The Video Game Localisation Quest

There are many translators who would like to enter into the game localisation sphere - either because they are avid gamers or because they are intrigued by the complex challenges localising video games brings with itself.

In this article you can read some answers for the most common questions that are asked from our localisation experts, Federica Lusardi (in-house perspective) and Anikó Pet?-Mordovski (freelance perspective).

What are the most common language pairs needed in this industry?

Anikó: Although every list provided by game developers and LSPs specialising in game localisation will slightly differ based on their own target audiences, generally the most popular target languages for English game developers are French, Italian, German, Spanish (i.e. “FIGS”), Chinese, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Polish and Korean. Japanese is also a common source language. Moreover, there is a growing market for Arabic and languages spoken in South East Asia!

Does one have to be an active player in order to work in the video game localization industry?

Fede: While it is not absolutely necessary to be a gamer to work in this industry (as you always gain experience with time, you can do research, etc.), I find that having a passion for video games really helped me during my career. Although you usually have a testing plan when you are a language tester, knowing how a specific console works and how to navigate menus makes you faster and more aware about what is happening on screen. Same goes for localisers. I am thinking about a text full of tags, perhaps calling items names.

If you are a gamer, you would likely know what those tags are for and how they work. Same goes for gaming terminology (HP, MP, tank, melée, AoE, NPC, RPG and so on) or console-specific terminology.

For the former, you can research it, but you would know how the terms are currently used in your market mainly if you also use them as a gamer in your daily life.

For the latter, there are databases that are usually provided by first parties, but if you are not a gamer, you might not even question the translation of some of the terms and make mistakes.

Specifically, I am thinking about Italian, where "button" has a different translation depending on whether it is on an Xbox controller or a PlayStation controller. It sounds like a simple, generic term, but if it isn't following the terminology guidelines, it might fail the entire submission of a game.

What's the best way to build up a portfolio?

Fede: If you don't immediately find someone who accepts to hire you as a translator, start by being an LQA tester. There are plenty of openings for language testers in the industry and you will learn the video games basics, tools and practices that you will work with later on as a translator. You will also start knowing agencies and developers/publishers, and networking is always great for your career. Always fight for being included in the credits of the games you work on, as well, so you can include them in your CV.

How should a translator approach indie developers to propose a localisation?

Fede: I find Twitter to be a good social network for approaching indie developers. More than once I played a game that I really liked but didn't have an Italian localisation, so I went on Twitter, sent a private message to the developer (or the publisher) and enquired about a possible collaboration. There is also a Steam Translation Server where you can help translating the Steam client and selected Valve games as a volunteer in many languages. I don't like promoting free work, but it's a way to build up some experience in the industry.

It's really hard to break into videogame localisation coming from a different niche, as a freelancer, even when we have experience as creative translators. What would you recommend doing to impress agencies or employers?

Anikó: If you don't have experience in the field of game localisation, highlight any and every possibly relevant experience. Do you know a lot about marketing or transcreation? Boast about it! Have you worked on software localisation projects? Let them know! If you are an avid gamer well-versed in different genres, don't keep it to yourself. Try volunteering in the beginning to get some game localisation specific experience under your belt.

I also started out this way in the field: I localised a game for a friend of a friend as a volunteer. Then later when an LSP was looking for translators for an on-going project, I applied focusing on my creative translation background and mentioned this indie project, as well. I passed their test translation, and started working on that specific project. Later they entrusted me with other games and I became more and more confident in applying at other LSPs to level up in the localisation game.

Would you say that working on a video game localisation project is different than working on a "normal" translation project?

Anikó: I would say a video game localisation project is like an amalgamation of different types of projects. You may act as a cultural consultant for your market. You may get marketing copies and game descriptions to translate, the user interface, website texts, video subtitles, communication with players, etc. Then there is the actual game with dialogues, quests and item descriptions. There are multiple challenges: character limitations in the UI, cultural references, puns and word play... You also need to be a grammar wizard to make all the different variables work in every situation!

There are multiple translators, proofreaders, Q&A specialists involved in a project who can all propose different translation solutions. How is the final version selected from comparatively suitable versions proposed by different professionals, as they may all be accurate?

Anikó: If different translators propose different translations for various terms, or even if one translator can come up with different solutions, usually the way to go is to discuss the options with the client, clearly explaining the merits and disadvantages of each (as the client most probably won't speak your language). It is needless to say that consistency is absolutely key in game localisation, otherwise the localised version would just confuse the players! For this, translators rely on the translation memory (TM) and the termbase (TB) that includes the approved translation of the most important, recurring terms.

It seems QA and testing is a bit disjointed from translation (I might be wrong). Do you think translators should be more involved in this?

Fede: I found that this entirely depends on the company you are working for. For example, there are agencies that do both translation and LQA, therefore the two processes are usually more connected. There have been times when I spent a few weeks approving/denying and implementing the changes requested by testers into the text that my colleagues and I wrote during the translation phase.

I liked that approach, because as a translator, I could still have control on my text despite working with the testers in order to make it more polished and free of contextual errors.

However, this is not always the case.Sometimes the two phases are completely separated, and the translators stop having visibility on their text once they deliver it.

This is not ideal, but one thing that localisers can do to preserve their work from major changes is to build up a style guide that lists all the stylistic choices they did during the translation phase. This document can include anything you deem necessary for the testers to know, from specific spelling and grammar choices to characterisation.

Do you have a bard in game that only sings in rhymes? Add it to your style-guide! Do you have an NPC with a lisp? Add it, so that the testers don't correct those additional letters by mistake!

This and a well-built glossary will partly solve the issue of having the translation separated from the LQA phase, although I think that direct communication is absolutely the key.

How much context do you receive when you start a translation? Context is often a sticky point in our conversations as localisation managers. But I have a feeling consequences on UX could be really significant for gamers. What is your experience?

Anikó: It greatly varies from LSP to LSP what information freelance translators get but we usually receive a brief from the client that includes some basic information about the game such as genre, what platform it is/will be available on, links to websites and some other information relating to the style they expect the translators to use. Screenshots and images are also very often included in the project package. Translations are nearly always carried out in a CAT tool, so we also have access to the translation memory and the term base. Often, the CAT tool allows us to see further contextual information like how/where the text will appear within the game. What I also find very useful is a shared Q&A sheet provided by many clients where every translator working on the same project can ask for clarification.

I observe that localisation is not just about translating the text, but involves many audiovisual elements such as images, as well. Could you please provide some interesting examples on these?

Fede: In order to localise a game for your target markets you also need to adapt it culturally, and that does not only involve the translation of text. I remember a Japanese game where there was a kimono printed with the traditional manji symbol (the religious swastika). In order to avoid misunderstandings in the Western market, we had to ask the developers to replace it with a plain kimono instead, and even if it's not strictly a translation issue, it was our job to point it out because we are the experts of our markets.

Graphic text is another problem. Imagine signs inside a building that list the various floors. US and Japan have a different way of counting them than what we are used to in Europe, the JP/US first floor would be the ground floor in Europe, and so on. Those signs will need to be localised accordingly, if the developers allow us to work on graphics, which really depends on the budget.

Same goes for pop-culture (mentions of children TV programmes, for example) or even foods that are particularly popular in one place but not in others. I'm thinking of jelly beans, which are super common in the US, but we had to translate them as generic "gummies" in Europe. Similar look but different products.

What do you wish people entering into game localization were more aware of? (Misconceptions that might impact how an in-experience translator/editor/loc tester works.)

Fede: First of all: no, we do not play for the whole day! Sure, video games localisation can be extremely creative and fun, but it is not just a bed of roses. We spend most of the time in front of MemoQ or Excel files, and very rarely we manage to check strings in game. If we are lucky, we receive a game build to try out but it is often broken and bugged, since at the time localisation starts, probably the game is still in development. As a translator or an editor, you will need to learn to survive with very little context and get used to ask for clarifications and more details. Be aware that you might need to translate very generic, isolated strings like "Play" (which could refer to the game, a musical instrument, a record...) solely relying on the string ID, or messy dialogues, without knowing who is speaking, who is listening or what comes after.

How do you choose all the fantasy names of characters and places, when localising a game from scratch? Do you get a real brief from requestors? What's the approval / sign off process?

Fede: There are developers who are willing to share a very detailed loc-kit, which includes information about all the important characters, places and terms, in addition to their reasons behind the choice of names in the source language. This can be further discussed via a Q&A file (the communication between the client and the localisation department is crucial), and sometimes the translated names are also shared in a glossary for approval before the localisation even starts! Ideally creative names also need to pass an ethical and legal check to avoid problems after publishing, so it might end up being a lengthy process. Other clients might want names and places kept in English, for the ease of marketing campaigns and to save time and money. When we are lucky and have full freedom to invent names, we usually do some brainstorming with the team (even with the other languages, because multiple brains work better than one!), and a lot of research. A monolingual dictionary, a thesaurus and an encyclopaedia are great tools to have at your fingertips, in order to be able to check for synonyms, explanations, related topics and come up with good ideas and puns. It is a fun process and also a very good challenge for your brain!

What do you wish developers were more aware of when working with localization staff/studios? (What do you wish they were better at doing to make your lives easier?)

Anikó: I'd highlight three things: context, consistency & linguistic knowledge. We do receive some context from the client for most projects, however, sometimes it is not enough. Screenshots from the game, images of in-game characters, locations and items are always useful, however, sometimes it would be best if we could have access to the game itself, which doesn't happen often. (At least for freelancers.) As for consistency, sometimes different terms are used to describe the same item, function or event which can be confusing for the translators - and for the players, of course! It is good to keep these relevant terms consistent. Last but not least, I think it is always handy when game developers have some basic linguistic knowledge to better understand where us, translators are coming from with all our pesky questions!

Fede: I agree with Anikó, especially for context. Even when you work in-house, you don't always have access to a game build and you rely solely on videos or a Q&A file, although it is easier for us to insist on having something to try out or a detailed script. In an ideal world, I would like to have someone from the development team dedicated solely to localisation and supporting us with any information we might need. Another thing that developers could do is building their game environment while keeping localisation into account from the start, therefore willing to be flexible on how sentences are structured, character limits and cultural aspects. Finally, it would be great to work on a game that has been fully developed and does not massively change in the middle of translation!

If you have any questions left in you for Fede or Anikó, let us know, they'd be happy to answer!