Hi guys, “game translation” is the topic for this time. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people spend more time at home, boosting the game market growth. In 2020 the scale of the global mobile game market even exceeded USD $50 billion! As a result, game developers across the globe began an active global expansion to give rise to the game translation demand.
This time we will spend about 5 minutes to tell you the importance of game translation, the 3 must-know points for project assignment, and the process of game translation. If you are intending to expand to the overseas game market, don’t miss it!
Why is game translation important?
The story, gameplay, and character design of a game are essential to gain popularity for the game. When promoting a game overseas, the quality of translation is another essential element.
Players’ critical acclaim plays a crucial role in marketing, while high-quality translation enables players to fully immerse themselves in the game’s world and raise their praise of the game as well. Nowadays, as games as well as the feedback of worldwide players can be shared over social media. If a new IP (intellectual property) receives critical acclaim and is extensively shared, these will be the best selling points.
| Example of positive comments | Example of negative comments |
| Dragon Quest 11 | Ys VIII |
| The localization does a good job preserving the intent of the original script. Haiku, reams of rhymes, and accents galore, all perfectly translated from Japanese. *Source: Pcgamer | Clear lack of editing (stiff and awkward dialogues, homogenization of character personalities, etc.). Needless to say, this entails that the game’s excellent writing has been lost during the localization, harming its compelling plot quite a lot. *Source: Polygon |
3 must-know points in game translation
Point 1: Faithful to the game’s world view
Be faithful to the “world view” of the game is the most essential in game translation. The “world view” means the historical background of the characters and game, the personal traits and daily-life habits of characters, and others.
However, direct translation often makes the story boring and is hard to fully present the personal traits of characters. To faithfully present the game’s world view, translators must try the game and study the script in order to understand the story and plot thoroughly before translation.
Getting familiar with the game’s contents is the only way to better understand the speech of characters and the intention depicted by each scene. While the world view determines the comments on the game, translation service provers (TSPs) are strongly advised to hire translators specializing in game translation after receiving a game translation project.
Point 2: Lexical and style consistency
Lexical and style consistency is crucial to maintain the integrity of the game’s world view. Hence, we need a glossary (vocabulary) and a style guide (diction and culture type). Here is a simplified description of them.
・What is a glossary (vocabulary)?
In games, there are corresponding terms between the source text and target text. Hence, a glossary is a collection of the relevant vocabulary. While there are large volumes of terms in a game, such as character, object, or skill, game developers are advised to prepare a glossary for TSPs.
・What is a style guide?
It is necessary for game developers to produce the diction (wording) rules and referenced cultures in order to unify the narrative of translation. For example, what characters should use honorifics and what are the habitual speech and auxiliary words of a character. When assigning a translation project, game developers are advised to provide a style guide for TSPs.
Point 3: Cultural background of the target sales regions
Cultural background is also essential in game translation. Direct translation of the source text can cause ambiguities and even misconceptions in the worse scenario.。
To prevent these failures, it is necessary to validate the translation’s suitability for use in the target sales regions, such as verifying if there are expressions unaccepted in the target sales regions and making adjustments, which is called “localization”.
Recently, the “translation” and “localization” options have emerged in game translation. The latter refers to localization done by game developers.
As the lead time and charge of “translation” and translation with “localization” are different, please confirm the expected outcomes with TSPs when assigning a translation project.
Process of game translation
Lastly, let’s talk about the process of game translation.
Step 1: Sorting game-related information
First, game developers should sort the game-related information and define the scope of translation. The required information for game translation includes: (1) the original text of the story, (2) persona; (3) a glossary, and (4) a style guide, and (5) a game instruction.
Step 2: Preparing the files for translation
After sorting game-related information and defining the scope of translation, game developers should provide the text files for translation for TSPs.
It is be noted that the story text should include both the text required translation and the related descriptions. In the absence of additional descriptions, translators will be unable to immediately judge the source text, such as the text, object name, character name, special skill name, persona, and others. When translating a game script (lines), it is also necessary to illustrate the name, ID number, and gender of the characters. With such information, translators can improve the quality of translation.
Please refer to the following notes.
Notes:〈No more mistakes from substandard translations! 7 tips for getting quality translation services.〉
Step 3: Game understanding of translators
Besides an extremely good command of language, translators must charm of the game’s world view. A good translator will study the script based on his/her actual gaming experience to fully understand the game’s world view.
Step 4: Translating
Besides referencing to the provided glossary and style guide, translators will confirm the obscurities in the game with game developers.
After translating, it is necessary to verify the translation with native speakers to ensure the translation’s naturalness and fluency to players of the target sales regions. If the project includes “localization”, TSPs should also verify if the translation is suitable for the cultural background of the target sales regions.
Step 5: Final test by customers
After the project is completed, besides allowing customers to run the final test, it is the best to run the test by players of the target sales region. If feedback is received at this stage, translators can revise the final version in order to optimize the outcomes.
What do you think about this article? The above information about the focus and process of game translation is based on our experience in game translation. If you are interested in entering the global game market, we hope that this article can help.
PTSGI is the largest multilingual translation service provider in Asia with a history of translation service and experience in translation for over 55 years. We have been a partner translation service provider of leading game developers such as Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. and SEGA.
With translation services for over 140 languages, we also accept multilingual translation projects. Additionally, our translation quality is guaranteed by the certification of such international standards as ISO 17100 and ISO 9001. We have also established the TDQCMP® translation standard operating procedure to ensure quality service and quality translation for customers.
At PTSGI, we have a professional game translation team to assign different game translation projects to the most suitable translators to perfectly present the game’s world view in any languages.
If game translation service is required, don’t hesitate to reach us over the Online Quotation. Additionally, we offer a free trial translation service of up to 300 words (source language) that can help you ease all doubts about translation quality. Welcome to try our trial translation service.
