[Game Localization] Game Localization FAQ (1) Can you break down your localization process?
Greetings, we are Latis Global Communications, a company dedicated in localizing games. We provide high quality game services to game developers all over the world. We also provide informative content to help developers successfully expand their market abroad.
Today, we will tell you about the localization process at Latis Global Communications in detail.
At Latis Global, our teams are dedicated to localizing games. These expert teams consist of translators, reviewers, and native proofreaders who provide localization that can capture the heart of target audiences.
1. Familiarization to Understand the Game
Before the localization process begins we go through a familiarization process to understand the game in-depth in order to be able to provide a better localization service. Usually for this process, we consider the in-game text, planning documents, and character profiles provided by the client. If game builds are available, the staff will play the build to familiarize themselves with the game.
2. Planning and Preparing for Translation
Once the files we received from the client have been analyzed and we have familiarized ourselves with the game, it’s time for us to plan the whole localization process.
At this stage, we check the source, set the unit price and delivery schedule. At this point, the source text is also rewritten to remove errors and typos.
*Source Rewriting service: Find and rewrite problems within the source before the translation phase. This enhances the quality of both the source and the translation.
3. Translation/Editing/Proofreading
Now the translation phase begins. This means that the translation is done, reviewers revise it, and proofreaders finalize the review of the translation. Here at Latis, we have in-house English, Japanese, and Chinese proofreaders for this task. They make the text read naturally in the target language and fix problems that arise due to cultural differences by communicating with the client. Sometimes at this point, the client requests that work is returned to see what has been done so far.
4. Quality Assurance
Once the review is done, it’s time for QA. QA is the last stage of most L10N projects in which terminology and style consistency in sentences and texts are checked. This task is aided by QA tools that mechanically find inconsistencies in text.
After this is done, an LBT (Linguistic Build Test) takes place. At this stage, the polished text is applied to the actual game and testers play the build to find out there are any issues with 1) text overwrap, 2) text visibility, and 3) out-of-context translation. The testers create reports of these errors and reviewers fix the reported problems.
5.Final Delivery and Maintenance Service
Once all that is done, it’s time for the final delivery. But this final delivery is not the end of the project. We create and maintain a translation memory for future updates. This translation memory reduces costs and the time it takes to translate future texts of the same game by leveraging existing translations.
Our extensive knowledge of video games helps us to deliver superior gaming services.
We are a team made up of game specialists who fully understand and love video games.
We provide our clients with the highest quality gaming services for all types, platforms, and genres of video games. With considerable knowledge and experience, we support global video game developers and publishers for their successful launch.
