Here are some more projects that use gettext - maybe there are saner options available:
https://wl.widelands.org/
http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/
http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/index.html
http://neverball.org/index.php
http://play0ad.com/
https://l10n.gnome.org/
http://tuxpaint.org/
http://gcompris.net/
Regarding the fonts, I have generally seen 2 basic implementations around - config files, or letting translators translate a string in the main .po file.
As to language names, I think native language names are better, because it helps you find your language e.g. if you're an English speaker and accidentally set it to Chinese.
Thanks for looking into this.
