Game Dev Loc Starter

Essential Localization Resources for Game Devs

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Localization is often done in the final stages of development process. That’s when issues start happening, too, which may delay the project.
To avoid this, review our collection of localization resources and code your product with future localization in mind.

Game Localization Best Practices

Code your game for future localization

• Best Practices for Game Localization — IGDA (and more in Best Practices for Game Localization)
• 9 game localization best practices by Aurelie Perrin

Localization Tools for Devs

Some popular localization tools

• L2oN localization framework
• Unity language plugins toolkit
• Unity localization tutorial
• Language plural rules: CLDR Chartvs, CLDR, In Localization Guide
• Translate Toolkit
• POEdit
• Xbench, Version 2.9 (localization QA)
• L10n in C# & Plugin for the Unity Game Engine
• screengrab by Faastlane — Automated localized screenshots of your Android app
• snapshot by Fastlane — Automated localized screenshots of your iOS app
• Swift friendly localization and i18n with in-app language switching
• LaunchKit, open sourced
• Pology and Lbundle Check
• GALAGlobal/TAUS Translation API
• Twine, a command line tool for managing strings and translations
• Polyglot — test your UI text length before localization to proactively detect problems like bleeding/cropped text

Game Localizers’ advice

• 6 Localization Notes: Issues we and our clients-devs had and how we solved them by Artem Nedrya & Aurelie Perrin
• How to check game localization quality for free and when you don’t know the languages by Michal Tosza
• Fan or pro? How to localize your game into other languages and actually win at it by Artem Nedrya
• Make your game gender-inclusive by Isabela Pedrosa
• Launching in Brazil by Paula Ianelli
• Launching in China and Taiwan by Johnson Lin (IGDA Taiwan)
• Handling German umlauts ä, ö, ü, and ß correctly (font)
• Problematic Case Conversion in Turkish (i->İ and ı->I)
• Localizing Achievements, Trophies, and Other Shenanigans in Microsoft, Sony, and PC games by Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano

Reverse-engineer localized games

To see how other devs handled localization

• IGDA LocJam open-source localized games

Open-source localized strings

You may use openly available strings localized by volunteers/non-professionals, but do find a good proofreader to verify them

• Polyglot Project

File types your translators will support

Unless you’ll be working on some kind of localization platform, these are the file types that most translators can work with on their PCs

• Trados file types
• MemoQ file types

What rates professional localizers charge

• Translation industry average rates

In-depth general localization guides

• Apple’s Build Apps for the World guide
• String Resources by Apple
• Microsoft’s Globalization and localization guide
• 12 Commandments Of Software Localization by Zack Grossbart (general software localization)
• The I18n Guy web sites: http://www.i18nguy.com and http://www.xencraft.com
• Pseudolocalization to Catch i18n Errors Early on Google Blog
• How to: Create a Localized Game on MSDN
• Android Developers Localization checklist
• Translate.org.za’s Localization Gide
• Mozilla’s Content localization best practices
• MDN’s App localization code best practices
• CPanel’s Best Practices
• WebDev Bootcamp’s Internationalization (i18n) and Localization (L10n)
• Google Material Design Writing guidelines
• GNU’s Preparing Translatable Strings

Localization inspiration

Approach the project with the right mindset

• Translation is UX in A List Apart by Antoine Lefeuvre
• Design for internationalization by John Saito
• Localization quality. A myth or reality? by Max Lobanov
• Video Game Translators Are on Your Side, So Stop Hating on Them by Kate Gray

Dev insights

Read advice from devs who’ve been there and done it

• This HackerNews dev discussion
• China is kind of a big deal for Indie Games
• Was Localizing Defender’s Quest Worth It?
• RISK AND REWARD OF LOCALIZING (into Polish by Marcin Iwinski)
• Video: Crowdsourcing the localization of Gone Home
• How Bungie localized Destiny for the world
• Analyzing Localization Impact for Gremlins, Inc. by Charlie Oscar

Fan feedback

Analyzing such sentiments will help avoid similar mistakes

• Twitter search, for example: “localization errors”
• Reddit rants, for example: Be wary not to demonize Localization as a concept, Where did the recent hate for Nintendo’s localizations come from?, The line between censorship and localization

A deeper look into game localization

• Localization talks at GDC - GDC 2017
• TRANS. Revista de Traductología 15
• Carme Mngiron papers

Check back later, more to come!

Just a cute image by Webflow