Game localization means adapting the game according to the targetted location’s culture. The targetted one is not the original place where it was developed. The level of the obstacles depends on the target market or the destination country. There are some essential elements including manuals, character descriptions, character behavior, instructions, spoken dialogue and many more.
Contents
Game Localization Significant Process
Translation is a simple work if it just shifts the word from one language to another. However, localization is more complicated and challenging. It is more than just changing the language but also adding some cultural touch so the players from the target country understand well the game instructions. Here are the significant processes required in localizing play.
Translation
It is the core of the whole process. The content should be translated with carefulness. All the text elements have to be translated following the context. It requires more than simple word-to-word translation. The translator should involve cultural references, idioms and phrases. The smooth adaptation resonates with the audience.
Graphic and User Interface
The layout, button and menu toolbar need the right adaptation. Since language is different from one another, the width of the text could be different too. A word can be short in one language but can be long after translated. This section involves two experts, the translator and the graphic designer.
The designer needs to adjust the layout so all the important menus and information can fit on one screen as its original one. It seems simple but could be very complicated if the target country has its own alphabet system. Besides the interaction button, other things like visual cues, symbols, and icons have to be aligned too.
Audio
Audio consists of so many elements. One of the biggest elements is music because it plays from the very beginning of the play. However, music or song, in particular, is sometimes a universal thing that doesn’t always need to be translated. Sometimes, the song is left in the original language to make it more striking and to keep the rhyme.
The voice acting is the audio aspect that needs to be localized seriously. It needs native speakers for the voice actors because only natives can speak the language fluently. Native voice actors could also give insight into some problems as the solution. Other things like ambient sounds, sound effects, and background music can be adjusted or not depending on the company’s consideration. Some games have the original sounds to keep the authenticity.
Cultural Sensitivity
The company should consider cultural sensitivity such as taboo words or risky humor that might offend the community in the target country. With good knowledge, the developer could stay on track and make the product respectful. It boosts the engagement and people are excitedly come back to play.
The Challenges Existed in Game Localization
Everything comes in a bundle with the challenges or the obstacles. Here are what you might face in localizing game materials.
Consistency in Different Platforms
Players access the game from various devices. The largest screen is a personal computer that usually comes with some screen sizes from 10 inches to infinity. The smaller ones are mobile phones and game consoles.
The things that fit the large screen have to be aligned to fit in smaller ones. It is to maintain the cohesive experience although sometimes the technical ones cannot be the same. Somehow the facilities of different devices are not the same, forcing the smaller device to accommodate heavy work will even make the misbehave.
Ambiguity
A word or phrase might have more than one meaning. Misunderstanding for a small matter doesn’t disturb the player’s experience. But something serious like privacy settings, passwords, etc will cause data leakage that is risky for the account.
Space Problem
Space for text in a game is not as large as pure text artwork like play or novel. To overcome this problem, localizers must possess creativity to create an alternative text with the same meaning such as abbreviation or clipping words.
Those three are big parts of the challenge. Many smaller problems await. Localizers should work hard to solve those and the sudden obstacles that might happen during the process. The game evolves along with other things so the localizing experts must enrich their ability to align the content. To sum up, the activity related to localizing content is a little complex. It bridges one culture to another with the same fun experience.
The aim is to make players worldwide enjoy the same pleasure. To reach that purpose, those who are responsible for that have to fathom more about cultural knowledge including dialect, language sensitivity, ambiguity, hype things, and what should be avoided. Game localization‘s success parameter can be seen by the players’ testimony, if they are happy, the goal is reached.