How To Get The Video Game Localization Spot On In Today’s World?

By Author: Shreya Gupta
Total Articles: 50
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Video games have gone from impersonal dotted monsters to very life like experiences with background stories for the characters. They also involve more human faculties than just the digits on the hands. Video game studios now sell games which are concept based rather than those which mainly included beating the monster to a pulp!

With this trend comes the requirement of high-quality translation and localisation, as every market has a new language and significant cultural differences which need to be addressed for the game to have a chance to succeed. Further, translation is taken seriously as the video games are being played by kids as well as grown-ups who will quickly note any distortion in language translations.

Video game localisation in itself involves many processes and is free from obtaining the right to transfer a game from one language to another. The process of translating a game into another language typically starts from the development stage of the game. The video game studio first decides whether the concept of the game being developed has relevance in the country or region in which they ...
... want to launch it for apart from the home region. If the concept is new or cannot be identified with, a translation service may be brought on board to tweak the background story or to develop one on the same lines which will work in other markets.

Typically the localisation partners work from the game development stage to ensure that the game has the best opportunity to succeed. Once the concept is finalised, the game is developed. At this juncture, the language translators have a go at the designed game to ensure that the game does not contain any text, speech or process that may offend any cultures and offer suggestions to make the game more accepting to the target markets. With all the inputs gathered and assimilated to make the game accepting to a larger audience, the game is finalised and prepared for release.

Here are some tips which help video game localisation:

1. It is important to make the context of the game clear at the time of localisation, apart from just translating the concept into the game.
2. Getting the language translator team involved early on will help to reduce last minute translation abnormalities.
3. Cultural attitudes change with time, so it is important to factor the current events to ensure that a video game is well received by the target country or region.
4. At some point, the developer needs to be told to freeze the text so that the language translator can fill the text boxes without any confusion.
5. Encourage the language translators to ask questions on ‘why’ and ‘how’ to ensure that they understand the concept of the game.
6. Understand the cultural differences from the beginning of the video game making process will help the developers to get the idea spot on and hasten the development process.
7. Share biographies of the characters in the game as this will assist the language translators to showcase the characters better when translating the content.
8. Use customer reviews at the testing level to help fans to give their inputs for the complete translation experience.

To ensure that you meet this criterion when developing a video game you will need to rely heavily on a translation service which will do more than just translate the text. Try Mayflower Translation Services; they offer translation services that will bring you peace of mind when developing a video game to sell across geographies.