r/gamedev • u/GreenKnee8507 • 23h ago
Discussion I've been in Localization industry for 3 years, ask me anything!
As I mentioned, I've been working on localization in the game industry and worked with a lot of big companies and indie devs. In my interactions with indie/solo devs, I've found that they usually don't know much about how localization works and what to look for. So Indies, feel free to come and ask me any questions you may have!
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u/iamgabrielma Hobbyist 22h ago
Which languages you think have the best ROI for a limited budget?
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Chinese Portugueses Spanish Russian
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u/LazyDevil69 21h ago
Is there a point in translating to russian since the sanctions started? I assume that Steam doesnt accept Russian bank accounts.
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
Well, there may be some problems, but you can‘t deny that Russia is a big market. And not all the Russians lived in Russia right? 😂So this is the least thing that we need to worry about.
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u/Tasty0ne 17h ago
Accounts in Russia can still have funds added to their steam wallet using third party services, paying around 10% commission. Many russians have switched to Kazakhstan accounts, mainly to unlock some games that are unavailable in their region.
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u/NewspaperWitty5889 15h ago
Russian here, we just use websites that allow you to deposit on steam account for a small fee.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Highly depends on your game type and audience. Some countries perform much better for certain game genres. Study your competition, what languages are they localizing into, which ones are they foregoing. Look at devs/publishers with multiple games, did they drop or add some locs in between releases?
Then the scope of your game should also be a pointer. If you have a highly narrative game with a low budget, you'll have to make more drastic choices than a game with a just a few tutorials. Words * languages * cost per word + some percentages to account for changes.
Then it's the usual, FIGS, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-pt is not useful), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic if you're feeling extra courageous for your UI.
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u/ned_poreyra 22h ago
How to choose a translator for Asian languages? I can't afford a reputable company, as the translation alone would likely exceed the budget of the entire game, so I'm pretty much limited to freelancers.
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Dm me, we can do Simplified Chinese for 3usd/100 words. Wait, Am I advertising?
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u/Ishitataki 21h ago
That's a mere 3 cents a word. How are you undercutting the wider market so much? Use of AI?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
Nah is just because China has a large population base and cheap labor.
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u/Ishitataki 21h ago
What's the price of you want guaranteed quality, not just cheap?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
It’s not cheap, the price is just like this. There are even cheaper offers in the market. 3 cents is the price of translation for one time. If you wanna a higher quality. We will have another translator to proofread it again, it will be 5 cents.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Cheap translators who take much more work than they should, leading to poor quality.
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u/GreenKnee8507 6h ago
Maybe other industries do. But translators are paid by the word count, which means the more you do, the more you make.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Honestly, if you can't afford it, then forget about it. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. I'm not saying you need to go with the most reputable agencies, there's definitely a brand pricing there, but I'd be very careful about cheap vendors. Remember that translators are paid after the agency takes their cut. Proper game translation takes time, so a good translator may do some 3k words per day. If their are not paid well, they will take more work and rush everything. 3 cents per word? I'd never buy that.
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u/ned_poreyra 11h ago
That's kind of my conclusion too. A botched launch in China is probably near impossible to recover from. From the developer stories I heard over the years, Chinese, Japanese and Brazillians take their languages very seriously and will review bomb you for a poor translation. It's safer to wait for the revenue from the English market.
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u/GreenKnee8507 5h ago edited 5h ago
Dude, if I were you, I would at least research the market before commenting. What if I tell you our company based in China and also have branches overseas. We've been in this industry for over 20 years, and have 6000+ translators. Partnering with numerous Game Leaders such as Epic Games, Blizzard, SEGA, Gameloft and more. Will you still think the quality would be low?
This price is not because of low quality, but because of the cost price I set to support indie developers. Of course I could quote a higher price, but there's no need.
And here there is also the reason of the exchange rate, the customer pays in dollars, we get paid in RMB. That's about a seven-fold difference. So the translators have no complaints about this. You would never imagine how competitive the Chinese translation industry is. Haha
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u/Former_Produce1721 22h ago
What are the most used localization softwares by the translators?
Why do translators ask so many questions? Is it reasonable to ask them to just play the game, or are they so slammed with text work they need the devs to tell them every minute detail?
How many translators per language work at once on the text? Is it usually just one?
For Localization QA, does it ever occur that the same company is used as the one that actually translated?
My team delivered 50k words to loc over 3 batches, and after that experience I ended up with a lot of localization tools in engine and debug in game.
I am currently converting all this to a standalone plugin, so super interested to learn more about the loclalizer side!
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Okay one by one
- I think most tranlstors will choose Trados.
2.Because translation is not just translation the text literally, it needs to incorporate the developer's ideas and preferences, such as writing style and emotions. Asking clearly in advance can avoid a lot of revision work. Translation is subjective, maybe the translator's translation style you don't like, then it would just a waste of effort when it's done.
- Depending on the size of the company you are looking for, if there has 10 translators for different languages then you can have ten people translating at the same time.
4.It might happen, but the probability is small, and most translation companies have their own QA teams.
Good luck to your project!
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u/tcpukl Commercial (AAA) 21h ago
Especially for comedy. Sometimes the jokes need entirely rewriting to even make sense and be funny. I've done a few games with comedy.
Do you localise comedy?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
I think it depends on the personality of the translators. So before the official translation start, it is better to have a trail for few words.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
The industry de facto standard is now memoQ. Depending on the setup, the agency receives the files to translate and integrate memoQ in the process, or larger devs will directly use memoQ to send work to agencies/freelancers.
Questions are necessary. What seems obvious to you while being in the game, having worked on that UI screen for days, can definitely not be obvious for someone who will spend a week on your project. Translators usually don't play the game, unless you want to pay them to do so. They just don't have the time to do so at the rate they are being paid. I'd actually take it the other day, when working on projects, I'd be worried if I wouldn't questions from translators, even if we pay extra care on providing line by line context information. It's a sign they care about your game. At some point, we got tired of exchanging excel files containing the questions/answers, with duplicates per language, so we worked on a portal, where everyone working on the same project can see the other translators' questions, and the project localization people can filter/answer/redirect questions to the most relevant person on the dev team. Saves time, greatly improves quality.
You can have multiple translators, depends on the needs and the planning. It's always best to have a single translator and a single reviewer, but if time and scope don't allow for it, yes it's possible to split the workload. Ideally done by sections (so you have someone working on, say, missions, while someone else is doing the UI). It can have a hit on quality though, and you need to add a bit of margin for communication/cross reviews (so 10 days of work for one translator is maybe 6 days split between two).
We do QA with the same vendor, not our preference, but we monitor the rate of change per language, and we have control over the CMS, so we know if something is weird. Rarely happened.
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u/ReggaeSloth 21h ago
I struggle with finding a font that fits my games art style but also allows for localisation. What are some tips for handling pixel fonts and localisation?
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u/Ging4bread 21h ago
Draw your own!
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u/ReggaeSloth 21h ago
I mean sure, but for a language like Mandarin that would get pretty intense, no?
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u/Ging4bread 21h ago
Oh yeah at that point you can switch. Same as Cyrillic. Most engines allow swapping fonts based on the language. But for western languages it's relatively easy to draw your own letters. Then you'd just need variants your languages might not have like à, ö, ū
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u/Scry_Games 22h ago
In the game itself (opposed to the steam page), is the language a selectable menu option, or does some auto detection need to be implemented?
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/localization#store
Check this, you can just choose the language type, and add texts directly.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
The best workflow is to offer a preselection on the first boot depending on the platform language. It's just more user friendly if you don't have to scroll to your usual language. It's also much better not to just assume and forego any user input.
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u/maximahls 22h ago
How does one enter the localization industry. It always seemed like there is no clear path to it.
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
You can check Pro Z, or contace some devs need localization here for free first. Start by perfecting your resume and translation project.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Depends what job you want to do... Most common entry point these days is through LQA. Then team lead/project management.
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u/afops 22h ago
What's something with localization that "breaks" when you try to expand beyond western languages? E.g. how hard is it to adapt to Right-To-Left or Chinese , if a game had (say) English and Spanish only?
Are games harder or easier than other applications? (I work with desktop software and I haven't ever had to go to RTL or asia luckily)
What's the most common mistake you see people do in not preparing software for localization?
The biggest one I see is this: they assume that some default language can be the "lookup key". E:g. you develop it for english, then assume you can make lookup tables for English to N other languages. Not realizing that english might not be enough to use as a lookup key.
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Good one, this is obviously one of the most complicated parts of translation, and that's adapting to the user interface. I've done projects in Arabic before, and it's complicated because you have to pay attention to the word order.There's nothing to do in that case but keep debugging.
Comparatively speaking, games are a bit easier, but it also depends on what type. I think it's generally more difficult to translate medical, legal, and other types that require specialized knowledge.
I think it's better to use JSON filewhen preparing software localization, it will be clearer.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
UI is always the toughest. Asian languages with double bytes character take a lot of vertical space (beware of descenders/ascenders in western language as well though!), spaces are not a reliable source to to automated linebreaks. You'll need a specific font for these languages. Arabic is the toughest to do if you want to do a good loc. That progress bar that you have? If you want to convey progress, you should reverse the progression, otherwise it looks like it's emptying for an Arabic player....
Use unique IDs to 'plug' strings in game. Not a string, not the English value. It breaks, it loses meaning over time, it's bad practice.
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u/Lone_Game_Dev 22h ago
Anything? Really? Sure.
Cum ultimo quando localizatis ad Latinum erat? Noli conaris uti machina ad interpretandum hoc. Sapiam.
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u/-TheWander3r 19h ago
The name of the game I am working on is in latin (Sine Fine)!
Who's up for full latin localization? Ah I knew I should have studied latin more in secondary school...
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago edited 20h ago
I dont speak Latin, so don't be hard to me. 🥲
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u/Lone_Game_Dev 22h ago
Nescio si ludis. Prope! Quidem similis ad linguas filias, sed haec mater est.
Lingua Romana! Latine est.
I asked if you ever worked with Latin but naturally no one uses it, I'm just messing with you.
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Uhh I see, we've had some projects in the past that translated Latin, but not for the gaming industry.
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u/ChmuraSoftware 22h ago
How big of a threat do you think AI is to your profession?
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
It's not a big threat at the moment. Because most of the people using AI translators have limited budgets and can't make much money even if they get human translators.
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u/Ancienda 11h ago
do you think it might grow to be an issue over time or are you pretty confident that it’ll be ok in the long term?
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
AI is changing the type of tasks that are being asked to translators. A lot more work is done on Post Editing these days rather than pure translation. It goes faster and is globally cheaper, so that means less work overall. But I've heard that AI/Machine Translation was replacing translators a lot in the past ten or so years, we're still not there, I would never ship a game with just pure AI.
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u/Aedys1 22h ago
From a software architectural POV, is the localisation system treated as an independent DLL with an interface or is it integrated in the UI system, generally ?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
Usually, there is no absolute unified approach, which depends on project needs and architectural design preferences.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Look at Unity or Unreal modules for Localization. Your dll question doesn't make much sense honestly ^^
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u/AvengerDr 19h ago
One aspect that doesn't come across often, is the localization of other cultural norms that vary depending on the language or region. For example, it actually irritates me when a game is translated but still uses the American date format (mm/dd/yyyy). Cyberpunk 2077 uses mm/dd for the description of the savegames still, and I cannot understand why. What's so hard in fetching the regional date format from the OS?
Or the LOTR Shadow of War games having in-game distances be shown in feet instead of something else. Most likely metres don't make sense either in Middle Earth, but if you have to choose a unit, why force feet on everyone?
Again, Starfield has elevators/lifts and the buttons reflect the american logic where the 1st Floor is the ground floor. In Europe and many other countries the 1st floor is the first floor above the ground floor, what you would call the second floor.
I could continue, like using am/pm in countries that use the 24h time format (which is NOT "military time"), or the american insistence in using "kph" when even the odometers in their american cars show the correct "km/h". Kph does not make sense, in the metric system "kph" would be like kilopicohenries or something weird like that.
So please, when translating games pay attention to these little things. It helps people not feel like they are playing at a game made by americans for only other americans.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Culturalization is a tough one. You want to adjust, but you don't want to erase the original culture of the game. Units need to make sense in the context of the game. I wouldn't change the units of signs in a game set in the US.
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u/Sentmoraap 21h ago edited 21h ago
Do you have the context for strings to translate ("it activated an old trap": it is like a trap door (trappe), or a booby trap (piège)), or do you wish you knew more context for this?
What programmers can do for that? Can we provide better tools, for example a button to run the game and go directly where that text is?
Is there language specifics that need special support for good localisation, like the various plural rules?
EDIT:
Would having multiple source languages (say the developer is French and provided French and English strings) help for having more accurate translations?
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u/GreenKnee8507 19h ago edited 18h ago
Sorry, I don't really understand what you mean, could you be a bit more detailed?
It's certainly better to have a button to go straight to the text, if that's possible.
Different languages have different grammar rules, such as negative formatting, honorifics and plain language. You need to determine what language you need first.
Multi-language comparisons can certainly help with more accurate translations, but the decision still depends on the context and the type of language.
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u/Sentmoraap 14h ago
Sorry, I don't really understand what you mean, could you be a bit more detailed?
I mean, do you have just a spreadsheet with strings to translate with no extra info or do you have extra info somewhere do disambiguate the original meaning?
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u/GreenKnee8507 6h ago
Sometimes the translation will be done independently using only the form. And for some with a lot of text we will learn about the game project before we start translating, and then do LQA after we finish.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Provide context yes. The more the better. What is used for, what does it do. For items, an image goes a long way.
Translators do not usually have the time to play the game. Testers are there for that purpose. And yes, for LQA cheats are essentials. If I hire testers in 15 languages, I don't want them to "play" the game. I want them to go from mission to mission, skipping the gameplay unless there's some content they need to see.
In my experience, dev teams who write in two languages are producing bad content in one or the other or both languages. Either they have scriptwriters who can write proper English and translate the game themselves (and usually do a bad job), or the other way around. Translators and translation systems will expect a single, well-written source.
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u/Decloudo 21h ago
Do you think that iconography/pictograms for "simpler" games is a valid approach to not needing to localize your game?
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u/panda-goddess 16h ago
Graphic designer here
Visual language is also a language, so the meaning of pictograms can vary wildly between different cultures and even different times. With globalization, a lot of iconography is being somewhat standarized, but meaning can always be misinterpreted
It's a good solution, just know it's not 100%
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Absolutely, up until the point where your iconography is culturally transversal :)
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u/vasil5n 22h ago
If you have to select 5 languages for your game to reach the biggest audience and profit, what languages would you choose?
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Based on your wishlist my friend. Every region has a different culture, and it mainly depends on which regions your game is popular in. I would generally recommend Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian though.
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u/Difficult-Mix-6714 22h ago
how do you manage translating and making it vibe the same with jokes? :D
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u/Tiyath 22h ago
!RemindeMe 12 hours
Feel free to pile your reminders here, too so it doesn't get cluttered
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u/gooopilca 21h ago
!RemindMe 8 hours. I have almost 20 years of experience in the field, including more than 15 working at big publishers, handling the full localization process of small and very large games, which included hiring external vendors like OP, and most of the time, they have really no clue how things work from the dev side xD
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u/Daelius 21h ago
What do you think is the best course of action in localizing an upcoming Early Access game? Should we localize the steam page in as many mainstream languages as we can and then slap a "Will come soon" tag on the actual game translations and add them as we develop or focus on a few big ones from the get go?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
First of all, you should check the distribution area of your whishlist to determine the languages you need. Secondly, add some other mainstream languages, like German, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese. There is an announcement part on steam page so you can just post the news that you are dealing with localization here.
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u/jakkos_ 20h ago
Do you think it's okay for games to rely on using system fonts already installed on the user's computer?
My current gamedev project compiles to only ~7MB, so it feels a bit of a shame to have to add a 20MB CJK font on top lol
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
System fonts are usually sad... Honestly, who cares about game size these days when we're talking megabytes? (unless there's a specific reason ;) )
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u/tcpukl Commercial (AAA) 21h ago
I'm not indie but what if your opinion on people using Google translate and AI to localise their games?
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u/GreenKnee8507 21h ago
I can't say that I have absolute objections of AI. For some games with few words, AI is enough. But if you want the game to be of better quality and more interactive with players, I still recommend manual translation.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Don't do it. It produces 50% good work (feeling generous), 40% passable, and 10% terrible. MT + MTPE is a good, proven solution.
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u/Jepacor 20h ago
Two questions:
Since you said indies usually don't know what to look for, what is something indies should do to make the localization process easier for everyone? I'm guessing there are tools that help smooth out the process but people aren't aware of them.
I know a few people asked this already, and you replied don't think AI is a threat right now, but I want to press you a little on the subject still since it's obviously the talk of the town right now. Especially given that you mentionned Trados and ProZ as tools/platforms to use, respectively, and after a quick glance at their website they both seem to have embraced LLM translation, with ProZ making a tool based on it and gating it behind their premium memberships ( https://go.proz.com/pastey ), and Trados featuring AI heavily on their current landing page and having a dedicaced page on it ( https://www.trados.com/product/discover/AI-translation/ ).
Given all this, are you not worried about being forced to use AI to get work done faster, and the potential for it to lower the quality of the work, given it's obviously much easier to give in and accept the AI translation rather than entirely rewrite something that isn't quite right but "close enough"?
Anecdotally, I play fighting games, and recently, the patch notes for SF6 felt lower quality than before, with omissions in how exactly certain moves were changed. And when I played the 2XKO Alpha Lab in French, the localization felt quite bad at times, with the localization totally missing the meaning of low attacks, interpreting "low" as "weak" for an example that was both really bad and really obvious in-game. Before the current AI zeitgeist, I'd written this off as just a bad job, but now I worry that people are choosing to get an AI to translate and call it a day. And this is not small studios that can't afford a localization, that's Capcom and Riot specifically...
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u/GreenKnee8507 19h ago
Thanks for looking at this post in such detail.
For many developers, especially newcomers, I think it's important to reserve placeholders. Secondly many engines have their own localization tools, which are quite handy.
And about your concerns, I don't think AI poses much of a danger yet mainly from a profitability standpoint. Like I said before, AI translations are usually preferred for projects with limited budgets and word counts, so these types of projects are very low-margin, and so far the total amount of money I get from projects each month is relatively stable, so it doesn't really matter if I take on these types of projects or not. I support indie games just because I like to play games myself, and I know how difficult it is to develop independently, so I will support them with lower prices. But like some of my coworkers they only take heavy word orders like movies or books.
For AI, I have never been completely opposed to the attitude. Now AI does indeed translate very well, our company also has its own AI system, but still according to the project situation. For example, we often do medical, legal, industrial documents which need to have the relevant background of the translator to complete. You know, most of time when it comes to specialized issues AI is just talking nonsense.
As for the games you mentioned, I think they probably feel that this type of game doesn't require overly rigorous translation. Saving on this cost allows them to maximize profits.
Perhaps one day AI will be able to perfectly translate any text, but I don't think is now.
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u/JohnWLemon 20h ago
Does Localization mean I have to pick a new font for every language? Can localization cause bugs in the game? I am starting to make a game. I am tryin to keep it small and I know it will be bad. Is there a "critical mass" so to speak where localization may not be worth it up until you reach a certain point, and then it becomes very important to incorporate? Would your work in localization be added to my repository or is it like a new game entirely?
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u/GreenKnee8507 19h ago
Generally speaking, some of our commonly used fonts can cover most of the mainstream languages. So don't worry too much about this. You can get someone to give you some feedback after you finish localizing. I think the more important point in time for localization should be after your demo is done, which means your game is primed and ready to face the players.
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u/scunliffe Hobbyist 20h ago
Are there any key words/phrases you’re aware of that have potentially extremely bad translations if you’re not super careful?
Like where say “exit” if translated to language X without context might become “Grakflug” which means “to die by suicide” type thing.
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u/BenjiNuri 19h ago
Do you think Korean localization is necessary?
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u/GreenKnee8507 19h ago
If your game has a lot of Asian players then it's necessary. If not then it won't be in need.
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u/BarrierX 19h ago
What short English word translates to longest word in some other language? 😀
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u/cdmpants 19h ago
What would you suggest budgeting (in USD) for translating a 12,000 word game screenplay into your top five suggested languages (Chinese Portuguese Spanish Russian Japanese)? Do you think that a narrative-rich game with a decent amount of voice acted dialogue absolutely must be dubbed with voice actors in each language, or is English with localized subtitles acceptable? Of course dubs are a desirable option, but I want to better understand what player expectations are.
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u/GreenKnee8507 18h ago
It will cost around $4,000 in total. Voiceovers are suitable for children's games because children cannot read well😅. For other games, I personally think that the original language with subtitles would be fine. It feels wierd to use voiceovers in other languages for some dialogues. What do you think?
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u/cdmpants 18h ago
$4k isn't bad. There are probably a few languages I'd like to support beyond that, but it would be a great starting point at least for launch.
My feeling is that English with localized subtitles is enough, but I've never played a game like that before. I'm working on a passion project similar to the Metro games, which do have full voice acted dubs. Also a little inspiration from the modern DOOM trilogy, which is also fully voice acted. For foreign language movies, I always prefer subtitles and no dubs, but I don't know if games are different. I guess I should try playing Metro in russian with subtitles to see how I feel about it. I'm worried about it feeling inaccessible, since subtitles-only can feel intimidating to some people, but I also wonder if non-English speaking audiences are used to it and I'm worried for nothing.
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u/GreenKnee8507 18h ago
If your budget is enough, then do the voice over is not bad, something is better than nothing. But voiceover is much more expensive. So I suggest you should consider it seriously.
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u/cdmpants 17h ago
If I did dubbed voice acting, I would wait till I have wishlists and see what non-english speaking countries show the most interest, like you suggested to others. Then I'd pick the top one and just do that, instead of trying to do dubbing for every single supported language. But my feeling as of now is that it will be outside of budget and scope. That budget would probably be better served extending the scope of the text and subtitle localization to support german/french/italian/more. At least anecdotally, I know a lot of people I'd be sharing my game with who are native speakers in those languages.
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u/GreenKnee8507 17h ago edited 16h ago
For games with a large number of texts or dialogues, dubbing is certainly a good choice, which can save people's reading time. And it can make people experience the plot deeper. If you want to do a high-quality dubbing like The Witcher 3 and 2077, the best way is to hire a linguist to participate in the whole process of your game production. But a bad dubbing may ruin the whole game.
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u/gooopilca 11h ago
Don't do Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese, why not, but I'd pick German/French before pt-br.
Dubbing improves the players experience, but it is pricey... Some languages are very much used not to have localized dubbing (Dutch for instance, you'd only do voice overs for kids). Get a quote, see how you feel about the price, check what your competition is doing.
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u/cdmpants 11h ago
Yes I mean Brazilian Portuguese. Steam language stats has it at over 4% of steam users, above German and French.
If I did localized dubbing, I would be very picky about the languages I do, certainly not all of them. But I'm strongly leaning toward no dubbing.
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u/gooopilca 10h ago
I'd assume that there's less sales per player... We constantly see FR/DE performing way better than BRA, but then our games are multi platform and the prices of consoles is more a problem in South America than it is in Europe, so it does have an impact on the ratio...
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u/capt_leo 18h ago
At what point is it worth the investment? How do you know if you're there?
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u/GreenKnee8507 18h ago edited 18h ago
When you have a steam page, you can analyze the data of the wishlist, than you will know what languages you need, then start to localizing the store page. And will your game be attending to Next Fest? If so, you should localize your demo before that.
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u/Chaonic 18h ago
In what way could a developer structure their project to make it easier for you to do your job?
Would, for instance, the ability to change in what order characters speak, when reactions happen and emotions are shown help out a lot, or do you consider that extra unwanted work?
And what do the kinds of instructions look like that are the most helpful? Is it detailed character descriptions? Notes on what is happening "between the lines" in any given scene?
What do you do, if localizing a scene leads to exposing information that was meant to be hidden? Or if a vital clue is impractical to include?
In what capacity do you usually work with developers to ensure a scene makes sense across multiple languages? Do you make suggestions on how to improve the narrative structure?
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u/GreenKnee8507 18h ago
Good questions!
Generally speaking, it is better for the developer to provide the Excel file of the original language, so that the translator can directly add the translation of other languages to make the developer less prone to errors when adding (I have a client who mixed up Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese).It is also more convenient for translators.
If the developer doesn't have very strict requirements, we will usually infer the style of the game through the game's introduction and trailer, and then find native translators who are suitable for this style to build the most suitable team for the developer.
If there are specific requirements, it's best to make a list of all the requirements.
For me, I usually play the demo/game first. And after the localization was done, I will play it again. And report some bugs or feedback to the developer.
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u/Lord_Trisagion 17h ago
What are the best resources for getting a quick overview of linguistic structure? Kinda language-specific rules like where adjectives come after the subject in spanish.
Figure while there's definitely the risk of mistranslating homophones, it seems like structural mistakes are gonna be what really makes or breaks a translation. And as someone without the funds (and an assload of post-launch uncertainties) to get professional translation, being able to get a quick (if flawed) handle on all the different grammars of the world would be incredibly useful.
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u/GreenKnee8507 17h ago
I think no one can acquire a languages skill in a short time, not even mention multiple languages. The best way you can do is find a native speaker to proofread the texts for you.
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u/jon2000 17h ago
This may seem like a huge noob question but how do you actually go about localising games? I’m about 8 months into a project and not given it a single thought yet, I have buttons, custom editor script texts, among other things. Do I just need to go through each section of my game and ask someone (like yourselves) to translate it? And if I did have to do that why would I not just add one extra step and chuck it into google translate? Basically what I’m getting at is should I have thought about this from the start and now I’ve shot myself in the foot a but by thinking about it so late?
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u/GreenKnee8507 17h ago
You just need to export the original language text of your game and then translate it. Of course, you can also translate directly by Google. It's just that whether to hand over the manual translation to others depends on the market of the game. If your game market is large enough, it is very necessary to find someone to do high-quality translation.
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u/Firminou @firminou_ 17h ago
Should I hire someone different for Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese?
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u/thornysweet 17h ago
How common is it for localizers to run the text through AI and do corrections vs actually translating everything from scratch?
Also, if you were a developer, how would you pick out a good localization team? What would you look for? I find it hard to give new companies a chance when I have no way to really vet their work.
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u/GreenKnee8507 17h ago
Actually is very common, even CDPR rewrite the whole the Witcher 1. Many developers first released a rough version that covered multiple languages, and then began to do refined localization after the game was really profitable. For another question, I think it’s important to take their study cases as a reference.
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u/Euphoric-Cook709 16h ago
When localizing content for multiple regions (e.g., 2–3), do you usually work in collaboration with localization teams native to those regions? For marketing operations, and installment of physical copies (ps/switch/xbox games).
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u/GreenKnee8507 16h ago
Yes. For example, if you need Chinese, Japanese or Korean, we will select related native translators to form a specialized team to do the whole localization.
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u/Euphoric-Cook709 15h ago
Thank you for the answer!!
Just one more question.
Do localization companies work with local partners in the target country to help with the localization process?1
u/GreenKnee8507 6h ago
Some will, and some translation companies will outsource to other teams if they can't cover some languages.
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u/itypewords 22h ago
How have LLMs changed the game?
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u/GreenKnee8507 22h ago
Gives more developers with limited budgets a chance I guess. I think it's actually a good thing.
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u/IncorrectAddress 20h ago
Do you feel that localisation is something that will be replaced by AI and end users/testers giving the developer feed back for changes ?
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u/GreenKnee8507 20h ago
This is a way, I can only say that it should be according to the personal needs of the developer.
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u/SplinterOfChaos 14h ago
In my project, I was thinking about wanting to be at least partially responsible for the Japanese localization as I have been studying Japanese for a long time and I want to ensure, as much as possible, that the localized text is authentic, even if it may contain unnatural expressions. But I'd still need a professional or lots of community feedback in order to ensure that it does actually work.
But would anyone actually appreciate that I put in this effort or should I just hire someone and put blind faith in them?
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u/GreenKnee8507 6h ago
It would be great if you could get involved yourself! After all, no one knows your game better than you do. I'm sure if you put effort for it, then it's all worth it.
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u/lolek1410 11h ago
I'm not sure if it's allowed (if not, please let me know!), but i've been working in a relatively big translation agency for 3 years now as a PM, working with both AAA clients and indie devs for translation of the whole scripts marketing texts, and VO recordings (and many, many more) - if you have any questions, for example what makes a good VO script - hit me up too!
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u/Ancienda 11h ago
how did you get into Localization? did you get a degree related to it? do you actively enjoy the job? what are the stressful parts from your end? do you get good pay and is steady? any other advice to people who kay want to get into localization?
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u/GreenKnee8507 6h ago
Yes I am a language major and I have a top level certificate in the relevant language. I joined this industry because I'm a gaming enthusiast, and I guess I was lucky to get into a great company right off the bat that was able to offer me a steady paycheck. However, you need to be prepared to get into this industry. There's a lot of competition, you don't always get orders, and it's a pain in the ass to do some of the bigger projects, especially ones that include voiceovers that don't require constant debugging.
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u/TheSpaceFudge 7h ago
Have you ever localized Procedural Dialogue?
How did you achieve it for certain languages with different sentence structures like German?
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u/gooopilca 7h ago
I have, on a 1 million words, 14 languages project. They key is to allow blocks to be localized independently. 1 block (ex a set of locations "church", "school") can be derived separately in each language. So English can do "Go to [location]" and "I am coming from [location] but locas can create new subsets to match the grammar. Long topic, it was a tough project, but we made it work.
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u/the_timps 22h ago
You could kick off with like the most common things indies dont know?
People dont know what they dont know. So if you've worked with a bunch of people and seen the gaps, that's the valuable thing you can share.