Your Ultimate Guide for Game Localization
If you have heard of the saying “Go global, think local,” you would agree nothing else is more relevant to the gaming industry today. Imagine Nintendo punching out video games but only in Japanese. This would take away from the gaming experience of a global audience. Especially today when technology has drastically increased access to video games. With 3.07 billion gamers in 2023, now is the perfect time to think about globalizing your games.
Video game localization is the first step towards ensuring your games are globalized. It not only enhances the accessibility of your games to a broader audience but also contributes significantly to the overall gaming experience.
Table of Contents
Understanding Video Game Localization
The global video game industry is vast and diverse, with players across different cultures, languages, and regions. Video game localization is a crucial aspect of game development that recognizes and addresses this diversity.
Video games aren’t linear even the most straightforward games have complex soft machinery working in the background. The components include the code of the game, the UI, the cutscenes, in-game prompts, character dialogue, scripts, and so much more.
Video game localization refers to the process of tailoring the game content and experiences for specific audiences using references to their language, culture, and other local aspects that the game showcases. It helps gamers of different regions understand the game better and derive a better experience while playing.
Importance of Video Game Localization
When it comes to game development, localization plays a crucial role in ensuring that a game is well-received and successful in various international markets.
Here are some key reasons why video game localization is essential when it comes to video game content creation:
Improves Competition: Enterprises that localize their video games capture a larger part of the gaming audience than those that don’t.
Expand Audience Base: Localization of video games enables companies to target new segments of audiences that were not playing their games before.
Generate New Revenue: Video game sales are often accompanied by the sale of pertaining merchandise as well. By localizing a game, you can unlock new markets to sell the merchandise in.
Reputation With Players: One of the key advantages of game localization is building a good reputation with non-native players. This establishes your gaming brand as considerate of a global audience.
Elements Used in Localization of Video Games
There are six major elements that the video game localization process targets. Each of these adds more relevance and meaning to the overall experience of the game.
Language
The first and foremost aspect that needs to be localized is the language. This is particularly true for the audience that a business knows to be unilingual (generally). For example, an American gaming company could launch video games in English but localize them to target the Japanese or Chinese gaming markets.
Video game translation is a fundamental aspect of the localization process. It ensures that all textual elements in the game, including dialogues, menus, subtitles, and instructions, are accurately translated into the target language.
The goal is not only linguistic conversion but also to convey the original content’s intended meaning, tone, and style in a way that resonates with the cultural nuances of the specific audience.
Cultural References
Cultural references are different in every country sometimes, they differ between two regions in the same country.
In order to optimize the gaming experience so that the gamers can understand and respond to the cultural references, enterprises weave the relevant culture into the game by changing or modifying bits and pieces of the script.
The localization process for cultural references involves replacing or adapting elements of the game that may not resonate with the audience or could be misinterpreted.
Technical Considerations
Games often contain functionalities such as hotkeys that may need to be changed to suit the local audience. For example, the keys on the keyboards across countries are laid out differently and sometimes carry different functions. Game localization targets this aspect of adapting the key mapping to trigger game functions.
Music
All video games consist of music sometimes, there may also be lyrics in that music. The game music may also have licensing restrictions for some regions more than others. Through game localization, enterprises can easily target these aspects of the game, adapting it successfully to the audience.
Graphics
For enterprises wishing to create more immersive experiences in the video game market, it is essential to modify the graphics in the game to reflect localization. For example, the shops/signboards or other textual elements in the graphics can be translated into the local script for the players to have a more immersive experience.
Legal Aspects
When it comes to game development, every country has its own laws and regulations for minimum eligible age and label mandates. Video game localization is an important step towards staying compliant with the local regulations of each region where the game is released.
Step-By-Step Guide for Video Game Localization
Localization for video games involves more than just simple translations of the text that is contained in it. Follow the eight steps detailed below to cover all the bases.
Step 1: Content Analysis
A content analysis is a crucial step that helps your enterprise identify exactly what the scope of translation is. Game localization involves not just the translation of dialogues and script but several other aspects like prompts, cutscenes, and more. Content analysis helps identify these elements.
Step 2: Lockit
Lockit is the acronym for “Localization Kit.” This kit is something that you will give to your translator to guide them on what the game is, its content, related details and information, and more. It is basically the entirety of the linguistic asset of that game to aid the translation process.
Step 3: Code Localization
All the elements of your game that require translation must now pulled from the code and composed for input into the translation management system. Translation of the game experience requires converting the written code in a way that allows it to be translated. This is done using code localization.
Step 4: TMS Integration
After code localization, you will be in possession of resource files that contain all the strings and content that require translation. Your repository containing these files must then be integrated with the translation management system to process the localization once it can connect to the repository.
Step 5: Translation
Now, all your resource files and strings can be sent to the translators whether AI or human for the actual translation. You can consider leveraging the power of AI translators to manage the work at scale without losing the translations’ productivity, efficiency, or accuracy.
Step 6: Regional Localization
In the next step, the game would now need to adapt itself to the local culture of the audience. This involves working on the cultural references in a way that avoids offensive, disrespectful, or irrelevant content for the target audience.
Step 7: Quality Check
All translations require a second check or a quality assurance run to ensure errors do not skip the checks. This is especially significant for checking the cultural references, use of idioms, and other linguistic expressions that may lose context in translations.
Step 8: Integration Into the Game
Once the translation or localization process is complete, edited, checked, and approved, it is time to integrate it back into the game’s localized version. The local text will be reflected against localized graphics and other game elements. Some changes may also be required for the UI or UX to reflect the effects of localization applied.
Murf AI: Accurate AI Translations for Game Localization
Translations must be handled with care and tackled with accuracy. Especially for creating stellar video game experiences, translations that capture the context accurately can make or break the experience. This is where Murf becomes indispensable for your enterprise. Its AI translation feature ensures swift translations of game scripts into different languages and guarantees accuracy in the voiceover generated from the translated script.
Users can effortlessly create multilingual voiceovers for their games in Murf Studio by simply choosing the preferred AI voice and seamlessly translating the content. Furthermore, Murf Studio complies with data privacy and security requirements, ensuring your intellectual property remains uncompromised.
Several key features make Murf Translate a great choice for video games:
Add appropriate tones to the final translated voice.
Context-aware translations.
Retain the original structure of your script/project even after translation.
Translate in 20 different languages.
To explore more of Murf’s stellar capabilities in AI translation, head over to the website.
FAQs
1. What is localization in video games?
Game localization refers to modifying a game’s content to make it more relevant for audiences of a specific region. It helps create better gaming experiences by providing the game in the target audience’s language.
2. Who localizes video games?
Enterprises do video game localization through a dedicated team of translators, IT staff, graphics, UI design teams, and other key professionals.
3. How do I get to video game localization?
Localization of video games can be done using the eight simple steps: Content analysis, lockit generation, code localization, TMS integration, translation, regional localization, QC, and game integration.
4. What is an example of game localization?
The Uncharted series of games is an excellent example of localization because the creators incorporated the game translation and other localization aspects right from the get-go instead of after the English release.
5. How does game localization work?
Game localization involves identifying all the region-specific data, such as linguistic aspects, culture, code, technical aspects, and packaging, and modifying these aspects in the game to reflect relevance for each target audience. For example, in the game franchise of Final Fantasy by Square Enix, the localization in their latest edition is finally lauded by the gamer community for achieving a more convincing dialogue between characters in the cut scenes. This aspect was previously tacky in the earlier versions of the game. Read more about it here.
6. What is the purpose of localization of a game?
Game localization is more than just the process of translating video games. Its purpose is to enhance the overall gaming experience for players from different regions. For example, localization helps European players enjoy Japanese video games without problems.
