Translate a Story

Translate everything your readers see — the scenes’ text, character names, text variables and the captions of choices — and then read, play and export the story in each language. This is separate from FlowBoard’s own language under Settings → General → Language, which only changes the app’s menus and buttons.

How translation works

Your document stays in its original language. Each translation lives in a file of its own next to the document, one per language, such as my_story_de_v001.json for German. You, or a translator, fill in that file. FlowBoard then shows the translated text in Read View and Play Mode, and uses it when you export.

Every update writes a new version of the file (_v002, _v003, …) and never overwrites an older one. FlowBoard always reads the newest version.

Cards are matched by an invisible ID, not by their position. You can keep editing, reordering and moving cards: their translations stay attached, and changed text is flagged for the translator.

Set up the languages

1. Open the document, then Settings → Story Translation.
2. Under Source language, enter the language your cards are written in, as a code like en, de or ja.
3. Under Target languages, enter a language code, such as fr or pt-br, and select Add. Repeat for each language.
4. Select Assign missing translation IDs. This gives every card the ID that its translation is matched by, and saves it with the document.

Turn on Auto-assign translation IDs to new cards to give cards you add later an ID straight away.

Create the translation files

Select Create / update translation JSON. FlowBoard writes one file per target language next to the document:

• Cards and choices that are new start with the original text, ready to be replaced.
• Translations you already have are kept.
• Where the original has changed since, the translation is kept and marked, so you know what to check.

Run it again whenever the story has changed. If FlowBoard can’t write next to the document, for example because it hasn’t been saved yet, it asks where to save the file.

Translate

Open the file in any text editor, or hand it to a translator. Replace the text in the translation fields and leave everything else as it is:

"cards": {
  "mk-6f2c…": {
    "source": "Aren: A choice made under threat is not justice.",
    "translation": "Aren: Eine erzwungene Wahl ist keine Gerechtigkeit.",
    "sourceHash": "…",
    "status": "current"
  }
}

• Cards hold the scene’s text in Markdown. Keep **bold**, *italic* and other formatting, and keep each line of dialogue as Name: text. The speaker can be written with the original name, the translated name, or one of the character’s aliases.
• Characters translate the displayed name. The character itself stays the same.
• Variables translate the starting value of text variables.
• Choices sit inside the card that offers them. Translate the caption only: where a choice leads stays as it is in the original.

Each entry’s status tells you what needs attention: new (not translated yet), current, source_changed (the original was edited since) or removed (gone from the document). A missing or empty translation shows the original text instead.

Read and play in another language

• Read View shows a Language selector once the document has target languages. Choose a language to read the translation, or Original to go back.
• Play Mode has a Language selector in its header. In the command palette, use Play: Story language.

The choice applies everywhere at once: Read View, Play Mode and export. FlowBoard reads a translation file when you choose its language. After you’ve changed the file, choose the language again to see the changes.

Fix a translation while playtesting

When a line reads badly, correct it on the spot. In Play Mode, select Edit current card. The editor opens in the language you’re playing, and its Language selector switches between the original and each translation.

• In a translation, your corrections to the text and to the card’s Choice captions are saved to the newest translation file. In Original, you edit the card itself, as on the board.
• Save & Continue saves and returns to the story. If you’ve also changed another language in the editor, Save this language saves the one you see and keeps the editor open.
• Word wrap wraps long lines in the editor. FlowBoard remembers the choice on this device.

Character names and variables can’t be edited here; change them in the file. A card that isn’t in the translation file yet can’t be translated here either: run Create / update translation JSON first.

Export a translated story

The RenPy and Ink views in Play Mode export the language you’ve chosen, including character names and choice captions. Each language then becomes a game of its own.

For one Ren’Py game that players can switch between languages, select Export Ren’Py project (all languages) in Settings → Story Translation, and export into your Ren’Py project’s game folder. You get a script in the original language and one translation file per language in game/tl/. Ren’Py doesn’t change a text variable’s starting value when the player switches language, so in this export, translated starting values of text variables aren’t used.

Next

• Export to Ren’Py, Ink and JSON explains the export views.
• Play Mode covers playtesting.