A few things to do to localize a game

When entering different markets, the localization of the game is particularly important, which plays a decisive role in the performance of a game in overseas markets. Recently, overseas independent developers have shared some of their own game localization suggestions in their blogs, hoping to help them with their localized shoes, see the compiled blog below.

Torgar ' Squest was the first non-English game I released, I'm also very excited and nervous about it because it's great to see my game in other languages, but my daily job is localization testing, so I know what a game is easy to localize. In order to help myself and other game developers play in the localization of the game more smoothly, here I summed up some experience and suggestions for children's shoes reference.

1. Separating content from code

If you don't want to localize the game, the first thing you need to do is replace the core code string with a script that separates the data resources, and when you need to call the string, the script can be used in the right place.

In the Torgar ' squest game development, my script encountered two problems, one is the filename, the other is the number. The file name is the symbolic symbol of the string, and the number refers to how many lines of the string are in the file. The game starts with a lot of stuff to load, and these things need to be scripted to get the correct translation results.

2. Organize document management

To do a good job of file management, you can consider dividing the text into different files, which can be divided into areas within the game (or in other order). For example, you can put all the menu strings in a file and put the story in the game into another file. Classifying content in such a way makes it easier to invoke a particular string, and is easier to do when localizing translations and tests. So, if you want someone to help you localize your content, the key is to manage your game files.

3. Prepare

In the English version of the game, many of the things used in other languages may not work, English will use a lot of phrases, but not other languages will do so. For example, there are many very long words in German, so you can hardly put them in the game button, and Japanese is not the same, because the Japanese text line in different ways and English. Also, when localizing, consider the localization of menu design and UI factors.

Recommendation: Use W to test how many words a text box can hold, because the letter is the most wide character space in the Latin alphabet. In addition to setting aside space for the UI design, you need to make sure that certain alphabetic fonts and language-specific spellings are correct, and that your text display is less than ideal if you don't add font design.

4. Standardize the nonstandard format

If you use distance calculations, weights, or other measurements in your game, in metric or imperial? You'd better make sure you can support the most appropriate way. Don't assume that a Swedish gamer will know what a mile is, and many of the same problems need to be addressed. For example, in terms of time, you may have used a 12-hour system before, but in many areas it is a 24-hour system.

The date format and decimal separator for each region are also different, for example, in the United States, people usually use the standard date format is month/day/year, and the standard format used in Europe is the day/month/year, in the display date, 1/10/2015 such a confusing time is very necessary to consider local habits. In the case of decimal notation, the United States would use 1,234.5 in the same way, and in many areas it would use 1.234, hardware-based to express the same number.

5. Provide contextual environment

In language translation, the practice of not considering context should never be used. If you can't provide a copy of the full game, it is important to provide at least some screenshots and design files to describe the game, because there are often many ways in which languages can be translated, some of which may not be able to meet the expression requirements of the game environment, which may not be noticed in the spelling checker. , it's hard to see when you're looking at strings, and these mistakes are likely to make your language translation meaningless, or even a very unpleasant game experience for gamers.

In this respect, do not rely on automatic translation, Google translation does not know what your game is, and will not look at screenshots, so never use Google Translate content to copy the past. When using puns, pop culture elements, or other language adaptation issues, it is important to consider the context environment. Such strings are likely to need to be rewritten for the target market, a good translation can be done, but developers only need to do so when necessary.

6. Allow localized test time

Once you start to separate the content, you will realize that there is more to write than you think, which will take time to translate, and after you have joined the localized content, you are still only halfway through the process, and the next step is localization testing.

Ideally, you may have a local partner, but the person may not be doing content translation, game localization testing, but this partner may need to be responsible for every area of your game, and you may need to look at all the strings to check the inheritance, syntax, and typesetting of the game's content. Neglected content or missing strings, these are the problems you may have when doing content separation.

Each problem needs to be identified, evaluated, and resolved, and then tested in the game, which may take a long time to make sure you have a plan for it. I believe some of these suggestions will always be useful to you. The tools you use depend on your team size and project size.