I am guessing that English is a second language to most developers. Forcing most of us to rely on everything we were able to learn on our own. I struggle with the spelling myself, but have absolutely no problem coming up with interesting copy. Creative people usually have a hard time organizing and making their apps bulletproof against criticism.( spelling ,sequence of pages, overall look, interaction of pages, bad copy etc.) Interested to know what you guys do to be able to sleep at night, after releasing your apps. Do you have a behind the scene person that you trust to remove most worries? Do you pay for professional help or do you rely on beta testers only. The finishing touches of my apps are by far the most stressful for me.
I can understand how that would be a concern. I certainly wouldn't feel very confident releasing a game in French or Italian, considering I speak zero of those languages. I wouldn't pay for the service. I know quite a few people around the world that could help me out. That really isn't part of the job of a beta tester, either. Just talk to other developers and remain active (like you have been doing. Once you get comfortable, send a friendly email and ask for some help reviewing your text. Heck I'll do it.
We have native English, German and Icelandic-Speakers on our team. So we cover that - not that icelandic is the language that is most in demand anyways. Other than that we ask friends for help. Even though I agree that spell checking is not really the main job of a Beta-Tester. I still think that as a Beta-Tester you test the overall experience and that also includes maybe taking a short look at the spelling.
I'll help anyone out free of charge, providing it's not some epic RPG with 30,000 lines of text My English might not be perfect, but any mistakes I made would probably go unnoticed by most other English speakers anyway. So yeah... don't pay, I'm sure there are a bunch of other people around here would do it for nothing too.
Well yeah, I didn't mean that an English speaking beta tester should completely ignore obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. What I meant was that many beta testers aren't native English speaking. A lot of people who do speak English natvely have horrible grammar and spelling. When qualifying Beta Testers, you can certainly make spelling and grammar a requirement, then it IS their job. Any good Beta Tester will report glowing errors, even if it is a minor spelling mistake.
If anyone ever needs someone to check over their English, I'll be happy to do it. Its one of my few strongpoints
It is... where did I say it wasn't? I only said it wasn't perfect to cover my ass if I made any stupid errors in my post
Spanish is my main language so I can help you with the spanish translation and for free, just pm me if you need help
The app store is loaded with examples where language took a back seat ... So many apps have brutal copy and are full of spelling mistakes. Including word games! Some games are executed extremely well. But the package falls apart when someone starts to read the applicable text. The app store is so competitive that nothing but the best will do. That first impression unfortunately includes the visible text in your app. Hard to get that sale when your customer is turned off by poor spelling and grammar. Good to see that devs are offering to help each other regarding a quick glance over printed material. Awesome!
