Game Localization: Localization and Game Development: a sibling relationship

It is vital to consider localization as early as possible in Game development.
Localization can have an impact on preproduction, production, postproduction and testing phases.

If you only consider localization as a postproduction task, lots of unnecessary nightmares and last minute efforts are to be expected. It is vital that the core team has at least a basic knowledge of what localization involves. Furthermore, simship for all international releases is common nowadays. If not planned in advanced, your project will be delayed with an increased cost.

Postproduction tasks have already grown exponentially due to multiplatform releases.

Localization Schedule:

If you do not have experts in your team, rely on an external expert for estimating the localization effort. It is possible to select a consultant that could work on this, and further in the process help you select the appropriate localization vendors. It is also possible to work directly with a trusted localization partner.
Similar to the rest of the localization market, there are Multilingual language providers, single language providers, and in addition independent project management companies that could help the publisher coordinate the efforts among several specialized vendors.

Localization Tasks:

First of all, translation. Translation is not cheap if you want to have your game correctly adapted to the target culture and market. Depending on the size of the project and the number of languages planned for the simship several options are possible. When possible, I encourage choosing local specialists in the specific countries.

Voice-Over is another task to be considered. The difference between having the audio localized and not is huge in regards to player perception. Here again it is really important to count on professional actors specialized in videogames. At least in Europe, it is very usual that these professionals are highly recognizable voices of film and TV dubbing.

Asset integration is normally handled by the development department. It can be a complicated task if not correctly planned and automated since the pre-production phase. If it is prepared, it could be the matter of a single day.

Finally, linguistic testing tasks are to be performed. Native speakers with testing experience are the best option. Specialized localization vendors can coordinate the testers. During this phase, testers look for truncated text, misspellings and check that the context is correct.

Get the vendors involved as soon as possible, give them the time to get prepared, and treat your chosen localization vendor as an extended team.

Additional Tasks:

It is important not to forget additional efforts and steps like:
- Rating reviews
- Audits on culturally sensitive content
- Marketability of certain topics

Additional advice:

It is very favorable to involve your in-country team or distributor. Those people can work close to the localization team. Both teams will benefit from the interaction.

Think of centralizing the text assets and assigning a unique string ID to each piece of text.

Always allow for the assets to be translated in a text editor. Of course the localization partner can work on making the text translatable, but the earlier this idea is implemented, the better. There is a tendency to use Spreadsheets, this could be a bad idea since text can be truncated.

For images, always use multiple layers, separating text from art. The amount of work will definitely be reduced. Same for cinematics, separating the voice track from the rest will enable an easy replacement of the localized voice.

Use unicode whenever possible, also enabling double-byte support. Take care of using fonts that are prepared for an international release. Nowadays it is also important to check that the font displays well on High Definition screens.

Consider text expansion during development. Languages like German can be 30% longer than English. Also remember this when creating the User Interfaces with menus and dropdown lists.

Icons are a good option, but have them checked in the countries you are planning to market the game.

Gamasutra.com: Interview to Tim O'Leary: Nintendo's North American localization lead

The Entertainment Software Industry continues to expand.

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in 2007, the industry took in close to 9.5 USD$ billion worldwide.

Video Games are not an exception. It is important that developpers consider localization as soon as possible in the game development cycle.The Localization process for video game titles includes tasks as the translation of the linguistic assets, the localization or dubbing of the voiceover, the integration of all these localized assets, and the linguistic testing and debugging of the localized game.

More depth on Nintendo's approach can be read on this Gamasutra interview.

Tim O'Leary, Nintendo's North American localization lead explains the challenges for translating "certain cultural touchstones from Japan to the West while still maintaining the developer's vision, and explains more about the art of localizing games, outlining how his office works together with the Japanese developers to walk this fine line."

SDL Buys Idiom

I read in Common Sense Advisory's Global watchtower that SDL has bought Idiom.
http://globalwatchtower.com/2008/02/11/sdl-buys-idiom/#more-479

This is another merge or adquisition that brings together two big names of the industry.
I believe the competition between Idiom and Trados Translation Management Solution was good, since both tried to create and innovate in order to outperform the competition.

I personally doubt this will continue, although the information from both parties states that Idiom will continue autonomously until a planned integration of the platforms in 2010.

Hopefully this will bring new players in the market and options for smaller translation automation providers.