作者：Patrick Yip

引言

手机游戏开发者在向海外扩张的过程中常会遇到巨大的障碍，我们将在本文讨论开发者在进行游戏本地化时易犯的7种错误做法以及对应的解决方法。

1.将文本硬码到源代码中

为了节省时间，有些游戏开发者会将自己的游戏文本硬码到源代码中，例如：

/** Bad Example */

var language = getCurrentLanguage();
function attackEnemy(event) {
var message = document.getElementById(‘message’);

// Name of player and enemy decided by code logic
var player_name = ‘…’;
var enemy_name = ‘…’;

// To show a message on the screen
if (language === ‘english’) {
message.innerHTML = player_name + ‘ attacks ‘ + enemy_name + ‘.’;
} else if (language === ‘chinese’) {
message.innerHTML = player_name + ‘向’ + enemy_name + ‘作出攻擊。’;
}
// Continues with other logic
}
// Attack Enemy by clicking a button
var attackButton = document.getElementById(‘attack’);
attackButton.addEventListener(‘click’, attackEnemy);

在这个例子中，攻击信息“玩家攻击敌人”嵌入了源代码逻辑中。这种硬码文本是个捷径，但与许多捷径一样，你过后总会为此付出代价。

所有文本都嵌入代码中，你过后每次都得重新追踪你想修改或更新的翻译内容。这会拖慢你的翻译进度并且成本更昂贵。

如何解决？

一定要遵从符合国际惯例的最佳字符串包装技巧。此外，当你从源代码中提取文本时，要全面考虑并将其放入资源文件夹（由关键/值匹配数据组成）。针对每种游戏语言保存资源文件夹。这样更便于管理你的翻译文本。

上述例子可以采用如下解决方法：

/** Good Example */

var locale = getCurrentLocale();
// Some predefined translations
var translations = {
‘en’: {
‘patrick’: ‘Patrick’,
‘slime’: ‘Slime’,
‘attack_message’: ‘{{ player }} attacks {{ enemy }}.’
},
‘zh-HK’: {
‘patrick’: ‘帕特里克’,
‘slime’: ‘史萊姆’,
‘attack_message’: ‘{{ player }}向{{ enemy }}作出攻擊。’
}
};

function getTranslation(identifier, params) {
var string = translations[locale][identifier];
// handle parameters substitution
// …
return string;
}

function attackEnemy(event) {
var message = document.getElementById(‘message’);
var player_name = getTranslation(‘patrick’);
var enemy_name = getTranslation(‘slime’);
// To show a message on the screen
message.innerHTML = getTranslation(‘attack_message’, {
player: player_name,
enemy: enemy_name
});
// Continues with other logic
}

// Attack Enemy by clicking a button
var attackButton = document.getElementById(‘attack’);
attackButton.addEventListener(‘click’, attackEnemy);

2.未向翻译人员提供足够的情境信息

许多游戏开发者并没有认真对待游戏的本地化处理，只是给翻译人员发送一个含有大量文本的表格，却没有提供任何图片或其他情境化信息。

情境对于翻译质量来说很关键，如果翻译人员不清楚该在某一情境下该如何用词，就可能犯下严重的错误。

例如，将《现代战争2》从英文翻译成日语时，翻译人员偶然将“Remember, no Russians”译成“他们是俄罗斯人，杀死他们”。如果了解更多情境，该日语翻译人员就会清楚俄罗斯人并不是这个游戏环节的射击目标了。他们理解错了，所以翻译有误。日本游戏玩家也被误导，结果射击目标就错了。他们为此极为不快。

解决方法

你的团队中必须有人负责本地化事项，例如本地化项目经理。这个职位的人员的职责就是响应翻译人员的问题，并为之提供情境信息。（建议：如果你的团队很小，无法专门指派一个人监管本地化事项，那就让文案人员来负责这个项目）。

如果你为翻译人员提供了良好的情境信息，就更有可能获得良好的翻译内容。这些信息要包括：

*翻译术语表

*风格引导

*实用的视觉内容，如截图

*关于对话字幕的细节

*游戏主角的附录

3.聘请了错误的游戏翻译人员

游戏是一种独特的内容。不同游戏题材会带来不同的翻译挑战。

研究型文本

许多游戏中含有俚语，这包括游戏行话（例如《英雄联盟》中的gank一词）。有些游戏还含有专用术语——例如FIFA游戏中的体育术语。这就要求翻译人员进行大量的研究调查，我们将此称为研究型文本。

创意型文本

而像《QuizUp》或《Candy Crush》等其他类型的游戏则引进了大量新的游戏概念，这样翻译人员在一定程度上也成了内容创造者。我们将此称为创意型文本。

一般来说，常规的翻译人员并不总能与任务对口。如果选择了错误的翻译人员，你可能就会陷入一个漫长而昂贵并且不快的游戏本地化经历中。

解决方法

你要找的翻译人员最好就是当地人并且是活跃游戏玩家，理想情况下，最好是你这种游戏类型的玩家。

要先想想你游戏内容的细节，它属于研究型还是创意型的内容？然后再查看游戏翻译人员的履历。看看对方之前翻译过哪些游戏？对方玩什么类型的游戏？对方是否具有调查研究的经验？还是富有创造内容的经验？

4.没有在真正的设备上测试翻译版本

有些开发者并不会测试本地化版本的游戏——而这可能给游戏的UI和图像造成影响。

问题在于翻译出来的字符串通常未必符合游戏画面或UI元素。毕竟，翻译会改变句子的长度。例如，一个句子在翻译成德语之后一般会变得更长（所占空间比英语文本多50%），而翻译成中文则会变得更短（中文的字符更紧凑）。

除此之外，翻译完成后的翻译，有些字符串也会因为硬码而丢失。

解决方法

在真正的设备上测试翻译版本！有一个方法就是伪码本地化测试，即替换应用中的文本元素。一个更简单更有效的方法就是在设备上进行本地化测试，这还有利于你观察游戏本地化处理后的整体质量，而不仅仅是发现故障。

你还可以将文本空间设置成自动调整格式，这可以避免出现一些常见的UI错误。

5.没有注意文化上的差异

世界是多元化的，不同地区的玩家也有不同的游戏喜好。每个国家的发行和内容规范也不尽相同。每个手机游戏市场都有其独特的生态圈。

如果你没有做好准备，就可能被新市场的一些特点挡住去路（例如：中国的Google Play不支持IAP功能）。你的游戏内容可能不适合特定的市场，你可能要调整游戏内容。例如，原版PC游戏《帝国时代》登陆韩国时，它对日军攻陷朝鲜半岛的历史描述激怒了该国政治决策者。最终《帝国时代》不得不创造了一个可下载补丁更改了该描述，以便安抚韩国官方的情绪。

解决方法

你一定不想因为文化差异而惹上麻烦。你可以向当地的游戏行家，即翻译人员寻求帮助。让他们帮忙审核一下你的游戏内容有何不妥之处。

6.翻译内容管理不当

游戏开发者要处理大量不同类型的内容：手工内容，包装或应用商店描述，营销文件，游戏内界面文本，以及对话字幕等。

开发者有时候会在管理不同格式和文件上犯错。因此不同内容之间就可能产生一些错误翻译，这就可能降低效率和增加成本。

解决方法

确保对翻译内容进行集中管理。理想情况下要使用翻译管理系统，这有助于你组织和管理翻译内容，并对其进行调整。

7.最后才考虑本地化事项

许多游戏开发者将本地化视为游戏开发周期的最后环节。对于他们来说，这相当于一个额外步骤，所以会推到最后。

但实际上，这种想法并不明智。这种做法会让你错失海外市场机遇。你很可能在当地市场遭遇大量山寨产品，并因此无功而返。如果你决定之后再对游戏进行本地化处理，这会导致你不得不重新编写源代码并创建翻译材料。

解决方法

要一开始就考虑本地化操作。在开发早期阶段就要包装字符串，以便进行本地化处理。如果不这样操作，至少也要尽量调整编码方式以令其符合国际化标准。

世界上多数游戏玩家来自海外，而这个市场只会不断发展。所以要适时做好本地化的准备，这样才有可能征服世界。（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

The Seven Most Common Mistakes in Game Localization

by Patrick Yip

Introduction

As we’ve discussed in an earlier post, mobile game developers often encounter huge roadblocks at international expansion. In this post, we’ll talk about the seven most common—and devastating—mistakes that developers make during game localization. And also how to avoid those pitfalls.

1. Hard-coding text into the source code

To save time, some game developers hard-code their game’s text into the source code. For example,

/** Bad Example */

var language = getCurrentLanguage();
function attackEnemy(event) {
var message = document.getElementById(‘message’);

// Name of player and enemy decided by code logic
var player_name = ‘…’;
var enemy_name = ‘…’;

// To show a message on the screen
if (language === ‘english’) {
message.innerHTML = player_name + ‘ attacks ‘ + enemy_name + ‘.’;
} else if (language === ‘chinese’) {
message.innerHTML = player_name + ‘向’ + enemy_name + ‘作出攻擊。’;
}
// Continues with other logic
}
// Attack Enemy by clicking a button
var attackButton = document.getElementById(‘attack’);
attackButton.addEventListener(‘click’, attackEnemy);

In this example, the attack message “A player attacks an enemy” is embedded into the logic of the source code. This hard-coding text is a shortcut. But, like many shortcuts, you’ll pay for it later on.

Given that all the text is embedded in the code, you have to go back in and trace it every time you want to alter or update a translation. This slows down your translation effort and make it much more expensive to proceed.

How to fix it.

Be sure to follow best string wrapping practices that fit the standards of internationalization. Also, when you’re extracting text from the source code, do so comprehensively, and make it into a resource file. (A resource file consists of key/value pair data). Save one resource file for each of your game’s languages. That way, managing all your translations will be much easier.

In regard to the example used above, a better way to wrap the strings should be like this:

/** Good Example */

var locale = getCurrentLocale();
// Some predefined translations
var translations = {
‘en’: {
‘patrick’: ‘Patrick’,
‘slime’: ‘Slime’,
‘attack_message’: ‘{{ player }} attacks {{ enemy }}.’
},
‘zh-HK’: {
‘patrick’: ‘帕特里克’,
‘slime’: ‘史萊姆’,
‘attack_message’: ‘{{ player }}向{{ enemy }}作出攻擊。’
}
};

function getTranslation(identifier, params) {
var string = translations[locale][identifier];
// handle parameters substitution
// …
return string;
}

function attackEnemy(event) {
var message = document.getElementById(‘message’);
var player_name = getTranslation(‘patrick’);
var enemy_name = getTranslation(‘slime’);
// To show a message on the screen
message.innerHTML = getTranslation(‘attack_message’, {
player: player_name,
enemy: enemy_name
});
// Continues with other logic
}

// Attack Enemy by clicking a button
var attackButton = document.getElementById(‘attack’);
attackButton.addEventListener(‘click’, attackEnemy);

2. Providing insufficient contextual information to translators

A lot of game developers don’t take localization seriously. They just send their translators a big spreadsheet full of text without any images or other contextual information.

Context is crucial for translation quality, and without a sufficient sense of how the words are being used in context, translators can make serious mistakes.

For example, while translating the game Modern Warfare 2 from English to Japanese, translators accidentally turned the line “Remember, no Russians” into “Kill them, they are Russians.” With more context, the Japanese translators would have understood that Russians weren’t the target in this part of the game. Instead, they mistranslated it. Japanese gamers got confused and started shooting the wrong targets. They weren’t happy.

How to fix it.

You need someone on your team who’s responsible for localization, such as a localization project manager. This person will respond to translators’ questions and prepare contextual information for the translators. (Tip: if you have a small team and can’t afford to make localization oversight a designated role, enlist your script writer for the project).

If you give your translators good contextual information, you’ll be likelier to get a great translation. This information includes:

A translation glossary

A style guide

Useful visuals, such as screenshots

Details about dialogue subtitles

Biographies of major characters

3. Hiring the wrong type of game translators

Games are a unique kind of content. And different game genres present very different kinds of translation challenges.

Research-Oriented Text

A lot of games involve slang, including specialized gaming slang (think of the word “gank,” which has a special meaning to League of Legends players). Some games involve specialized terminology—say, sports terms, for a FIFA game—that require translators to do a lot of research. We call this research-oriented text.

Creativity-Oriented Text

Other games, such as QuizUp or Candy Crush, introduce a lot of new gaming concepts, so that translators are also, at some level, content creators. We call this creativity-oriented text.

Basically, regular translators aren’t always up to the task. Pick the wrong ones, and you may be in for a long, expensive, unsatisfying game localization experience.

How to fix it.

You need translators who are native speakers and active gamers—and, preferably, familiar with your type of game.

Start by thinking about the content of your game in detail. Is more of your content research-oriented or creativity-oriented? Then examine the portfolios of game translators. What games has she helped localize before? What kinds of games does she play? Does she have experience with research? Experience with content creation?

4. Failing to test translations on an actual device

Some developers don’t test-drive their localized games—which can leave them with a game that has all sorts of graphics and UI problems.

The problem is that translated strings often don’t fit graphics and UI elements. After all, translation tends to change the length of a sentence. For instance, a sentence will get much longer after it’s translated into German (which tends to take up 50% more space than English text) and much shorter after it’s translated into Chinese (which uses compact characters).

Also, in the final version, some strings may be missing due to hard-coding.

How to fix it.

Test your translation on an actual device! One method is pseudo-localization testing, in which you replace the textual elements of an application. A simpler, more cost-effective method is on-device localization testing, which has the added benefit of letting you gauge the overall quality of game localization, and not just the presence of glitches.

You can also set text space as autofit with the text, which helps to prevent some of these common UI problems.

5. Not paying enough attention to culturization

The world is a diverse place. Gamers in different regions have different gaming preferences. Distribution and content regulations vary from country to country. And each mobile game market has its own unique ecology.

If you’re not prepared, certain features of a new market can blindside you (for example: in-app purchases are not allowed on Google Play in China). Your game content may be inappropriate for a particular market. It may need adjustment. When the original PC game Age of Empires arrived in South Korea, for example, its historical depiction of Japanese armies invading the Korean peninsula offended government regulators. In the end, Age of Empires had to create a downloadable patch that changed the depiction in a way that appeased the authorities (source).

How to fix it.

You don’t want to be caught off-guard by cultural differences. Fortunately, you have a group of game-savvy locals ready to help: your translators. Ask them in advance for their observations about your game content.

6. Managing translation content poorly

Game developers have a lot of different types of content: manual content, packaging or app store descriptions, marketing copy, in-game interface text, and dialogue subtitles.

Game developers sometimes do a poor job of organizing all the different formats and files. As a result, it’s easy to have mistranslations across different kinds of content, or to have duplicate translations made of the same piece of text—which slows the process down and raises costs.

How to fix it.

Make sure to centralize the management of your translations. The ideal is to use a Translation Management System, which helps you to organize and manage your translations, and to adapt them for new uses.

7. Treating localization as an afterthought

A lot of game developers think of localization as something that occurs late in the development cycle. It’s a kind of extra step, for them, tacked onto the end.

Really, though, it’s unwise to treat localization like an afterthought. Doing so, you miss out on great opportunities in overseas markets. You risk getting overwhelmed by local clones, with nowhere to go. And, if you do decide to localize later, it’s much more expensive when you have to rework your source code and build up translation materials from scratch.

How to fix it.

Think about localization from the start. Wrap strings at an early stage of game development, so that they’re ready for localization down the line. If you don’t do that, at least try to tweak your coding style to meet the internationalization standard.

Most of the world’s gamers are overseas. And that market is only growing. Be localization-ready, and you’ll be ready to conquer the world.（source：oneskyapp）