Let’s imagine a video game with perfect graphics and sounds. Such a game will be a great hit in the local market. What about releasing a game in a foreign market? One important thing to note is that people will enjoy the game if it is provided to them in their native language. For instance, if you want to release your game in Russia then you must take assistance from professional Russian translation services. You must be wondering what can be other practices to make video games global success.
How to Define Quality in Video Games?
Quality in games comes if you go for professional game localization services because localization in the game enhances the quality of the game and avid gamer feels that game is developed for them. Language translation is another thing that contributes immensely to the quality of the game and provides the gamer with a pleasant user experience.
Do you know that quality is not about the product now, it also involves process? If you want to produce a top-quality game then you must need to work on processes related to translation and localization.
Localize from the Start
The main challenge that many gaming industries face is when to implement the right localization strategy. Often localization is left for afterthought in the development phase. It is as important as other elements like sound design and graphics. When this happens, developers find it difficult to translate and localize the product. The problem arises with the code and the user interface.
Culturalization plays an important role in the success of the localization process. It is a step ahead of the translation. To resonate the game with the target market, the localization team has to adapt images, colors, and characters that according to the requirements of the target market. If these things are not considered during the game development phase then you have to work hard to make video games ready for foreign markets.
The localization should start before going for translation either. It is a very crucial part to integrate localization strategy with the game development process. For maintaining quality in games there should be coordination between the development and localization teams. Everyone that is involved in the development of the game should know the localization process and their role in it.
The game localization team should make a list of technical requirements that need to be considered in the development phase so that developers and the QA team can include it.
It involves things like formats, fonts, different language structures, and adding and subtracting the strings according to the requirements of the gamers. If this all is done then you can easily go for video game translation.
Find the Right Talent and Retain it
Another problem in achieving quality localization in video game development is not finding the right talent and retaining it. For this, some companies go for in-house teams while others look for potential talent. Retaining talent is very important for maintaining quality in the game. Game localization is an ongoing process so game developers need to find translators that are also gamers and need to retain them for maintaining the high quality of the game.
Although there are no specific criteria for hiring translators for the game locations, however, he can check some skills. The translator must have a background in gaming and he is an avid gamer. Moreover, he has a passion for different languages. If he is a game player and open to positive and negative feedback then he can easily learn the technicalities involved in the localization process.
Many companies hire professional translation agencies for different languages. They assign your gaming project to a translator who is not only proficient in languages but he has also prior experience in the gaming industry. Thus they provide you with robust game localization services with quick turnaround time and affordable rates.
Handle the Queries
Do you know that handling query is an integral part of ensuring good quality in the localization process? However, for this, you need to implement a game localization strategy. When lots of people are working on a single project then there is a probability of duplicate efforts and unnecessary queries. Here the question is how to streamline the query management process.
To manage query management, you need to integrate the tools that you are already using in the localization process. If you start creating different tasks then it becomes difficult to manage. Therefore, it is recommended that the project manager assigned by the language service provider allocate the translator per language and that the translator is responsible for handling the queries.
The process can become effective if the gaming company removes the middleman and make developers, stakeholders, and external providers communicate directly with each other and also handle each other’s queries.
It is also very important to keep a track record of the queries. Sometimes translators come up with a very good technical suggestion and it becomes too late to implement it. They can be of great use in the development phase.
Wrapping Up
If you want to make your games, papular video games in Russia then you must implement a localization strategy from the start and should hire the right talent and retain it. Moreover, you can handle the queries by assigning a single translator according to the language. Additionally, you can also remove the middleman and interact with the entire game development and localization team yourself.
