The best solution for multi-language fonts in games

Hey, guys. A question for those who release their games created in Construct 3 on Steam or Google Play/AppStore. I have a question how do you implement multi-language support in your games, namely how do you use the font to support, for example, Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese?

I can't decide how better to realize it - through Sprite font or text object? If sprite font, where to find a suitable font that will support all languages?

It would be easier to use a single font that supports all languages. Google Fonts have a large selection.

If you need a spritefont, you can make it yourself with these tools:

construct.net/en/forum/game-development/tools-and-resources-27/sprite-font-generator-v3-64038

construct.net/en/forum/game-development/tools-and-resources-27/spritefont-generator-168408

It is also possible to use different fonts for different languages, but this will require more work. I have a paid template that has this feature:

construct.net/en/game-assets/game-templates/multi-language-support-c3-2407

Hey, guys. A question for those who release their games created in Construct 3 on Steam or Google Play/AppStore. I have a question how do you implement multi-language support in your games, namely how do you use the font to support, for example, Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese?...

Hello, people have already told you where to get everything above in the text.

I will tell you about the commercial part.

When I find the font I need, I cut out the hieroglyph support from it and leave only Latin and Cyrillic and special characters. This can be done through free online converters.

Why do I do this, because with hieroglyphs the font weighs 4-7 MB and without it 0.8 MB.

The Chinese play my games and there are a lot of them, this can be seen from the analytics, but there are very few advertising displays there, probably only those who have turned on VPN. And they very often steal games from the Play Market onto their sites and cut out advertising. And they never make purchases in the game, probably this is some kind of restriction from the state.

I advise you not to waste time on translations, but to add several languages, if the game starts to gain popularity, you will make an update and add everything.

It would be easier to use a single font that supports all languages. Google Fonts have a large selection.

If you need a spritefont, you can make it yourself with these tools:

https://www.construct.net/en/forum/game-development/tools-and-resources-27/sprite-font-generator-v3-64038

https://www.construct.net/en/forum/game-development/tools-and-resources-27/spritefont-generator-168408

It is also possible to use different fonts for different languages, but this will require more work. I have a paid template that has this feature:

https://www.construct.net/en/game-assets/game-templates/multi-language-support-c3-2407

Thanks for the tip! I will definitely buy your template soon to familiarize myself with good practices

> Hey, guys. A question for those who release their games created in Construct 3 on Steam or Google Play/AppStore. I have a question how do you implement multi-language support in your games, namely how do you use the font to support, for example, Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese?...

Hello, people have already told you where to get everything above in the text.

I will tell you about the commercial part.

When I find the font I need, I cut out the hieroglyph support from it and leave only Latin and Cyrillic and special characters. This can be done through free online converters.

Why do I do this, because with hieroglyphs the font weighs 4-7 MB and without it 0.8 MB.

The Chinese play my games and there are a lot of them, this can be seen from the analytics, but there are very few advertising displays there, probably only those who have turned on VPN. And they very often steal games from the Play Market onto their sites and cut out advertising. And they never make purchases in the game, probably this is some kind of restriction from the state.

I advise you not to waste time on translations, but to add several languages, if the game starts to gain popularity, you will make an update and add everything.

That's what it's all about. Thanks for the advice!

For what it's worth, here's what I've just done.

• I was using a sprite font because I noticed some differences in positioning across platforms when using regular text.
• But I wanted to translate to Chinese!
• I implemented the Internationalization plugin
• Then used ChatGPT to translate - but did it phrase by phrase explaining to the AI the context of what the text was and its meaning - I think it's done a reasonable job - I've translated most of the text back to English and the correct meaning seems to have been preserved - but I will get it reviewed by a native speaker before I release.
• I then took the zh_hans.json localization file and imported it into this tool:
• https://r12a.github.io/app-listcharacters/
• Which listed all the unique Chinese characters used in my text
• I took that list and used it to create a sprite font using this:
• https://stmn.itch.io/font2bitmap
• And the font NotoSansSC-Regular.ttf
• This meant I could create the sprite font I wanted without having to include ALL Chinese characters - just the ones I need.
• Then I used an image editor to merge that sprite font with my original one

For what it's worth, here's what I've just done...

It's great that you shared information on how to optimize the size of the Chinese view.

Good practice!

I'll save it for the future.