https://crowdin.com/project/microlandia

• Translate UI text and in-game newspaper articles.
• Proofread AI pre-translations and make them feel human.
• Improve terminology consistency, tone, and typos.
• Help at any pace: even 5 minutes is useful.

Quick start (2 minutes)

1. Create a Crowdin account.
2. Open the project page and click Join (or Request access).
3. Pick the language(s) you want to help with and send your request.
4. Once approved, open your language and start translating or proofreading.

If you want proofreader access (approving strings), mention it in your request message.

Joining the project

1. Go to https://crowdin.com/project/microlandia
2. Click Join / Request access
3. Select your language(s)
4. In the message, tell us:
   • which language(s) you’re native in,
   • whether you want to translate, proofread, or both,
   • any relevant experience (optional).
5. Submit the request. We approve requests manually (sometimes in batches).

Don’t see the button or your language? Ping us on Discord or email and we’ll sort it out.

Suggested request message:

Hi! I’m a Microlandia player and I’d love to help translate/proofread LANGUAGE. I’m a native speaker. Please grant me translator (and proofreader if possible) access. Thanks!

What you’ll work on

Microlandia has two kinds of content on Crowdin:

Pick a starting mission

• New to translating? Start with short UI strings in menu.json or settings.json.
• Love writing? Translate a newspaper article (they’re short and fun).
• Native speaker with strong opinions? Proofread AI pre-translations and make them feel natural.

1) Game UI (short strings)

Buttons, menus, tooltips, tutorials, etc. These come from JSON files like src/locales/en/common.json.

Good to know:

• Keep variables exactly as-is: , `9`,, etc.
• Keep escaped newlines \n if you see them (they control line breaks in the UI).
• Keep keyboard hints and symbols intact: Q/E, %, #, currency symbols, etc.

Example:

• Source: Version
• Your translation: translate “Version”, keep ``.

2) The Microlandia Times (newspaper articles)

Short articles written in Markdown. They’re longer and more creative than UI strings—feel free to make them flow naturally in your language, as long as the meaning stays the same.

About AI pre-translations (and why they exist)

We ship frequent updates. To avoid releasing updates where large parts of a language are suddenly missing, we sometimes pre-translate new strings with AI.

Think of it like scaffolding:

• AI drafts get text on screen quickly.
• Humans make it correct, natural, and consistent.

On Crowdin, these pre-translations typically show up in blue. That’s the signal that the string exists, but still needs human QA.

So you’ll sometimes open a string and find it already filled in. If you’d like to help polish these drafts, a few high-impact things to look for are:

• smooth out mistakes and awkward phrasing,
• remove any invented details (AI sometimes hallucinates),
• match the tone of the game,
• keep terminology consistent with the rest of the language.

And yes: sometimes there is no draft and you’ll translate from scratch—both are valuable.

How to polish AI drafts (blue strings)

Treat blue strings like “first draft, needs editing”. A quick workflow that usually works well:

1. Read the English source once, all the way through.
2. Identify the “must keep” parts: ``, \n, numbers, units, key names, and proper nouns.
3. Decide quickly:
   • Looks good but a bit robotic? Polish it.
   • Sounds wrong / adds new meaning? Rewrite from scratch (often faster).
4. Make it sound like a human wrote it in your language (and keep it short for UI strings).
5. Run Crowdin’s QA checks and fix any warnings.
6. Save. If you have proofreader rights, you can approve it. If not, a short comment like “Reviewed” or “Needs approval” helps.

Common AI mistakes to watch for:

• overly literal phrasing that no native speaker would use,
• inconsistent terminology (same concept translated multiple ways),
• wrong tone (too formal, too casual, too dramatic),
• grammar issues that depend on context (gender, politeness, cases),
• “helpful” additions that aren’t in the English source.

Translating in Crowdin (step-by-step)

1. Open the project and pick your language.
2. Choose a file (UI JSON or newspaper article) or use search.
3. Click a string to open the editor.
4. Read the source carefully and check any context.
5. Enter your translation (or rewrite the AI draft).
6. Run the built-in QA checks (Crowdin will warn about missing variables, formatting issues, etc.).
7. Save.

If you’re unsure:

• leave a comment on the string with your question, or
• ask in Discord so we can clarify context.

Crowdin editor tips

• Use Search to find and keep recurring terms consistent.
• Check Suggestions (Translation Memory + machine translation), but treat them as drafts, not truth.
• If a term appears in the Glossary, prefer the glossary wording so the game feels coherent.
• Use Comments to ask questions or flag unclear/incorrect English.
• It’s worth fixing QA checks warnings before saving (placeholders, punctuation, spacing, etc.).

Proofreading (step-by-step)

Proofreading is translation review. If you have proofreader rights, you can approve strings so they’re ready to ship.

A good proofreading pass:

• compares meaning (no missing info, no added info),
• fixes grammar and tone,
• checks consistency with existing strings,
• ensures placeholders match the source (``, \n, numbers).

If a string needs more context, add a comment instead of guessing.

Style guide (what we’re aiming for)

• Tone: friendly, slightly witty, not overly formal.
• Clarity: prefer simple words over complicated ones.
• Consistency: translate recurring terms the same way.
• Brevity: UI space is limited; keep labels short when possible.
• Faithfulness: don’t add new facts or gameplay rules.

Common gotchas (please read)

• Please leave anything inside `` untouched.
• Please keep \n line breaks as-is unless you really have to change them.
• Keep punctuation that affects meaning (%, decimals, minus signs).
• If the English source looks wrong, leaving a comment helps a lot (we’ll fix the source string).

Want to learn Crowdin faster?

Crowdin’s docs are solid (and updated more often than this page):

• https://support.crowdin.com/ (look for “Online Editor”, “Proofreading”, “Glossary”, “Translation Memory”, and “Pre-translation”)

Need help / want a new language?

• Discord: https://discord.gg/g7Ena8tdFN
• Email: hello@informationsuperhighway.games
• Crowdin project: https://crowdin.com/project/microlandia