The Game Industry has experienced unstoppable growth over the past few years. But most of the benefit, gratitude, and attention of the success of the game goes to the director, developers, graphic designers, and composers. However, there are people who were not caught on the radar and did not get the proper credit, one of those role is the Game Translator.
Before, you may have experienced trouble with the language and words in the game that were jumbled, and you were not able to proceed to the proper place, or you were unable to understand the situation properly.
Gaming industry created a system that has been upgraded over past few years, starting from casual puzzle games to video games with complicated storylines. These games currently provide multiple languages, and the translation system has also been improved. Of course, there are still mistranslations, but the game is still playable despite those.
Evolution of Game Translation
Few years ago, most of the game translation were performed by normal translators, basing only on text. Without worldwide knowledge, character analysis, and game service language, these caused poor immersion in the game and inconsistency in the translation. These issues led to the necessity of professional game translators; thus, the game translation industry arose.
Professional game translators who have a good understanding of the game and are multilingual have joined the game development stage. They take text from games and apply a multilingual translation that matches with the style of the game.
Based on Statista’s 2022 report, there are currently 3.24 billion gamers around the world which are rapidly increasing and need professional translation. After researching the market, game developers request translators to translate the game to multiple languages which have a higher potential on the market.
Understanding the Gamer-base
Game translation is not just translation from language to language. Game translators require working knowledge on the target country’s culture and other key factors such as slang and customs to translate accurately. For professional game translators, they should be bilingual, and they need to be familiar with the tradition and culture of the country’s language.
For example, translating American humor/jokes into Chinese is often not well-reflected because their cultures are different. So, you should be more careful in researching what in-game script should be shown to Chinese gamers.
This will make gamers focus on the game and result to higher sales and more positive reviews. That is why we recommend that you hire a professional game translator to perform the work properly.
Question about Game Translators
Q. Do we require professional qualifications?
- Most of the professional game translators have bilingual degree and deep knowledge of their cultural background to provide higher quality game translations.
Q. What kinds of work do we perform in the company?
- Game translator manages to translate all text of the game to a certain language. Starting with the subtitle up to setting languages that will make the gamers to play without any hesitation.
Q. Can translators play the game in the company?
- Game translators may not be able to play the game directly, but some work processes might have differences, as most of the game language errors are tested by game testers.
Q. To be a game translator, do we require another skill aside from being bilingual?
In game translation, the translator should be cautious proofreaders. It requires insights that will maintain high quality or maximum accuracy of the translation.
Some translators choose a certain genre to concentrate in and be more professional. In general, game terms might be useful but for over several years of experience, translating can be an asset too.
Final
Throughout today’s post, you will find out more about what a professional game translator is, what skills they require, what are the things you have always wanted to know about game translators.
There are lots of translators in various fields such as movies, books, professional papers/articles, technical data etc. that recognized translators as a proper expertise. To become a successful game translator like we mentioned above, it is not just about language skills but also it requires passion, knowledge of the game, and techniques on how to be able to use them.
