原文作者：Damien Yoccoz  译者：Megan Shieh

考虑启用本地化的时候，每位独立开发者都会问自己“值不值得？”。为了找到答案，我们访问了一些具有本地化经验的独立开发者。

Jumb-O-Fun，Mega Dwarf和ZiMAD阐述了本地化过程中面临的不确定性、投入的成本以及时间。

此外，他们详细地介绍了一些本地化的策略、节省成本和时间的技巧，还有在Unity引擎中使用过的工具。

最后，我们讨论了本地化所带来的回报，在这方面，每位开发者都有不一样的看法——获得应用商店的推荐、触及更大范围的受众、构建更为庞大的玩家基础，等等。

受访者简介

Jumb-O-Fun工作室成立于2009年，是iOS游戏《Wagers of War》的开发商，近期刚刚完成了该作的本地化项目。Glen Pothoven向我们分享了本地化所带来的回报以及他们使用的具体方法。

Mega Dwarf 地处加拿大，是一家由三名开发者组成的独立工作室。 该工作室最著名的作品是热门游戏《God of Word》，Daniel Batoff向我们分享了本地化过程中出现的失误，以及本地化对该作产生的影响。

ZiMAD是一家国际开发商，Level Up Translation的合作伙伴之一。该公司的应用市场搜索优化（ASO）专家Valeriya Shytikova将和我们分享本地化《Dig Out!》的经历以及一些实用的小窍门。

目录

第一篇：要不要本地化？

第二篇：准备工作

第三篇：如何选定市场？

第四篇：大概需要投入多少成本？

第五篇：如何找到一家靠谱的本地化公司

第六篇：成果/回报

红利篇：意见以及建议

第一篇：要不要本地化？

“游戏本地化”基本上就是将一款电子游戏的所有内容从一门语言转换成另一门语言，包括翻译文本、减缓文化差异，等等。

我们将会在这一章节中深入解析本地化决策背后的根本原因。

1. 真正实现本地化之前，你是如何看待“本地化”这个事情的？

Jumb-O-Fun：我们一直都认为它是最大化收益的关键因素；但从另一方面来看，除非这款游戏非常成功，否则我们将永远无法确定本地化的投资是否值得。

Mega Dwarf：一开始，我们自己也不是很清楚这么做值不值得。然而3A工作室会为了本地化一款游戏而雇用一整个团队，独立开发者们会为了同样的原因而在网上举行众筹，我认为这些举动的背后都有着清晰的逻辑和延展性的目标。但是，除非你能够看到实打实的销售数据以及玩家的来源地，否则很难证明本地化的合理性。

ZiMAD：就像所有的开发者一样，我们热爱自己的游戏，因此保持着乐观的态度并且期望能够通过本地化来获得更多的有机安装。

2. 为什么会决定要本地化？

Jumb-O-Fun：其实一开始我们并没有打算要本地化《Wagers of War》。 后来我们的销售代表建议说，本地化可能可以推动《Wagers of War》成为应用商店的推荐游戏。事实证明他的想法是正确的，因为应用商店最终真的推荐了我们的游戏。

Mega Dwarf：这个决定的背后包含着各种各样的原因。首先，我们希望《God of Word》能够触及到尽可能多的受众，我们希望各个地区的玩家都能够体验并享受我们的游戏。《God of Word》的发布平台是Steam，该应用商店上的文字休闲游戏多为英文版本，因此我们想要让那些不懂英文的人也有机会体验文字游戏的乐趣。

其次，这也是一个商业化的决定。我们开发游戏的目的就是为了赚钱，买游戏的人越多，潜在收入就越高。Mega Dwarf是一个3人团队，游戏开发是我们的主要/唯一收入来源。

最后，我们希望能够在Steam的Greenlight审核中得到更多玩家的青睐。我们发现（只有）英文版本的游戏会收到很多反对票，因为非英语国家的选民不会投赞成票，他们不会去购买一款自己看不懂的游戏。

ZiMAD：本地化游戏的转化率比一般游戏更高。原因很简单，如果无法理解游戏中的内容，人们就很难决定要不要玩这个游戏；反之，如果可以完全地理解游戏中的内容，他们就可以尽情地享受这款游戏。

因为各种各样的原因，世界上有许多的非英文国家和地区。这些地区的居民有的从未学过英文，有的学了但一知半解。因此无论你试图在游戏中传递什么信息，他们都可能无法理解。

此外，人们会尽量避免边玩边翻译的体验，因此本地化是很自然的事情。

3. 为什么有些独立开发者不愿意考虑本地化？

Jumb-o-fun：我认为有两个主要原因。一个是开发多语言版本所需的额外工作；其次是翻译的直接成本，开发者们担心费用太高或者本地化带来的额外收入无法收回成本。

Mega Dwarf：绝大多数的独立开发者都未必能够负担得起雇用专业本地化服务所需的费用。当然，本地化服务公司也不是唯一的选择，你可以让粉丝帮你，或者寻找一些免费的游戏本地化资源。然而专业与非专业的区别不言而喻。

另一个主要原因是时间。虽然《God of Word》是一款文字游戏，但是文本内容却不算很多。然而即使使用了像TextMeshPro和I2 Localization这样出色辅助工具，我们还是花了整整好几个星期才完成了本地化。如果你想要尽快地生产出一款产品，而且还需要在限期内完成工作，那么你可能就无法挤出额外的开发时间来实现本地化。

对于我们而言，特性也是另外一个关键因素。我们想要在《God of Word》里给每个敌人、boss和物品都配上一小段详细介绍，让玩家了解一些鲜为人知的希腊神话；但是如果要翻译这几十段文本的话，本地化的费用就会超出我们的承担范围，因此我们不得不放弃这个想法。

ZiMAD：美国移动游戏市场的形势目前相当严峻，大型工作室之间的竞争很可能会把这些小项目推入海里。

另一方面，我认为许多独立开发者都低估了本地化可能带来的潜在收益。

第二篇：准备工作

从一开始就制定并实施一项战略可以让你在后期的开发中省掉很多麻烦，你需要在开发的早期阶段就开始考虑本地化。

受访的三家工作室各自使用了不同的本地化策略，而这些策略也为他们的游戏带来了不同的影响。

4. 你们做了哪些准备工作？

Jumb-O-Fun：多年前我们为Unity引擎创建了一个C#类库，这些年来我们一直都在用这个类库开发游戏。该类库负责管理游戏的各种核心元素——游戏文本、游戏设置、音乐、声音效果。此外，它还可以处理Unity引擎支持的所有语言，因此我们可以随时将自己的任何一款游戏进行本地化。

我们会把所有的文本字符串都保存在一个Excel文档中，这样比较容易交给翻译人员。

另外，我们会用High Logic Font Creator和Photoshop为即将本地化的语言开发自定义字体，要实现这点并不困难（除非你要开发的是针对亚洲语言的字体）。

自定义字体的开发步骤如下：

第一步，我们用像Arial这样的基本字体将所有的字符打出来，保存在一个巨大的Photoshop文档里。

第二步，将文档搬到新帝（Cintiq）平板电脑上，用黑色实心线条在Arial字体的基础上进行绘制，直到对所有的字符都满意为止。

第三步，把像素格式的字符一个一个地从Photoshop复制到Font Creator上。

第四步，根据自己的需求对字符之间的距离进行优化调节，然后把它们导出到一个TTF文档里。

最后，把这个TTF带入Unity引擎使用。

Mega Dwarf：我们是在开发的中期才开始考虑本地化的，到了这个阶段，很难完整地跟踪游戏中的文本信息。许多的AAA工作室都会使用能够跟踪游戏文本的程序，这样可以更容易地找到拼写错误和那些还未被应用到的文本。如果你有条件这么做的话，那么赶快行动起来，建议越早越好。

ZiMAD：我们会先把所有的文本都放入一个Excel表格里，每格放入一个单词或句子，每列为一种语言。这样的话，本地化公司就不会把文本顺序弄得乱七八糟。另外，我们会把所有的东西都提前设置好，随时准备把译后文本带入到游戏里。

5. 准备工作后来真的有派上用场吗？

Jumb-O-Fun：有准备跟没准备真的差很多。我们大概是在开发截止日期前的一个月才决定要将游戏本地化的，如果游戏不是多语言版本的话，我们根本就来不及本地化。

因为已经提前把游戏开发成多语言版本了，所以我们需要做的就只是把Excel文档交给Level Up Translation进行翻译，然后创建自定义字体就可以了。

Mega Dwarf：因为我们没有从一开始就跟踪记录所有的文本，所以后来不得不把文本分成好几次发送给翻译代理，而这种做法大大地提高了本地化的成本。

通常（游戏）本地化工作室会根据字数来给你折扣，我们在最初的时候漏掉了一些单词，而且后来还决定要推出一个万圣节更新，因此不但没有拿到大折扣，估计还多花了些钱。

总而言之，我们把所有的文本分成三批翻译；如果当初一次性交给本地化公司的话，成本就会大大降低。

从中学到的教训就是一定要记录跟踪游戏中的所有文本，然后在送去本地化之前，先考虑补丁、DLC和更新，不然的话… 你会多花很多冤枉钱。

ZiMAD：将所有的译后文本保存在同一个文档里，使得后期的带入变得容易了许多。为应用商店和市场营销所准备的翻译文档也是以同样的方式处理的。

第三篇：选定市场

取决于游戏的各方面因素，某些市场的利润肯定要比其他的市场更高，因此你必须进行一次全面的市场调查。

那么，受访的这三家工作室是如何做市场调研的？而又是什么驱动了他们的最终决策？

6. 你们是如何选定目标投放市场的？

Jumb-O-Fun：我们的目标投放市场基本上是根据市场调研结果决定的。

市场调研考虑的主要因素是：

1)应用商店生成的总收益

2)每个用户的平均收入（ARPU）

3)iOS设备的普及率

4)该国能够说流利英文的人有多少

Mega Dwarf：因为我们的游戏准备在Steam上发布，所以我们使用了Steam硬件与软件调查（Steam Hardware Survey）来取得用户硬件规格的最新信息，它还提供了游戏玩家的主要语言百分比，因此目标市场的抉择变得很容易。

ZiMAD：我们仔细地分析了各个目标市场，思考游戏在哪个区域内会最受欢迎？首先搜集数据——该地区存在多少竞争对手，目前最受欢迎的APP/游戏以及流行趋势，然后再根据情况作出决定。

根据我们的经验，如果出现以下情况的话就不值得本地化：

1. 游戏内容针对某个特定地区的活动/节日

2. 目标市场已经存在50多款同类游戏了

第四篇：大概需要投入多少成本？

本地化的成本会随着游戏的自身条件而存在差异，一切都将取决于游戏的字符数量（文本）。叙事主导的RPG游戏当然会比极简主义的游戏更贵。

7. 你们的本地化预算有多少？

Jumb-O-Fun：《Wagers of War》大概有2000字左右，我们将它翻译成了荷兰语、意大利语、法语、德语、俄语以及西班牙语。最初我们打算将预算控制在1000美元以内，不过因为临时增加了一两个额外的语言，所以最终的本地化支出稍稍超出了预算。

Mega Dwarf：预算不是先决条件，最重要的是翻译质量必须达到专业标准。我们选择了性价比最高的本地化公司，花费了500多美元。我认为对于一个小/中型独立游戏而言，这个价格算是挺合理的。

其实有非常多的技巧和小窍门可以用来降低本地化成本，比如你可以用简单的图标来代替按钮的文本。

对于大型独立游戏和3A级的游戏而言，本地化成本时常会达到数万美元。所以如果你想写一个史诗级的故事情节，然后一字不差地把它翻译成各种语言，那么就得做好钱包大出血的准备。

ZiMAD：具体的预算我也记不清楚了，因为每个游戏的预算都会随着文本量的大小而存在差异。但是我们通常会花费1500-3000美元来把一款游戏的所有文本翻译成10种语言。

第五篇：如何找到一家靠谱的本地化公司？

如果翻译效果不理想，那么这游戏基本上就废了；不想游戏成为笑柄的话，就必须找到正规的本地化代理。便宜没好货，好货不便宜。别为了省下那么一两块钱而毁掉游戏的声誉，到头来得不偿失。最好是找到正规、专业的本地化代理。

8. 你是如何选择本地化服务公司的？

Jumb-O-Fun：通常我一有时间就会浏览游戏行业的网站，然后有一天我看到了Level Up Translation发布的一篇博客，内容写的很好。当时我们还有没打算要找本地化服务公司，但是我知道总有一天会用到的，所以我就把这篇文章加入书签里了，然后需要的时候再把它翻出来。后来我们与 Level Up Translation取得了联系，同时也对这家公司进行了一番额外的调查，然后我确信它符合我们的要求，而事实也是如此。

Mega Dwarf：这个过程其实挺简单的，我们在网上找到尽可能多的本地化服务公司。它们大多会根据你的字数、重复字数和句子难度提供免费的价格评估。记住，你必须要有一个涵盖所有文本的完整列表，这样才能得到准确的估计。然后我们从中选出了性价比最高的一家公司。

ZiMAD：我们此前曾与多家本地化服务公司有过合作关系。其中有些是在谷歌上找到的，有些是同事推荐的，而合不合作取决于译文的质量。

第六篇：成果/回报

说实话，我们很难衡量本地化对销售所产生的影响，本地化的决策仅仅是基于‘人们不会购买自己看不懂的东西’这么一个理论。不过玩游戏的人越多，潜在销售就越多，这点却是实打实的。

受访的三家工作室都一致认为本地化对他们的游戏产生了积极的影响。

9. 本地化游戏的反响如何？对销量带来了什么影响？

Jumb-O-Fun：本地化对我们的游戏产生了巨大的影响。《Wagers of War》是一款多人游戏，因此我们必须拥有一个庞大的用户基础，这样的话玩家才有人可以对打。

《Wagers of War》在发布的时候就已经支持七国语言了，因此用户群的规模直线上升。我们也很快就收回了本地化的成本。此外，如果没有本地化的话，我们的游戏估计也不会被应用商店推荐。

Mega Dwarf：其实我们也无法确切地计算本地化到底为游戏带来了多大的影响。《God of Word》是我们开发的第一款游戏，因此我们没有其他的数据可以用来比较。

不过玩家的评论和反响都很不错，因为他们玩《God of Word》的时候完全不存在语言障碍。

ZiMAD：不好说，因为我们拥有属于自己的一套用户获取策略，而且游戏本身的质量才是最可靠的付费用户获取方式。

判断本地化效果的最好方式就是对转化率（CR）进行分析，我们的付费和有机用户转化率都至少增长了32%。

下图呈现了本地化对《Dig Out!》带来的影响。

用户转化率在本地化（10种语言）之后出现了整体的增长。

10. 盈利最多和最少的市场分别是哪几个？你认为本地化对这些结果有多大影响？

Jumb-O-Fun：最不赚钱的是荷兰市场，主要是因为这个市场的规模较小。最赚钱的是英语和法语市场，(游戏邦注：不过英语市场在这里好像不算，因为《Wagers of War》的母语是英语。）其次是德语和意大利语。

没有本地化的话，我们估计不会在非英语地区获得这么多的牵引力。

Mega Dwarf：除英语地区外，迄今为止最赚钱的是德语市场。实际上，单单是德国的销售额就足以抵消本地化的成本。不仅如此，还有像奥地利这种以德语为官方语言的国家，也是我们的10大创收国家之一。 德语本地化基本上不存在什么风险。

除了德语和法语之外，其他本地化语言都没有明显的收入增长。意大利语、西班牙语、波兰语、葡萄牙语最近也都有销量，不过销售额跟那些没本地化的国家（荷兰、日本）差不多。事实上，有两个国家占我们收入的很大一部分，而我们并没有把游戏本地化成这两个国家的语言。我们无法将游戏本地化成中文或俄语，因为它们用的是不同的字符集，然而《God of Word》在中国的下载量却和美国不相上下。

ZiMAD：《Dig Out!》本地化的影响力在亚洲最大，在欧洲最小。

实现本地化以后，亚洲市场的有机用户转化率增长了34%。

亚洲市场的总体用户（付费和有机）转化率增长了78%。

11. 总的来说，值不值？

Jumb-O-Fun：无论是从盈利方面，还是从多玩家竞赛方面看，都是非常值得的。

唯一的一个缺陷就是更新游戏所需要的时间会长那么一点点，因为我们需要适配各种不同的语言——将更新内容中的所有文本，以及在应用商店中展示的文本全部翻译成指定的语言。幸运的是，Level Up Translation的工作效率非常高。

Mega Dwarf：我们没有硬性的数据可以用来参考，因此真的很难说。

不过从销售方面来看，仅仅是德语市场的销售额就已经足够抵消本地化成本了，所以也不能说本地化是不值得的。

ZiMAD：超值！因为你只需要做一次本地化，就能得到持续性的效果。

红利篇：意见以及建议

12. （你认为）开发者考虑本地化的时候需要注意哪些事情？

Jumb-O-Fun：你需要在一开始的时候就把游戏开发成多语言版本（游戏邦注：如果你想本地化的话）。最好的方法就是把所有的文本字符串都记录下来，存到一个文档里。千万不要使用硬编码文本，不然本地化的时候会很麻烦，而且到时候还很有可能让你直接无法本地化。
目前为止，英语仍然是西方游戏的主要语言。要实现针对亚洲语言的本地化可能会有点困难，但是其他非亚洲语言可以在收入和玩家数量上带来显著的增长。

此外，我建议开发者们学会如何使用一款字体生成器，我们用的是High Logic Font Creator。还有，如果你正在考虑用谷歌翻译器来翻译你的文本，赶快打消这个念头。

Mega Dwarf：我强烈建议所有的开发者们都用心考虑一下本地化这个事情，它可以为你的游戏打开各种各样的可能性。它可以为你吸引到大量的新玩家，而且同类游戏之间，人们更倾向于跟他们语言相通的游戏。

这不仅仅关系到普通的玩家，游戏主播和评论网站也更倾向于那些他们看得懂的游戏。如果本地化能够让你的游戏得到专业的评测，同时获得惊人的曝光率，那么答案是显而易见的。

中国和俄罗斯都是存在巨大潜力的市场，大部分的Steam游戏都尚未普及到这两个市场。此外，德语和法语本地化是风险最低的。

如果你用的是Unity引擎，可以考虑TextMeshPro和I2 Localization这两个工具，它们会为你省下很多的时间和麻烦，绝对值回票价。（TextMeshPro现在可以免费使用啦，赶快去下载吧！）

如果你没有足够的预算可以用来雇佣专业的本地化公司，可以考虑让粉丝来帮助你完成本地化，这样可以缩减本地化的开支，说不定有些粉丝还会免费帮你翻译呢。游戏社区是一个很神奇的地方，充满了热爱电子游戏的人。

ZiMAD：如果美国市场里的同类游戏竞争非常激烈的话，就不要把精力浪费在美国上。不如在其他的地区占领强势地位，排名越高，有机安装就越多。

结论

本地化可以为你的游戏带来许多优势——为多人游戏增添用户基数、帮助你获得国际性的评论（游戏评测网站、游戏主播、国际用户）、获得应用商店的推荐，等等。它是一款非常强大的营销工具。

为了便于实现，本地化必须从第一天就开始准备。就像游戏美术或代码一样，执行质量是成功的关键因素。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

This is the Number One Question for any indie game studio considering localization, so we thought we’d get some answers from developers who took the leap.

Jumb-O-Fun, Mega Dwarf and ZiMAD speak candidly about the uncertainties they had, their preparation, financial investments and the time they put in localizing their game.

They also go into detail about some tricks to save time and money on localization, their strategies and the tools they use in Unity.

At the end we talk about the impact of their localization efforts and each of them has a different take on that. From features in the app store, to reaching wider audiences and building larger player bases, all three studios have a valuable story to tell.
Our interviewees

Jumb-O-Fun have been around since 2009. We recently localized their latest iOS title, Wagers of War, for which they had prepared carefully. Glen Pothoven shared the details of their meticulous approach and how it paid off.

Mega Dwarf are a three-man game-making band, from Canada. They are probably best known for their indie hit, God of Word, a project whose localization mistakes and successes proved to be very instructive. Daniel Batoff shares the ups and downs of their localization project and the impact it had on their game.

ZiMAD is an international developer and another partner of Level Up Translation. Their ASO wizard, Valeriya Shytikova, agreed to share some tips for mobile game developers and tell us about their experience localizing Dig Out!.

Article outline

1 - To localize or not to localize?
2 - Making sure you’re ready
3 - Deciding which markets are worth it
4 - How much will it cost?
5 - Choosing a localization partner
6 - The results
BONUS - Golden advice from devs to devs

To localize or not to localize?
Localization is the art of translating the text, cultural differences and well pretty much everything about a video game from one language to another.

In this section we were looking for the root cause for the developers’ decision to localize.

1. How did you feel about localization before you considered it?

Jumb-O-Fun
We’ve always felt it was important for maximizing revenue. On the other hand, we were never sure if it would be worth the cost, unless we had a very successful game.

Mega Dwarf
Before we localized our game, we weren’t really sure if it would be worth it. There’s a reason why AAA studios employ entire teams of people for the specific task of localization and there’s clear logic behind Kickstarters doing localization as a stretch goal.
But unless you can actually look at sales numbers and see the regions your players are from, it can be hard to justify putting in all the effort to localize your game.

ZiMAD
We were hopeful it would allow our games to take their natural place in their regional niche. Just like any other developer who loves their creation, we were optimistic and hoped we’d see more organic installs from the localization.

2. Why did you localize your game?

Jumb-O-Fun
We didn’t initially plan on localizing Wagers of War for the launch. Then our marketing rep suggested localizing our game might have an impact on getting featured on the App Store.

And he was right… we did end up getting featured!

Localizing Wagers of War helped it get featured on the App Store.

Mega Dwarf
There were a variety of reasons why we decided to localize God of Word.
First and foremost was we wanted our game to be as inclusive as possible.

We wanted as many different players from different regions to be able to play and enjoy our game. D. Batoff, Mega Dwarf

God of Word was released on Steam, and most competitive word games weren’t available in anything except English, so we wanted to give the gaming community the option to enjoy word games on Steam.

It was also a business decision. Like any other job, game development is about making money, and the more people you can sell your game to, the higher the chance of you getting paid. Mega Dwarf is a 3-man team, and for us, game development is either the main source or only source of income.
We also wanted to localize our game so it would appeal to more people in the Steam Greenlight process.

We found that games that were only available in English would receive a lot of “no” votes because non-English speaking voters would vote no, since they wouldn’t buy a game not localized in their native language.

ZiMAD
We see higher conversion rates for our localized games. If they can understand what a game is about, people can easily decide if they want to play it. After that, they can fully enjoy the game itself.

There are many regions where people don’t speak English for a number of reasons. Some people never learned to speak English or learned another language instead and some people just don’t speak it very well. Therefore, whatever message you are trying to deliver in your game, it won’t get through.

It’s no fun trying to translate as you play. People will avoid it if they can, so localizing our games comes naturally.

3. Why do some indie developers hesitate to localize their game?

Jumb-O-Fun
I think there are two major hurdles that we consider when looking at localizing our games.

One is the additional work required to develop a game to handle multiple languages.

The second is the direct cost of translation and the concern that it’s too expensive or the extra revenue from localizing won’t recoup the cost.

Mega Dwarf
Localization was without a doubt our biggest expense. And for a lot of indie developers, the cost of localizing a game professionally isn’t something they can afford.

There are obviously other options available, like getting fans to localize your game for you, or tapping into free game localization resources. But if you’re looking for the utmost quality in your game, it’s going to cost you hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars, and that’s a tough sell for a lot of indies.

Time is another big reason. We didn’t have a particularly text-heavy game, even though we were a word game. But even with amazing localization assisting tools like TextMeshPro and I2 Localization, the process took us weeks of manpower to fully implement. In a business where you want to pump out your product as quickly as possible and have deadlines to meet, a couple extra weeks of development time is something a lot of people don’t have to spare.

For us, it was also a question of features. One big feature that we wanted to implement in God of Word was a bestiary. Our plan was to give an informative little paragraph about each of the enemies, bosses and items in our game, which would teach the player about some of the lesser known facts in Greek Mythology.

Unfortunately, dozens of paragraphs of text would have been too expensive to localize for us. So because of this, there isn’t a bestiary in God of Word.

ZiMAD
The US mobile games market is tough at the moment. A small indie project will have to try really hard to “survive” there. The big studios competing with each other for the top charts are likely to wash them away. To be frank you’re lucky to have a place in the US app market without a big investment.

On the other hand, some regional markets are in need of good quality content available in their language. There is a real demand for localized games and apps there.

“I think many indie developers underestimate the potential gains from localizing their game.” V. Shytikova, ZiMAD

Making sure you’re ready

As with any project, implementing a strategy from the start will spare you headaches further down the line. Keeping localization in mind from the early development stages is the number one thing you can do to set your localization project up for success.

Jumb-O-Fun, Mega Dwarf and Zimad all had a different approach towards localization, which impacted the development of their games in as many different ways.

4. How did you prepare your game for localization?

Jumb-O-Fun
We’ve been developing our games on a simple C# code library we created for Unity some years ago. That library manages a variety of core game aspects such as; game text, game settings, music, sound effects, it also supports multiple languages across any Unity supported platform. So all our games can be localized at any time.

We also developed our own custom font to support the languages we knew we’d be localizing to.

This is actually not too difficult unless you’re developing a font for the Asian languages. We also have all our text strings held in an Excel doc which is fairly easy to hand over to a translator.

We create our custom fonts with High Logic’s Font Creator in combination with Photoshop.

Our first step is to use a basic font like Arial and type out all the characters we need into a big Photoshop doc. Then, using a Cintiq tablet, we draw over the Arial font using solid black until we’re happy with the look of all the characters. From there we copy each pixel based character from Photoshop into Font Creator. When that’s done we may add some kerning pairs if necessary and then export as a TTF. That TTF is then used in Unity.

Mega Dwarf
We ended up making the decision to localize our game into other languages about halfway through development, and at that point, it was pretty difficult to keep track of all the text in our game, both in the scene views and what was left hardcoded in the scripts.
AAA studios tend to use programs that keep track of all the text in their games, making it much easier to track spelling errors and text that hasn’t yet been implemented. If that’s an option that indie developers have, I would highly recommend using it as early as possible.

“Honestly, one of our biggest localization mistakes for God of Word was not keeping localization in mind from the start of the development.” D.Batoff, Mega Dwarf

ZiMAD
We start by putting all the text into an Excel spreadsheet with one word or sentence per cell and one column per language. This way, the localization agency can’t mess things up, and we have everything accurately set and ready for when we decide to integrate the new translations into the game.

5. How did your preparation affect the implementation of translations?

Jumb-O-Fun
It made a big difference. Our decision to localize came about 1 month before we needed the game done.

“If the game hadn’t already been built to handle multiple languages, we wouldn’t have been able to localize for launch.” G. Pothoven, Jumb-O-Fun

All we really had to do was pass off the Excel document to Level Up Translation and create the custom font.

Mega Dwarf
Since we didn’t keep proper track of all the text in our game, we actually ended up having to send off multiple passes for localization to our provider, and that really upped the cost.

Normally game localization studios will give you discounts based on word count.

Not only did we miss some words on our original pass for the base of God of Word, we decided during our post-launch to do a Halloween update, which required a whole new batch of words to be translated professionally.
All in all, it ended up being three different paid batches of words, which would’ve been significantly less expensive had we have done it all at once.

In summation, keep track of all the text you currently have in the game and think about patches, DLC, and updates before you send off for localization, or… you’ll pay for it later.

ZiMAD
Having all the translations in one document really helped our team to integrate them into the build. We also have a similar process and similar documents for the store descriptions and marketing.

Spreadsheets are a practical format to keep all your strings in one place.

Deciding which markets are worth it

Some markets are certainly more profitable than others, but that can vary on the type of game you’re producing. Research is clearly invaluable and doing your homework can really pay off.
How did our three studios tackle their research and what helped them to decide which languages to focus their localization on? Well, let’s find out!

6. How did you decide which markets to localize for?

Jumb-O-Fun
With market research mostly. The major considerations for each language were:

1) Total App Store revenue generated

2) Average revenue per user

3) Penetration of iOS devices

4) Number of native speakers who also fluently speak English

Mega Dwarf

This was also a pretty simple process to decide on. Since we were releasing on Steam, we used a Steam Hardware Survey that gives up to date information on all sorts of user hardware specs. It also gives the main language of gamers by percentages, so that made it easy to choose which would be worth localizing for.

ZiMAD

We carefully analyze the target market. We look for clues that can tell us whether our game could become popular within the region.

“We want to know how many competitors we have, what the top apps/games and current trends in the market are and then we collate the data before making a decision.”
V. Shytikova, ZiMAD

According to our experience, it doesn’t make sense to localize your app/game if:
1 – Its content is related to a specific regional event or holiday
2 – There are 50 localized “Flappy Bird” games in the region and you’re going to be 51st.

AppAnnie offers great insight for mobile game developers.

How much will it cost?

When starting your new project remember that not all games require the same localization effort. Everything will depend on how text-heavy your game is. Localizing an RPG title with a heavy narrative will require considerably more effort than a minimalistic game.

7. What was your localization budget?

Jumb-O-Fun
Wagers of War has approximately 2,000 words and was localized in Dutch, Italian, French, German, Russian and Spanish. I think originally we wanted to keep the budget within $1,000 USD. Ultimately, we went a bit over because we added an extra language or two.

Mega Dwarf
We didn’t exactly have a budget, what mattered to us was to localize our game professionally. We went with the company who would offer us the most affordable rate.

After all three batches of localization, we ended up spending a little over $500 USD on localization. I believe this is a pretty reasonable amount of money to spend for a small/medium sized indie game.

A lot of smaller games can get away with not using much text in their game.

“There are lots of tips and tricks you can use to cut down on localization prices, like using simple icons instead of text for buttons.” D. Batoff, Mega Dwarf

For larger indie games or AAA titles, the localization costs can easily be tens of thousands of dollars. So if you’re thinking about writing an epic storyline and translating it into every language under the sun, expect that to run you quite a bit of money.

ZiMAD
I can’t give exact numbers because our budget really varies from one game to the other and depends on the amount of in-game text and the store descriptions. But we usually spend around $1,500-$3,000 USD for everything in approximately 10 languages.
Choosing a localization partner

If you don’t want your game to turn into meme material or get bad reviews pointing out its sloppy translation (which could have devastating effects on the game experience if your title is narrative-heavy), professional localization is mandatory and you will have to budget for it.
Finding a specialist and getting the job done well will always be a better solution than lowering your standards to save a few bucks, and then end up paying for it with your game’s reputation.

But don’t take our word for it! Here’s what our three studios have to say.

8. How did you choose your localization service provider?

Jumb-O-Fun
I’m always reading game industry websites and had read a well-written blog post by Level Up Translation. At the time we weren’t looking to localize any game, but knew it could be a valuable resource later, so we bookmarked the article and came back to it when the time was right. After contacting Level Up Translation and researching the company a little more, I felt confident they’d be a good fit, and they did an excellent job.

Mega Dwarf

It was a pretty simple process, we just searched the Internet to find as many localization providers as we could. Most providers will offer you a free estimate based on your word count, the number of repeating words, and difficulty of sentences. Remember, you’ll need to have a complete list of text in your game to get an accurate estimate. We went with the least expensive option, but also made sure they had good testimonials.

ZiMAD
We’ve worked with a lot of translation companies in the past. Some of them were found on Google, some of them were recommended by colleagues. In the end, the determining factor for a collaboration is the quality of the translations they deliver.
The results

While the impact of localization on sales can be hard to measure, it’s a given that you don’t buy what you can’t understand (although fidget-spinners are the exception to prove the rule). It’s also true to say that the more people that can play your game, the more potential sales you could make.

Looking back, Jumb-O-Fun, Mega Dwarf and ZiMAD all had differing experiences with the localization of their game, but they all agree on one thing: the positive impact it had. Whether this meant more sales, having more users for multi-player games or getting featured on the App Store.

9. What impact did localization have on your game’s reception and sales?

Jumb-O-Fun
A significant impact, very significant! Wagers of War is a multiplayer game so having a sizable user base is important for healthy matchmaking.

“By supporting 7 languages at launch we dramatically increased the size of our user base. We also earned back the cost of localizing very quickly.
And of course, there was the App Store feature which we may not have received otherwise.” G. Pothoven, Jumb-O-Fun

Mega Dwarf

It’s honestly difficult to say exactly how much impact localization had on our game’s reception and sales. God of Word was our first ever game, so we don’t have easy data to compare it to, to see if it did better than non-localized games.

“From reviews and testimonials from our players, we know we made a lot of people happy by giving them our game fully playable in their native language.” D. Batoff, Mega Dwarf
ZiMAD

It’s hard to say because we also have a strategy for user acquisition, and it’s a well-known fact that the organics are highly dependable of the paid UA. That’s why the best way to judge our results is by analyzing our conversion rate (CR).

Our CR increased by at least 32% for both paid and organics.

The below graph shows the impact of localization on our game Dig Out!:

Overall increase in CR after localization in 10 languages.

10. What were the most and least profitable markets? How much do you think localization influenced those results?

Jumb-O-Fun

Least profitable was the Dutch market, mostly because it’s a smaller market. Most profitable would be English and French, though I don’t think English counts in this regard. These are followed by German and Italian.

“Without localization, we almost certainly wouldn’t have gained the same amount of traction in non-English speaking regions.” G. Pothoven, Jumb-O-Fun

Mega Dwarf
Germany was by far the next most profitable market after English-speaking regions. In fact, our sales from Germany alone would have covered the cost of our localization. Not only that but countries like Austria, which has German as their national official language, was also in our top 10 largest revenue producing countries.

Other than German and French, none of our other localized languages made an obvious splash in revenue. Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese all sold decently, but not much more remarkably than in countries that didn’t have their main language supported in our game, like the Netherlands or Japan.

In fact, two countries that accounted for large portions of our revenue, and even larger portions of our units weren’t supported at all. We were unable to localize for Chinese or Russian due to the different characters sets these languages use, and yet China has downloaded almost as many units of God of Word as the United States. Although we put this down to being included in a special bundle sold in China.

Localizing your Steam game in German is a safe bet.

ZiMAD

For every game/genre there are different profitable markets. In our case, localizing Dig Out! influenced the Asian region the most, Europe the least:

The organic conversion rate increase for Asian market after the localization ~34%

Overall (paid and organic) increase in CR for Asian market ~78%

11. All in all, was localizing your game worth it?

Jumb-O-Fun

It absolutely was, both for profitability and for the sake of our multiplayer matchmaking.

One of the challenges moving forward, however, is that updating the game takes a bit longer because we need to accommodate for multiple languages. This means translating any new game text strings and the update text which appears on the App Store. Luckily Level Up Translation turns these around very quickly

Mega Dwarf

It’s hard to pinpoint whether or not it was monetarily worth it to localize God of Word.
Without hard data on which players purchased the game because it was localized into their language, who wouldn’t have purchased the game otherwise, it’s nearly impossible to know if it was worth it.

However, from reviews and testimonials from our players, we know we made a lot of people happy by giving them our game fully playable in their native language.

“As for sales… well sales in Germany alone grossed more than our localization costs. So it would be hard not to say it was worth it.” D. Batoff, Mega Dwarf

ZiMAD

It’s definitely worth it. You only need to go through localization once and it will have a continued effect.

Golden advice from devs to devs

12. What’s your best advice to developers thinking about localizing their indie game?

Jumb-O-Fun

Biggest thing is to develop from day one to support multiple languages. This is best done by having a file hold all your game’s text strings. Hard coding text is a big no-no and will only cause pain in the future or prevent you from localizing entirely.

English is still the dominant language by far for western developed games unless you understand the Asian markets really well, which we don’t. But the other, non-Asian, languages can provide a significant boost in both revenue and player numbers.

“Depending on the popularity of your game, localizing could be the difference between financial success or failure.” G. Pothoven, Jumb-O-Fun

It’s also worth learning a font creator program, we use High Logic’s Font Creator. They aren’t particularly hard to learn and you don’t need to understand all that nitty-gritty font lingo to create a usable font. And,if you’re considering Google Translate just watch Miley Cyrus and Jimmy Fallon sing popular songs translated by Google Translate, it’ll probably change your mind:

Mega Dwarf

I would advise all other developers to seriously consider the idea of localizing their game. Localizing your game opens all sorts of doors for you. It can entice vast player bases to your game and it can be a big reason why they choose you over your non-localized competitors.

“It’s not just about your average players either; there are lots of YouTubers and review sites that like to pick a game in their native language over an English only game.

If localization is the difference between getting your game professionally reviewed, or played in front of thousands of people, then it’s a no-brainer.” D. Batoff, Mega Dwarf

Although we have no experience with localizing our games into Chinese or Russian, they’re huge markets that are largely untapped by a majority of Steam games.

The experience we do have shows that German and French are safe bets when it comes to localization.

Without a doubt, if you’re using Unity, look into TextMeshPro and I2 Localization.
Both will save you an incredible amount of time and headaches, and they are definitely worth the money (TextMeshPro is now free, so go download it right now).

If you can’t afford to go with a localization company, you’ll surely be able to find fans who will help you with localization for cheap or even free. The gaming community can be an amazing place, full of people who just love video games.
ZiMAD

Don’t waste your efforts on the US if you know that competition is going to be too fierce for your game. It’s better to start by making your positions strong in other regions. If you rank high in those regions, you’ll constantly get organic installs.

CONCLUSION

From supporting your multiplayer gameplay to helping it getting reviewed internationally, or getting featured on the App Store, localization is a powerful marketing tool for your game.
In order to be easy to implement, localization must be planned from day one and just like the art or the code from your game, the quality of its execution is a key factor in its success.
With good preparation, extensive market research and professional game localization, the effort put into localizing your game will be well spent and you should soon reap the fruits of your investment… provided your game is good（Source: gamasutra.com  ）