"To work on a program/game"

diligentcircle · 22 Nov 2018

I've been wondering about this for months, but could never find a straight answer in dictionaries and the like. I develop software and video games, but I don't know for sure what word(s) I should use to describe that activity on an incremental basis. So just as a few examples, how would I say these in Japanese? (I've underlined the parts I need help with.)

"I did some work on a game called Hexoshi yesterday."
"I was working on a library (=ライブラリ) I developed called the SGE Game Engine."
"I'm going to do some work on Naev, a libre software (=自由ソフトウェア) game I sometimes contribute to."
"Today I was making some changes to an educational game called Tangomon."

Would be very appreciative if someone could help me with this since these kinds of things make up a lot of my daily goings-on (to the point that not being able to at least mention them feels debilitating).

Toritoribe · 22 Nov 2018

Julie.chan said:
did some work on

Julie.chan said:
working on

Julie.chan said:
do some work on

取り組む

Julie.chan said:
developed

作る/開発する

Julie.chan said:
contribute to.

携わる/開発に加わる

Julie.chan said:
making some changes to

改良を加える

diligentcircle · 23 Nov 2018

Thank you! Now, am I using them right (for the same meaning as the original English sentences)?

昨日ヘクソシというゲームに取り組みました。

SGEゲームエンジンという作ったライブラリに取り組んでいました。

Naevという時々開発に加わる自由ソフトウェアのゲームに取り組むつもりです。
Naevという時々携わる自由ソフトウェアのゲームに取り組むつもりです。

今日タンゴモンという勉強ゲームに改良を加えていました。

Toritoribe · 23 Nov 2018

Julie.chan said:
SGEゲームエンジンという作ったライブラリに取り組んでいました。

自分で作ったSGEゲームエンジンというライブラリに取り組んでいました。

自分で is necessary to make clear who the develoer is.

Julie.chan said:
Naevという時々開発に加わる自由ソフトウェアのゲームに取り組むつもりです。

Naevという、時々開発に加わっているフリーゲームに取り組むつもりです。
(I would say "Naevというフリーゲームの開発に時々加わっているんですが、それに取り組むつもりです。", though.)

Speaking strictly, the definition of フリーゲーム is different from the concept of "libre", but it's difficult to describe "libre" concisely in Japanese.

Julie.chan said:
今日タンゴモンという勉強ゲームに改良を加えていました。

今日はタンゴモンという教育用ゲームに改良を加えていました。

mdchachi · 23 Nov 2018

Julie.chan said:
"Today I was making some changes to an educational game called Tangomon."

Wouldn't 修正する be more common/appropriate for this one?

diligentcircle · 23 Nov 2018

自分で作ったSGEゲームエンジンというライブラリに取り組んでいました。

自分で is necessary to make clear who the develoer is.

Ah, OK, thanks.

Speaking strictly, the definition of フリーゲーム is different from the concept of "libre", but it's difficult to describe "libre" concisely in Japanese.

自由ソフトウェア is the term the Free Software Foundation uses in its Japanese translations (e.g. 自由ソフトウェアとは? - GNUプロジェクト - フリーソフトウェアファウンデーション, which incidentally describes what I'm talking about).

What is it about the concept of a フリーゲーム that you say differs from libre software? The difference could be an important reason for me to not use that term even if it's more commonly understood. If it had the same ambiguity problem as the English term "free software", for example, that would be something I would want to avoid even if it meant more verbose explanations.

今日はタンゴモンという教育用ゲームに改良を加えていました。

Ah, thanks. That makes sense.

Toritoribe · 24 Nov 2018

mdchachi said:
Wouldn't 修正する be more common/appropriate for this one?

修正する often has a nuance of "to fix/correct wrong parts", whereas 改良 means "to make things better".

Julie.chan said:
自由ソフトウェア is the term the Free Software Foundation uses in its Japanese translations (e.g. 自由ソフトウェアとは? - GNUプロジェクト - フリーソフトウェアファウンデーション, which incidentally describes what I'm talking about).

I see. I've never heard it before, but フリーソフトウェア seems to be also used.
フリーソフトウェア - Wikipedia

Julie.chan said:
What is it about the concept of a フリーゲーム that you say differs from libre software? The difference could be an important reason for me to not use that term even if it's more commonly understood. If it had the same ambiguity problem as the English term "free software", for example, that would be something I would want to avoid even if it meant more verbose explanations.

フリーゲーム is a game that can be used without payment, so it's a freeware.

mdchachi · 24 Nov 2018

Toritoribe said:
修正する often has a nuance of "to fix/correct wrong parts", whereas 改良 means "to make things better".

Right but she said she was making changes, not necessarily making improvements.
I guess since I was a software developer in my previous life my natural assumption was that "making changes" means fixing bugs because that's a huge part of the job.

diligentcircle · 24 Nov 2018

フリーゲーム is a game that can be used without payment, so it's a freeware.

Aha, so just like "free game" in English. In that case, フリーゲーム is definitely not a term I want to use; 自由ソフトウェア isn't necessarily 無料, and even when it is it's not really an important point.

(Sorry, you might be able to tell at this point that I'm a bit of a hardline libre software proponent.)

Right but she said she was making changes, not necessarily making improvements.
I guess since I was a software developer in my previous life my natural assumption was that "making changes" means fixing bugs because that's a huge part of the job.

Hm... I tend to use the expression quite broadly, for a lot of different meanings, come to think of it. But the meaning I was going for in the original example was more like neutral changes, or changes that I personally prefer but anticipate some others might disagree with.

Toritoribe · 24 Nov 2018

Well, then 手を加える might be more appropriate for that meaning.

diligentcircle · 25 Nov 2018

Alright, thanks! So would that be used like this, then?

今日はタンゴモンという教育用ゲームに手を加えていました。

Toritoribe · 25 Nov 2018

Perfect!:emoji_thumbsup:

"To work on a program/game"

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