Graphic content localization and you (and us, in fact).

Hey friends! Diving deeper into localization as a craft, today’s topic is the localization of graphic content in video games.

You may wonder what’s so special about it. Is it any different from other localization aspects? Do we even need to localize original graphic content in video games (like diaries, billboards, signs, posters, etc)?

The answer to both of these questions is definitely YES!

Technically speaking, the localization of any graphical texts and their implementation have their specifics. The first step is to translate all the inscriptions, signs, posters, and diaries into the target language. One thing to worry about would be the space we have, which directly translates to the string length.

Oftentimes developers of the original game create their graphic content with their base language in mind, be it English, Chinese, or Russian. And then it’s up to the localization specialists to squeeze all the inscriptions in the target language into the allocated space. We must say, there’s A LOT of squeezing involved ??

Most Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages have lengthier words than English, not to mention hieroglyph-based ones, such as Chinese or Japanese… (sigh) It’s especially challenging when it comes to billboards or posters, which have to be short, snappy, and fun. There’s extra room in handwritten letters and diaries, but they too have strict limits.

Then our graphical designers come into play. The next step is to “hard-code,” or bake all translations back into original graphics while editing them where needed.

Here’s what we did in the acclaimed visual novel-style game NEO CAB (you may check out that game right on Steam). Check out the logo in English versus Spanish:

Now Japanese????

Oh, by the way, miles into kilometers? Easy-peasy remon-squeezy. The Japanese team considered the finest details, but we knew our limits: the steering wheel in that car remained on the left.

Our personal favorite is the bleeding ???? word 詳細 (“details” in Kanji). Neat, huh?

That’s all the HOWs for today! Next time we’ll talk about the WHYs. And a sneak peek for y’all: stay tuned for the secret backstage of re-creating graphic content for Doki-Doki Literature Club+.

Cheers!