How to Do Game Localization Efficiently?
There is a high demand for games like never before. We all remember playing video games in childhood, and not to mention, those were really good times for millennial.
What makes gaming more exciting today is not just more realistic characters, but now you can play games on the go. You just need a mobile phone and play game tournaments anytime with real or fake players. Cloud technology has made it possible for you to play games with your friends at remote locations.
There are a lot of opportunities for gaming companies to grow their businesses internationally and increase their profit ratios. Thanks to the internet, it has become much easier for businesses to enter global markets and enhance their user base. However, going global is not that easy, especially in this high competition making your brand visible to foreign audiences will be challenging.
That’s why businesses go for localization of their brand to better engage with their targeted audiences. Game localization is an important aspect of global business expansion, and you need to partner with a professional localization Management platform to achieve desired results. In this post, we’ll share some important steps for game localization. Businesses that want to try their luck in international markets must follow these guidelines.
What Is Game Localization?
Simply put, game localization is the process of adapting your game to players from different regions around the world. Based on the culture, law, social norms, you should modify all elements of your game, including language translations. There is an important point to notice: localization is not just limited to translation because it is a very common misconception. Businesses have to focus on other game elements (technical or design) as well to make it look native to people globally.
When it comes to the localization of the game, most businesses prefer hiring localization companies who have fair experience in the industry and know how to make game localization successful. There are many translation management systems available that offer high-quality translation quickly. These systems are powerful enough to manage volumes of translation in a matter of minutes.
So, you must have the right tools and equipment in place to make your localization process effortless and hassle-free.
Guideline To Localize Your Game
To make your game successful, it is critical to have a good localization plan considering your business expansion needs. For this, you have to follow some steps and procedures to do the localization the right way. Following are the guidelines to localize your game to make it a global success.
Develop A Game Localization Strategy
First thing first, you have to develop an effective game localization strategy to fulfill your business growth goals. Knowing your targeted groups is the most important thing to make a robust localization plan. Moreover, you must have a clear view of the resources, budget, business requirements, and expansion goals for developing your localization plan.
It would be better to get a professional localization service provider on board who understands the complexities of localization. There would be fewer chances for you to make any localization blunders when you have experts working with you. So, make sure to get your hands on the right tools and hire experienced staff before making your game localization plan.
Create A Lockit
Lock it is a localization kit that your localization partner would need to get a better understanding of your business. It would provide guidelines and assistance to your translators and localization developers to follow your brand persona. In this Lock it, you must include all the linguistic assets and other localization characteristics to make the localization job easier for your team. It also prevents your localization partners from losing the track of your business expansion goals. Your Locket should be ready before executing the localization strategy.
It is an essential tool for both translators and developers to have access to your game data and know how you want to modify it without losing the context and brand consistency.
Hire Experienced Team
The localization team that you have hired can make or break your brand image in the international marketplace. Make sure your localization team is well experienced and has all the expertise you might require to smoothly take on your localization project. It is your choice whether you want to hire in-house employees or go for remote ones. It also depends on your overall localization budget. You can hire a third-party service provider for the purpose if it is feasible for you.
Employ A Professional TMS
If you want your localization procedures to be effortless and smoothly done, you better get yourself a professional TMS with advanced tools integrated. These systems would automate your translation management and localization tasks, making your workflow agile. It not just allows you to complete your localization projects on time but enhances the work efficiency of your employees.
Make sure your professional localization platform has incorporated a good quality assurance system to generate high-quality content. Because in the end, the quality of your content translation matters the most. It is also going to have a huge impact on your overall brand reputation in the foreign marketplace.
Localize all Game Elements
Game localization is not just limited to language translation, you have to modify all of your game elements to the preferences of locales. From time and dates to the unit of measurement and currency, you must modify everything to your targeted audiences’ interests to give a more personalized experience to the users. You might have to edit the formatting of various content elements to make your game resonate with natives. That’s why it is not recommended to hard-code your element, you should use the placeholders instead. So, you don’t have to rewrite the code for every market, it would save a lot of time and simplify the localization process.
Adjust Translation Formatting
You have to be careful about the content formatting as well, especially when you are translating the text to another language. The words and phrases that a language uses to deliver a message is very different from another language. For example, if you have to translate the content from English to any other language, the translated content might expand or shrink based on your target language. Some languages use more phrases and words than the English language, similarly, some deliver the same languages message in fewer words. So, you have to adjust your design and the space allocated for translations accordingly.
Do Code Internationalization
Along with translation, you have to change your game’s technical elements and other formatting. For this, you should hire expert developers who know code internationalization and have an expert in writing Unicode. Code internationalization makes your game ready for international markets, and you don’t have to spend much time modifying game elements again and again for each region. It would save you a lot of time and make the localization smoother.
Conclusion
You must be following all the guidelines mentioned in this post to achieve higher proficiency in game localization. You have to develop a game localization plan that focuses on linguist, culture, and social nuances of the foreign markets. It would help you give a native feel to your game, and enhance your overall user engagement. A well-planned game localization strategy with some patience can help you capture a huge market share in every targeted region.
