Localization and Transcreation in Video Games
Game localization and transcreation have played a significant role in shaping the gaming industry into the enormous, multi-million-dollar sector it is today. However, now is the perfect time for them to help you establish a global gaming empire for your game and business as well.
If you’re just starting out and want to understand what these processes involve (or how neglecting them can lead to trouble), this article is for you.
What is Video Game Localization?
Video game localization is the process of adapting a video game to make it more accessible to players from different regions around the world. In simpler terms, it involves recreating the entire gaming world to ensure it feels authentic to each player.
Various elements undergo modifications during the localization of a video game, including:
1. In-Game Story Elements: Modifying locations, character names, weapons, and other story elements is crucial to create a realistic and relevant game script that resonates with players. Sometimes, changes can extend to subtitles or even the game’s title itself.
2. Technical Elements: Localizing technical aspects such as time, dates, and units of measurement is essential for a seamless and immersive gaming experience. For example, converting pounds to kilograms in an American game’s adaptation ensures European players won’t be confused.
3. Marketing Elements: When a game is localized, the overall marketing strategy surrounding it needs to be localized as well. Market localization goes beyond graphic designs and advertisements; it also includes adapting the monetization process to align with different purchasing habits in various regions.
The Video Game Localization Process The localization process can be straightforward or complex depending on the project’s size, target regions, and cultural nuances. The overall process includes the following stages:
1. Planning: By thoroughly planning, you can ensure timely completion of your project. This involves identifying the countries and locales you’ll be targeting and understanding the players’ culture in those regions.
2. Creating a Localization Kit: This comprehensive data package serves multiple purposes for your localization team. It provides them with the files that need translation and instructions on how to approach the project. The kit should cover everything from character information, backstory, theme, and tone to technical aspects like format, font size, and coding strings.
3. Extracting Strings into the Translation Management System (TMS): The Translation Management System is a software used to facilitate collaboration among the localization team, project managers, and game localizers. It streamlines the translation process, ensuring speed, accuracy, and consistency. Text strings from the game are loaded into the TMS to address project-specific technical aspects.
4. Translating Text and Non-Text Features: Professional gaming translators work on the text strings within the TMS, optimizing them to meet the requirements of the target audience in different regions. Non-text features that may require localization include themes, clothing, color schemes, backgrounds, and other in-game elements.
5. Localization Quality Assurance: This stage involves comprehensive testing of the game by experts, evaluating it from linguistic, UI/UX, and compliance perspectives. It is the final step in the video game localization process and allows for any necessary corrections before facing the negative consequences of an improperly localized game, such as bad publicity.
What is Transcreation in Video Game Localization?
Transcreation is the process of incorporating creativity and individuality into the translations of a game. It involves effectively adapting cultural references and in-game elements to the target audience’s language and culture.
When Does Transcreation Come into Play?
Transcreators are trained to adapt all audio and text used in video games. The list of items that can be transcreated is extensive, including powers, character names, jokes, character restrictions, weapon names, and cultural references. Failure to replace these features to make them culturally relevant and appropriate to the players can lead to confusion and a less thrilling and immersive gaming experience. However, transcreators must strike a balance to ensure the localized version remains faithful to the original and does not lose its appeal.
The Impact of Transcreation on the Video Game Experience
Transcreation not only makes video games accessible to gamers from different cultures globally but also enhances the overall gaming experience. A reliable game localization agency goes to great lengths to ensure that the game meets the diverse needs and expectations of different markets.
However, when video game localizers fail in their job, the joy of an immersive gaming experience turns into unintentional humor, as seen in one of the most amusing video game localization fails, like the example of Fatal Fury that made millions of fans burst into laughter.
The challenge is undeniable when faced with phrases like “Your fists of evil are about to meet my steel wall of niceness”. But the iconic line “Blood is thick, but syrup’s thicker. Think about it” is truly unmatched. It’s certainly worth contemplating. Just the intricacy of this statement alone probably consumed around 61.5% of the game’s contextual capacity, wouldn’t you agree?
Now, get ready for another mind-boggler from Aero Fighters 2: “I never anticipated frying over a jungle.” Wait, what?
The dialogue in this game is an absolute gem with its delightful “bloken Engrish.” The comedic impact of the typos is heightened by the fact that Spanky, the character delivering that line, is a dolphin… frying in a plane high above the jungle canopy.
However, when it all comes down to it, “A winner is you” – and no one could have expressed it more fittingly than the heroic figure of Pro Wrestling.
This particular video game line is arguably the most renowned example of mistranslation in gaming history. Thanks to its comedic nature, it has become a beloved component of gamers’ favorite memes.
In essence, when translating a video game, it is absolutely crucial to put yourself in the shoes of the player. This is precisely what the translators and localizers responsible for the mislocalized games mentioned earlier failed to do. They lacked a comprehensive understanding of the context.
For video game translators, it is essential to personally experience and engage with the game in order to fully grasp the intricacies of the context. Only then can they effectively recreate the story in the target language.
If you’re in need of game localization services, Ar-Loc Localization offers the necessary tools and expertise to help you expand your video game’s reach globally through meticulous gaming localization and transcreation. Our processes involve developing a deep comprehension of your game’s context through sound judgement. Get in touch with our experts at Ar-Loc Localization today and discover how you can localize your video game into Arabic.
Credits: Anastasia Dimitriadou