By Game localization is an important part of any game’s development. It makes it possible for your creation to be marketable and relatable to an international audience. Here are the seven best practices for game localization you should keep in mind throughout development.
1. Make Sure Your Game is Relevant to a Broad Audience
Localization makes your game content relatable and understandable to a broad audience. However, just because you can localize doesn’t mean you have to.
This best practice is all about understanding the market’s demand for a localized version of your game. Niche topics about specific stories might not be interesting for every player. A dating simulator based around Kentucky fried chicken will not benefit from being localized as much as a more general game where you play as a goose terrorizing a neighborhood.
2. Start Preparing for Localization During Design
The video game localization process starts before you write a single line of code. It affects everything from character design to UI & UX design. An effective localization strategy needs to be considered at the earliest design stages to ensure the game is flexible enough to make necessary changes. If your game’s framework is difficult to manage or unnecessarily rigid, it can make localization difficult or require significant revisions and modifications to the game.
3. Identify Core Story Elements
Each game is unique. As part of the localization process, you need to identify those key elements to work hard during localization to ensure they stay true to the original content.
No matter which type of game you are designing, before you start localization, you need to identify what is essential about your game and why it’s worth keeping. For puzzle games like Tetris, the key parts of the gameplay are elements like game mechanics that aren’t touched by the localization process. However, for interactive story and role-playing games, core elements can include a character’s personality, important plot points, a vital setting or scene, or a crucial conversation that serves as the focal point for your entire story.
4. Use Stage Direction for Dialogue
Even if you aren’t planning for voice acting, you should always include stage direction in dialogue to help localization.
Stage direction is used in acting for both film and theaters. It’s general information from the author telling the actors how they should feel or act during a scene to ensure the scene has the right feel. Stage direction can change how a line is delivered and gives insight into how a character feels.
For example, without specific stage directions, Clark Gable’s notorious line in Gone With the Wind could be said hurtfully or playfully. Stage direction ensures that the line is said with apathy to show that Rhett Butler is done with Scarlett O’Hara and has moved on.
Localization needs those same insights to ensure that dialogue isn’t just technically correct but that it carries the same tone and meaning in the scene.
5. Be Mindful of Your Language
Translation is a key step of localization. The language, tone, and vocabulary you chose to use in the original design of your game can directly impact the quality of your localization. Idioms, metaphors, regional phrases, or cultural touchpoints are not easy to translate. For example, the phrase “It’s on the tip of my tongue” may make perfect sense to English speakers, but it loses its meaning in other languages which could decrease a player’s enjoyment or understanding of the story. Throughout character and story design, it’s important to keep an eye on your language. Jokes that are based on puns or a play on word become very difficult to translate accurately while keeping the original feel of the joke. You may think it’s funny to name a character who watches movies all day, David, but after translation the joke is ruined and makes no sense.
6. Have a Plan on How to Address Banned Content
Some markets have strict rules about what is and isn’t allowed. The most strict markets include Germany, China, and Japan. Each market has its limitations and restrictions, but it’s easy to assume that sensitive content like violence or sexuality will be prohibited.
A crucial part of localization is identifying what possible solutions can be approved. For example, changing blood from red to green or removing blood splatter altogether is a common trend to help work around violence restrictions.
Remember to keep the key elements of your game in mind. Modifying a key element in your game just because a censor determined you had to may drastically change the flow and feel of your game. If you do have to remove a key element of your game due to censorship, have a backup plan for the key points of that moment, character, or location to preserve the structure and feel of your game.
7. Test Before Release
Localization can modify everything from menu layout and design to character design and dialogue. Once you have implemented all of your localization changes, your game needs to be tested to make sure it still plays the way it should.
Playtesting will help catch new bugs or glitches caused by the localization process and help ensure that the localization is effective.
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