Fan Or Pro? How To Localize Your Game Into Other Languages And Actually Win At It
A post I wrote post a while back for IndieWatch. Originally published on their website.
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INTRO: UNLOCK NEXT LEVEL
When your game’s taking off nicely — a steady rise from obscure realms of the underground to the bright spotlight — and sees more weekly downloads and fans that you’ve ever dreamed of, you surely feel like celebrating.
And you certainly should, but also it is the time to think big and unlock the next level of your Game.
It is the time, much like a savior, to bring your game to distant lands and enlighten all their inhabitants who speak weird languages and are forced by Dark Babylon to play games only in those languages and to forever live in darkness about your Game.
The only way to accomplish that mission is to teach your game those weird languages. Luckily, there are mercenaries who’ll help you along the way (you want to ally with them) — they call themselves the IL Team.
They’ll help you release polyglot games.
FAN OR PRO?
Let’s assume you’ve accepted the challenge and set off on a mission to bring your game to distant countries — who would you partner with to teach your game new languages?
Here are your options:
- Engage your fans
- Translate it yourself (only if you’re a polyglot)
- Task your bilingual friends or coworkers
- Hire professional localizers
(Let’s not even put MT on this list, for obvious reasons)
If you’re an indie dev, you’d go with the free option: it’s the best when you’re on a small budget, right?
Hold on, not so fast — it might turn out less favorable option for you than the paid one!
In this post, I’d like to offer one more option which might seem utopian at first glance:
- Fans doing pro quality localization
Also, I’ll show examples from the past of the consequences of opting for free localization and briefly talk about the value of pro localization.
PROFESSIONALS VS. FANS
All this talk about quality is not just a marketing pitch.
A decision between fan and pro localization is hard, but it’s really about making it or breaking it.
See this tweet from Clyde Mandelin, the author of the Legends Of Localization blog:
The error above could have been avoided easily if the localizer was at least proficient in Japanese.
When you engage your gamer community you have no way of verifying their language skills (let alone translation skills).
Localization done right will save you from outcomes like this one and discussions like this one, but rather generate players’ feedback like this one or this one.
Or, to give a visually stimulating example, would you rather your fans were like this (when localization doesn’t make sense):
Or like this (when the localization doesn’t impede the gameplay and the UX is great):
Reviews and Retention
When done right, localization generates better fan reviews which means fewer negative reviews/comments in app stores/on forums and higher retention rates.
“Positive posts, users, and keywords increase retention, whereas negative posts seldom results in positive retention outcomes.” — Source: Medium
And you’d definitely want to avoid the cultural and legal clashes Microsoft and other big makers went through with their games.
Or think about the characters’ speech. Since often the game’s story and UX is grounded in character dialogues, the gamer retention will surely suffer if your characters’ messages feel stiff or doesn’t sound natural.
And, of course, no MT translation shortcuts should be taken.
Here’s Max Lobanov’s take on MT (he is Localization Manager at Google for Russia and Eastern Europe):
“MT is a low-hanging fruit. They take it, but it tastes bad. In the end, they [loc’n buyers] are still hungry and need to invest more to buy some medicine.”— Max Lobanov, Localization Manager at Google
Many times I’ve seen job posts on freelance job boards, wherein an inopportune website owner or game dev looked for proofreaders to fix the previous localizers’ work — in the end, ending up paying more for localization.
Why not do right the first time by hiring decent specialists?
Instead, many choose to play this “translation gamble” hoping they will not get bad translation this time. Why not go directly to Vegas…
These were just a few quick points that illustrate the value of pro localization and dangers of going with free and quick.
Now the promised magic solution.
Fans doing pro quality localization? Possible
Let’s go back to that localization option which does seem unreal at first glance.
Ever wanted your fans produced top-bracket translations? It’s possible with a localization team that embodies the dedication of your fans and the skills of professionals.
I’m happy to be part of a cool indie team that united professional localizers, SEOs, developers, and testers.
We like to think of us as your fan base producing professional results: Many of us have dev background and/or are die-hard gamers, which means we’ll care when working on your game.
You might wanna ask, why are you, guys, so special? Well, let me elaborate on that. Actually, let me share with you a quick insider’s look at the translation industry.
When localizing with localization companies/agencies, you never know if localizers care about your game or more about $, and if they are localizers at all (as compared to regular translators) and have what it takes… Some of those translators may be new and the company never worked with them before (a gamble again). Plus the agency will often try to quote you the highest price and then find the cheapest translators so that their overhead profit is the biggest.
Is this really so? Well, this is how the agency business model works by definition.
Plus agencies often have an in-house or remote staff that needs to get their salaries. Where do their salaries come from? Well, from the client’s wallets — from charging extra on top of the real price for localization…
Our team is not your traditional agency with a pool of hundreds, if not thousands, of per-project-minded and per-need hired translators and a full-house staff. In our business model, there are no middlemen (the agency staff) that drive the pricing up. That’s why there is no additional costs for you as you’ll be working directly with your translators. And directly speaking with us too — very important for providing explanations on ambiguous strings which will help avoid mistranslations.
To be objective here, some agencies do have their strong incentives (faster scaling up, proprietary technology…). But the above pain points renders them null for an indie dev.
So you should consider wisely: Are there really strong incentives for you to work with a big company or you should go with a specialist localization team?
MEET THE IL TEAM
LOCALIZERS, SEOS, DEVELOPERS, TESTERS
When working with specialists, the room for mistake gets slim. As we also say on our website, we are not translators, we are localizers with years of experience localizing websites, apps, games, bots, and such, both for small devs and the biggest studios.
And to reiterate, localization is a complex undertaking and it should be done by localization specialists, not fans-amateurs. If you love your creation, trust it into qualified hands.
The Indie Localizers Team is a ragtag squad of specialists passionate about websites, apps, bots, video games, and, of course, localization: professional translators, SEOs, developers, and QA/localization/play testers who teamed up to take on more complex and challenging localization jobs that otherwise would’ve been out of reach for mere solo freelancers.
“Indie” fits nicely in the name of our team and it’s in our internal culture too. Our team was created out of the desire to be independent. As an indie dev, you certainly hear us.
Read this blog post to learn more about our values and views.
By the way, if you’ve had your app or game professionally localized, it’s quite likely that you’ve worked with us before without knowing us. We’re the localizers behind most well-known translation companies that you, game devs, might be well-familiar.
Things have changed.
We were faceless then, now we have faces!
TRIVIA
Come join our Facebook group, Localization Speak, a fledging forum of sorts where devs and locs can meet, share advice, and learn from each other about launching better products.
Also, follow us on Twitter, we tweet about loc’n, startups, tech, SEO, growth, promotion, and not only.
By Artem Nedrya
from Indie Localizers
