Language that will be used in the game language
Language that will be used in the game language
Как включить русский язык в Киберпанк 2077?
Итак, вы запустили Киберпанк 2077, приготовились погрузиться в атмосферу Найт-Сити… и вдруг обнаружили, что игра полностью на английском. Что делать? В этой статье вы узнаете, как сменить язык в Киберпанк 2077.
Как включить русский язык в Киберпанк 2077
Если по какой-то причине интерфейс в игре или субтитры оказались на английском языке, а вы хотите сменить язык на русский, то это очень просто сделать. Вам нужно:
Точно так же вы можете сменить язык интерфейса и субтитров на любой другой. А вот с озвучкой дела обстоят немного сложнее. В Киберпанк 2077 поменять язык озвучки на русский через настройки самой игры нельзя. Автоматически через Steam она тоже не скачивается. Но это не значит, что русской озвучки в игре нет. Озвучка есть, но включается она другим способом, и мы рассмотрим этот способ ниже.
Как поменять язык озвучки в Киберпанк 2077
Для того, чтобы включить русскую озвучку в игре, нужно сделать следующее:
Эти действия совершаются без запуска самой игры.
После того, как вы всё сделали, и скачивание языкового пакета завершилось, можно запускать игру и наслаждаться интерфейсом и озвучкой на русском языке.
Что делать, если слетают настройки языка при перезапуске игры?
Иногда настройки языка сбрасываются при следующем запуске игры. Как правило, это происходит в нелицензионных версиях. Решение этой проблемы отличается в зависимости от версии игры.
Если у вас репак от fitgirl:
Если у вас версия от GOG:
Это должно решить проблему со сбросом настроек.
How to Prepare a Game for Localization? 10 Basic Rules
Should you act first and think later, or vice versa? Knowing these little tricks when designing your game could save you a fortune. 
We’ve written this article as a tribute to numerous questions from our clients.
What’s wrong with my game? Why isn’t localization enough? How can we fix it?
Cutting corners when bootstrapping a new game is a widely-used strategy. And it might even be an efficient one, as long as you aren’t planning to grow incrementally.
However, shortly after the long-awaited local release is in the bag, most game developers start thinking about how to attract more international gamers. And sooner or later, after taking a crack at promoting their game in more countries, they come up with several ideas for localization.
Just so we’re clear, localizing a game means adapting it to the selected locale (country or region) by translating the user interface into the target language and making adjustments for cultural, religious, and political factors.
At this point, we’d like to stress that localization entails interpreting the interface, but not changing its elements.
For instance, if a game that needs to be translated into German contains jokes about an English folk character, localization handles this by replacing the jokes with other ones that are popular in Germany. However, if there isn’t enough space in the user interface to accommodate the larger size of the German text, this issue can sometimes require more effort than just localization.
Another example illustrating the scope of localization would be the translation of numbers. For example, some locales such as en-US (American English) require numbers to be written in words rather than numerals in certain cases. Other localization locales might require matching numbers with the plural\singular forms of nouns. For example, in Russian, there are more options than just “one” and “more than one,” while in Japanese and Chinese there are no plural forms at all. However, if numbers and texts are hardcoded in static images within the game, just translating the text isn’t going to cut it.
These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg — there are countless non-localization issues that can rear their ugly heads during the localization phase. Some people call them pseudo-localization or internationalization errors — big words referring to something that could have been predicted and avoided but can require serious work on the part of the developers to fix.
This is why we at Alconost have decided to draw up a list of rules for developers to keep in mind from the very beginning of the design process in order to make localization as painless as possible. Just follow these essential guidelines to get your game ready for localization with no extra effort.
1. Pre-select localization languages in advance
In our previous article dedicated to app localization workflow, we started our action list with #1: “Evaluate your potential.” And yes, we’re going to repeat ourselves here.
You might object that it’s impossible to foresee all potential locales for a game before it actually goes live. Well, this is somewhat true: first, you test the audience with a non-localized version, and then you scale up with localization. However, it doesn’t always work this way.
To start with, your game might contain so many cultural and regional taboos that it would be a no-go for the selected locale without localization, even with the most enticing narrative.
So what is the best way to predict promising locales before you start?
However, your localization plans notwithstanding, our “Rule #0” is to make English the source language if at all possible. And we recommend developing with two locales in mind from day one.
The two “default” locales should probably be English and your native language (if that isn’t English).
This approach has several undeniable benefits: first, you’ll be able to translate your game later on into new languages using English as the source material, which helps ensure consistency. Second, having two languages from day one will automatically guide you through all the pitfalls of preparing for localization. Then you’ll see little difference when you have 20 languages.
2. Adjust the interface for potential languages
When building interface elements, it’s generally a good idea to plan for at least 30% extra space (or even more, if possible) for other languages. This is especially valid for short strings (menu items, UI, etc.).
However, we have an even better idea. If you’ve taken Rule #1 into account and have a preliminary long list of locales, there’s another helpful option: design your interface for the worst-case language.
For example, the German version is going to be an average of 30% longer than the English one, and the Russian version will be approximately 10% longer. The same is usually true for the Arabic version. On the other hand, traditional Chinese characters generally take up 30% less space than English texts.
When it comes to bytes, one Latin letter equals one byte, but Cyrillic and Arabic characters are twice as big, which also needs to be accounted for when planning data storage.
3. Don’t build text strings into the code
Transforming the text for localization will result in these hard-coded strings being lost. Remember this localization rule: every localizable string should be editable without touching a line of code.
Actually, all the engineering tasks that need to be performed in order to begin the localization process are attributed to the internationalization process or i18n for short.
Another important tip is to avoid building pieces of text out of smaller single words. A good example of this kind of blunder has been spotted by a Google programmer contributing to StackExchange:
Instead, format strings can be used that need to be localized themselves. For example:
String format = Locale::get(“currency format”); // returns “$<0>” in English String currency = String::Format(format, money.toString());
The latter approach allows localizers to rearrange words within the actual format string.
4. Remember that time, dates, units of measurement, and numbers also need to be localized
As a followup to the last rule, we just want to explicitly state that numerical information also needs to be extractable from the code for localization and therefore must not be hard-coded.
You also need to be ready to redesign your numbers in the interface. For example, a clock ticking down the game’s timeline should probably be localized. The underlying motivation for this is that Western countries are mostly monochronic, which means they’re used to having time represented as a stretching timeline, whereas Asian countries prefer to have time represented as a circle.
Not to mention that the formats for dates and units of measurement differ across almost all languages.
So our recommendation is to prepare yourself and consider every detail when it comes to localization.
5. Use placeholders and formatters and make them accessible
Using placeholders sometimes seems like a good alternative to just hard-coding text when it comes to localization and text editing. However, it can be a double-edged sword if you don’t provide access to placeholders.
This issue is connected to word and phrase order that might be absolutely different in another language. So our recommendation here is: make your placeholders part of the phrase so they can be inserted in context. Here’s a little example of what’s “good” and what’s “bad”:
No: “Mommy ate “ + %num + “ apples.”
Yes: “Mommy ate %num apples.”
A short description of placeholders can also be very helpful. This makes it possible to avoid confusion when a placeholder is considered to be wrongly related or unrelated to the previous piece of text.
6. Avoid text in images
If you use images in your game, be ready to localize them too, especially if they’re enriched with text. This means redesigning the whole image from scratch.
Redesigning images and creative assets is sometimes a good idea so you can meet standards for colors and characters in your target locale. However, it’s a waste of time and effort if you’re just doing it to insert translated text.
7. Use the right encoding and fonts
Encoding issues are inevitable if you need certain “spécîål” characters that don’t fit into your string class. If your target language has an encoding mismatch after localization, it could take a great deal of time and effort to remove those awful ��� characters.
The same problem applies to fonts. In particular, certain fancy fonts for games don’t contain glyphs for all languages. As a result, it might be necessary to choose different fonts for different languages. We recommend keeping this in mind when choosing a font; otherwise, you risk ending up with a bunch of boxes (□□□) instead of subtitled text.
Our recommendation is to use Unicode over ASCII whenever possible. UTF-8 is the most common and space-efficient encoding. So make sure your input files are encoded correctly.
We won’t get into more detail about this right now. An exhaustive tutorial on encoding can be found in the previous article on hunting for “mojibakes.”
8. Play with pseudo-translation if you’re ready for localization
Finally, once you’ve got all the technical aspects outlined above ready, try doing a test run. There are a number of great pseudo-localization tools available across the Web that can imitate your interface as if it were in a foreign language, including adapting text length and checking encoding and hard-coded strings.
These tools basically run a script that mimics the target language and produces a build, which then must be QA tested within the regular process as a non-localized build.
This pre-test is definitely not a panacea, but it helps a lot. And it can also be a lot of fun for developers to do a mockup with a camouflaged interface.
9. Start building your glossary early
A glossary is a collection of in-game terms and concepts that must be preserved consistently throughout the entire game. It mostly contains items, character names, artifacts, and statuses.
Maintaining consistency with the glossary across the entire game is essential. Just imagine if a certain in-game item is translated as “potion” in one place and “elixir” in another — you’ve unintentionally created an extra logic puzzle for your players.
10. Be ready to provide context
No less important than providing a glossary is ensuring that the localization team has all the context they need. In our experience, context can be established by enabling communication between translators, localization project managers, and game developers.
We realize that it’s extremely difficult for the entire development team to be available 24/7. However, during the localization phase, our best advice is to designate a representative to be your contact person — incorrect or insufficient context can really hurt the ultimate results of the localization process.
Besides, the platform for localization workflow is primarily selected based on the client’s preferences, so this communication can be conducted as conveniently and efficiently as possible.
And if the work is done well, it pays off in the end.
We hope you find this simple list of recommendations helpful for designing your games. We’re wishing you great success stories and captivated players!
You might also find useful:
About the author
Alconost is a global provider of localization services for apps, games, videos, and websites into 70+ languages. We offer professional translation by native-speaking linguists, linguistic testing, cloud-based workflow, continuous localization, project management 24/7, and work with any format of string resources. We also make advertising and educational videos and images, teasers, explainers, and trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Game Localization For Russia: Go Hard Or Go Home!
2020-04-21 | Carolina Silvandersson
There are 260 million Russian speaking people, which makes it the 6th largest language worldwide. A Russian translation of your game should be part of your market plan. Learn how to localize your game into Russian, what are the most common localization mistakes, and how to save your title from potentially bad reviews. Validated by our Russian linguists!
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Why localize your game into Russian?
Think of Russia as a mixture of Europe and Asia. To succeed in the Russian market you need to localize because localized games earn three times more than English ones.
The most popular game genres in Russia
PC & Console games
Russian is the third largest language on Steam and continues to grow. A Steam game should definitely be translated into Russian.
Online PC games are more popular than console games. Within the PC segment, MMO games, (especially short battle sessions), dominate. They account for approximately ⅓ of the market. Top MMO games in Russia are World of Tanks, Warface and Perfect world, just to name a few.
When it comes to console games, the market is divided between Playstation (66.78%) and Xbox (32.77%), with Nintendo trailing with a meagre 0.45%.
Mobile games
Smartphone penetration is at almost 65% and set to grow in the next few years. Android is the most popular operating system with nearly 75% of the market. iOS accounts for around 24%. Looking at both downloads and revenue, Google Play is growing faster than App Store.
Gaming apps were some of the largest drivers of app market growth, bringing in more than 1.6 billion downloads in 2016 alone, making Russia top-ranked for the number of game downloads in Europe.
In Russia, the most downloadable mobile game genres were hyper-casual, action (arcade, shooter, racing), and puzzles.
The necessity of localization in Russia
Russian in one of the most complex languages in the world to translate into. Translators need to be very skilled with excellent knowledge of Russian culture and history, but also up to date with the current language in use, as many words in modern businesses are English loanwords.
Language translation services aren’t enough; professional game translators are a must, as they are skilled to capture the dialogue, slang, humor, and most importantly create the culture that fits the regional game market.
How do you localize your game into Russian?
It is not possible to translate from English to Russian word by word: what’s being localized to Russian is the meaning.
An example: In God of War, one of the plot points is built around the father-son conflict between the Kratos and Atreus. In the original game, Kratos addresses Atreus as a “boy” and only in the final scene admits him as a “son”. It even sparked a number of memes. However, in the Russian version, “boy” has been interpreted as “son” from the very beginning (together with a few alternative synonyms) thus ruining the whole dramatic story tone experienced in the game.
To avoid this, provide reference materials, so the entire context can be understood. For gaming companies, that’s a challenge.
Actually challenge is a good example of why it is sometimes difficult to translate into Russian. Russia doesn’t have a history of competition between individuals like America, so the word challenge has different words in Russian depending on the circumstances.
The same goes with fun. Americans have fun all the time: on a boat, at the club, or fun playing a video game. How fun is being translated in Russian depends on the situation, there isn’t a general “fun” translation.
The nouns, verbs and characters
In Russian, the nouns and adjectives relating to it are gender and time sensitive. This means the endings change depending on the person, time and situation.
To start, there are 6 noun declensions. Feel confused? That’s not the end.
The noun also has three different genders. The gender of a noun will affect the ending of an adjective or a verb it is used with. And the verb changes its ending depending on when it happened or when it will happen, and to whom this certain thing will happen. A pretty neutral word like “Dear” is impossible to translate into Russian since the Russian translator needs to consider the gender.
Important: Because of the case endings that depend on the position of the word in the phrase and its relation with other words, all in-game text must be present in full, including numbers and placeholders.
The modern Russian alphabet uses 33 letters from the Cyrillic script. And two of the letters do not have a sound. They just decide the sound of the letters before.
The number of characters and words will normally expand compared with English source. That is an important thing to consider. Provide the translator with character limits where needed.
10 Russian video game localization best practices
We asked our Russian translators about the best practices in their game localization process, and we’d like to share that with you.
The translation into Russian is usually 20-30% longer than English source: keep that in mind when designing the UI (especially on mobile). The script length can also affect the voice-overs when the translators have to use abbreviations or change the meaning of the phrases to stay within the allotted time.
Talk to the localization manager if you aren’t sure whether you’d like to translate names into Russian or leave them as they are, the solution varies on a case-to-case basis, and the translators have different opinions.
For names specifically, it is usually OK to transliterate them instead of translating/adapting, but if the game universe allows “local flavor”, fully changing the names to something local is usually the way to go, especially in kids games.
If you rely on variables a lot (things like “You won
Slava: It’s a challenge to integrate text variables (player name, pet name etc.) into the target text. The problem is, Russian has six cases that are all commonly used, and if these variables are always in the nominative case, we have to re-construct the sentence for it to be grammatically correct.
Dmitry: If variables substitute a numeral, Russian needs a separate string for 1, then another one for 2-4 and another one for 5+. For example: “1 apple” from English is translated into Russian as “1 яблоко”; “2-4 apples” turn into “2-4 яблока” and “5 apples” translate into “5 яблок”. See how different endings are? Now imagine it in more complex sentences and you’ll understand how easy it is to mess up.
Now you understand why machine translation is a big no-no for professional translation companies specializing on Russia, right?
Same as Spanish, Russian has different forms for “you” in the dialogues: “ты” vs “Вы”. Their usage depends on the age difference, whether the interlocutors have met before, place and situation.
Slava: “The game Manor Cafe (that I translated), is full of characters of all ages and walks of life, so I had to carefully treat the formal/informal forms of address. If you have 10 characters, that gives you 45 possible two-character dialogues, not to mention those when 3 or more characters are talking. And you must always remember who addresses whom with the formal “You” and who doesn’t.
Perhaps, not that great idea.
Dmitry: Everybody loves puns and they’re fun to translate, but sometimes the equivalents we use are completely different from the original, so it’s important to exclude any puns from text that are crucial for solving a puzzle.
Russians are used to the Western culture and lifestyle in general. Many have played Western games from early childhood. However, they aren’t that proficient in European languages.
Slava: My advice would be: localize the game into Russian, but don’t put too much time and effort into culturalization/localization of in-game design elements.
Although Russian gamers are pretty tolerant towards ambiguous topics and appreciate irony and jokes, the Russian authorities don’t.
Dmitry: Generally speaking, I would avoid mockery of religion and the Russian church. We have a law that allows people of faith to file a complaint and sue you if they find something that is offensive to their faith. The Russian government is also very proud of past achievements, hence any mockery of the Russian role in World War II and any criticism of our past and current politics won’t be well received.
An example: LGBT characters in games can be seen as “the propaganda of homosexuality” which is illegal according to Russian law. Stardew Valley and Miitopia were rated 18+ compared to other markets for the same-sex relationships reflected in the game.
Work with VO experts who can adapt the translated text accordingly to make sure it flows naturally.
Since Russian is rich in synonyms, be consistent with your translations and keep the same style, avoid mistranslations, and speed up turnaround times. Otherwise, you’ll risk making a big hole in your loc budget.
Slava: I had to do a complete overhaul of all in-game text for quite a popular mobile strategy game (millions of downloads), because the translations had been made by different providers, and some of them were just subpar.
A tip: Allocate 2-3 hours for the game play for the post-implementation check (bug fixing) to minimize the risk of loc bugs. For Russian, LQA rates start at €28/hour.
Many Russians, who play games, have online discussions where they point out games they wish to be translated. But they won’t forgive you, game developers, for poor video game translation. They’ll pick the title to pieces and complain about loc errors on the forums, Youtube and among gaming communities. As one said, complaining is Russia’s national sport.
But is it worth the effort? Yes.
Enjoyed the read? Check out more game localization guides covering Brazil, China, and India.
Chinese Game Localization 2022: Translate Games With This 4R Technique In Mind
2022-08-09 | Dolly Dai
LQA Guide: What Is Game Localization Testing And How To Do It Right
2022-08-09 | Nahuel G. Aprile
How can you trust that your translated game is as cool as the original and the gamers enjoy it as if created in their own language? Here’s where the localization QA testers step in. Learn about different types of game testing and why LQA can be a game-changer for your title.
Best Programming Language for Games for 2022
Table of Contents
At last count, there were over 300 programming languages in the world. Of those, perhaps a few dozen are commonly used. But which is the best programming language for games?
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best languages for game development — just that they’re the most popular game programming languages.
Now, we’ll take a deeper look at these popular options, their pros, their cons, and how you can get started.
What is Game Programming?
What makes a programming language the best coding language for games? How does programming for games differ from any other application?
Not every programming language is good at everything. For example, some languages are designed for data science (such as R) while some are designed for web development (such as JavaScript).
Apart from this, many game developers look for code that is simple, easy, and can be rapidly deployed. Because so many game developers are also one-person shops, game developers also frequently look for the best programming language for games for beginners.
The Relationship Between Game Programming and Platforms
The platform you want to release games for will impact the game programming languages available to you.
For example, if you want to develop a game for the PC, you might choose C++ since it is a common language for PC games. If you wanted to develop a game for the PlayStation 4, you would need to use C++ or a game engine that can compile to C++.
For the most part, coding languages for games are well-supported across all platforms. You can use Java or C++ virtually anywhere. But there may be specific game programming languages to consider for mobile games. Objective C is frequently used for games on Apple devices, as is Swift.
Game Programming and Game Development Kits
Another thing to consider is that the best languages for game development may simply be the language best supported by your kit.
To make game development easier, companies create their own game development kits. A GDK includes (nearly) everything a programmer needs to create a game. Often, a GDK can even export the game to multiple platforms.
For example, Unreal Engine 4 is a GDK used to develop games for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Unreal Engine is also written in C++ and uses the C++ language.
So, developers who want to program their game in Unreal Engine need to use C++ or Unreal Engine’s internal Blueprints system. And there are many advantages to using a GDK as robust as Unreal Engine or Unity.
Where Can I Learn Game Development Programming?
Let’s say you’re interested in learning how to develop games. You’re not sure what language you want to learn or what platform you want to use — you just need an introduction to the theory behind game design and its major principles.
Get started by reading this overview of how to code a game — it will walk you through the major concepts of game design and the decisions you will need to make to further your knowledge.
The Best Programming Language for Games
Now that we’ve discussed some of the most important elements of a game programming language, let’s look at some of the most popular ones.
Some of these programming languages are most frequently used for games, while others are robust, general-purpose languages.
1. C++
C++ is a powerful object-oriented language widely used in game development. While it can be difficult to learn, it earns its position through ubiquity. It’s supported by most game development kits and frameworks.
Pros of C++
Cons of C++
Game Development Systems That Use C++
2. Java
Java is a reliable and portable cross-platform language used to create games that can be played across a multitude of platforms. It is relatively easy to learn and supports a large community of developers.
Wanna learn java online? Check out the best Java tutorials.
Pros of Java
Cons of Java
Game Development Systems That Use Java
3. C#
C# is an all-purpose language similar to both Java and other C-class languages. It is widely used in game development and offers high performance. At the same time, it has a higher barrier to entry than many simpler game development languages.
Check out our blog to Learn C# online.
Pros of C#
Cons of C#
Game Development Systems That Use C#
Recommended Game Development Courses from edX
4. Python
Python is a widely used, easy-to-learn language that offers high readability. It is frequently used in game development and is also popular for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.
Pros of Python
Cons of Python
Game Development Systems That Use Python
5. JavaScript
JavaScript is a versatile language used to create games as well as robust web applications. It is easy to learn and use, making it popular for beginner programmers. However, it can be held back a bit because it is mostly a web-first language.
Pros of JavaScript
Cons of JavaScript
Game Development Systems That Use JavaScript
6. Lua
Lua is a lightweight, easy language popular in game development. It is frequently used as a scripting language for games — especially simpler games that may not require intense visuals or in-depth programming.
Pros of Lua
Cons of Lua
Game Development Systems That Use Lua
GameMaker Language (GML)
GML is a proprietary language used in the popular game development system GameMaker Studio. It is easy to learn and use, making it popular for beginner programmers. Unfortunately, GML is only used in GameMaker Studio, so these skills don’t transfer to another platform.
Pros of GML
Cons of GML
Game Development Systems That Use GML
7. Swift
Swift is a new language created by Apple. It is frequently used for iOS game development, but it can be used to create many types of mobile applications. It’s frequently sought after by game development companies because it is relatively new.
How to Learn Swift, Checkout here.
Pros of Swift
Cons of Swift
Game Development Systems That Use Swift
Do You Need to Learn a Programming Language to Develop Games?
Believe it or not, you don’t need to learn a programming language to develop games.
Many game development systems allow you to create games without any coding. Even Unreal Engine has a method for programming through a drag-and-drop interface (Blueprints).
However, learning to code gives you more control over the development process and allows you to create more sophisticated games.
Developing a game without code can be more challenging than you think. You may find that learning a programming language is easier in the long run, and you’ll get better results overall.
How to Choose the Right Game Development Language for You
When choosing a game development language, consider your skills and experience level. If you’re a beginner, you may want to choose a language that is easy to learn and use like JavaScript or Lua. If you’re more experienced, you might choose a language that offers better performance, such as C++.
Additionally, consider the game engine you want to use. Game engines go beyond simply providing a framework for your game. They can have an extraordinary impact on the assets you can use and the community support and documentation available.
Conclusion
Bottom line? The best programming language for games will be largely influenced by your game development platform. Whether you’re interested in using Unity or Unreal, or programming Android games or iOS games, you’ll have to find a language well-suited to your goals.
But if you’re just interested in learning a useful, all-purpose language that is also used in game development, you can’t go wrong with C#, Python, Java, or JavaScript. Whether you’re developing games for desktop computers or mobile devices, these languages are flexible enough to do the trick.
Take the next step and take a course and get certified in Game Development by Udemy with this course!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is Python Not Used in Games?
Python is used in games, but it’s not as widely used as languages like C++ or Java. This is largely because Python tends to be slow. But that just means that it’s hard to use Python for resource-intensive games, such as first-person shooters.
2. Is C# or C++ Better as a Game Coding Language?
C++ and C# are both popular languages for game development. They are both fast and efficient. However, C++ can be more difficult to learn. It’s a lower-level language with fewer layers of abstraction; this gives better levels of control but can make it very difficult to develop games quickly.
3. What is the Best Language for Game Development?
The answer to this question depends on your needs and preferences. If you’re a beginner, you might consider Python or Java. If you’re looking for more of a challenge, you might try C++ or C#.
4. What are the Easiest Languages for Game Development?
The easiest languages for game development are Python and JavaScript. These languages are easy to learn and use, making them popular among beginner programmers.
Aman Goel
What Languages To Translate Your Game Into In 2021 (Trends & Insights)
2021-07-01 | Christoffer Nilsson
For you as a game developer, it can be difficult to decide which languages to select for localization and what parts of your game to localize. Should you go for the most popular European ones? Or aim at Asian languages? Keep reading to learn about the must-have languages for game translation and game localization costs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
What parts of the game to localize?
Before we move to the practicalities, let’s talk about the components of your game you could localize as it will directly impact your localization costs.
Besides the in-game text, you can translate the description, updates, and keywords if you publish your game via the Apple App Store, Google Play, Steam or any other platform. Not to mention marketing and advertising materials if you decide to promote your game further.
So, your game localization process can be identified as:
To localize the app store description text is a no-brainer. This is what you front your game with and what people will base their buy or download decision on.
Important: Most people on this planet don’t speak English. On average, 52% of people would buy only at websites where product information is presented in their native language. In France and Japan, the figure is 60%! 9 out of 10 global users will ignore your product if it’s not in their native language (Nimdzi Research, 2020)
All text surrounding your description will be in the country store’s official language (Google and Apple fully localize their stores) so translated material will blend with the official store text and create a professional impression.
Should you translate the text in the actual game?
Distribution is worldwide and by localizing you extend your reach and potential to appeal to a global audience. Allowing your players to enjoy your game in their native language will positively affect their experience and lead to better reviews.
These benefits do of course need to be weighed against the cost.
How much does it cost to translate a video game in 2021?
Localization costs are driven by the number of words in your game, target languages, and the translation rates.
The cost of game translations performed by human linguists will depend on the language. These can vary between €0.11 and €0.15 per word or character (for Chinese). Proofreading usually costs 50% of the translation rates. These are the LocalizeDirect rates but it gives you an idea about approximate prices in the market.
A common approach is to translate the app-store metadata into more languages than the actual game. Have no fear, as the amount of text in your description is limited, translation shouldn’t be too expensive.
When it comes to the in-game content, it all depends on how “wordy” your game is. On average, our game clients kick off with 7-10 foreign languages when localizing their in-game text.
5 questions to answer before contacting the game localization agency
When selecting the markets and languages for localization, ask yourself a few questions:
You need this information to understand the potential of your game and how it matches the opportunities of the market you are about to target.
A big factor is also what expectations certain countries have. For example, in Poland, it’s quite common to only have text localization and English voice-overs (although there has been a shift to more full loc titles). In France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, gamers expect full VO, especially on big titles.
In some non-native English speaking countries, gamers don’t mind playing games in English at all. Especially if the amount of text is minimal or the concept of the game is a familiar one.
Pro Tip: Check the language specifications in T-Index or the EF English Proficiency Index. It can be of use to know which countries most probably won’t accept the unlocalized game at all (with low and very low English proficiency skills).
Countries ranked by English proficiency skills (EF EPI 2020).
Review the most popular games in various markets to evaluate the competition and audience preferences.
Pro Tip: You can find information about mobile games in App Annie’s reports. SimilarWeb is another free tool with plenty of functionality for this purpose. Steam publishes real-time data about its top 100 PC games by player count and the most demanded languages.
Some key metrics game developers should pay attention to are downloads and revenue rates specifically for games. Most developers would share the common goal of wanting to get their game downloaded as many times as possible or generate as much revenue as they can.
What languages are worth localizing your game into?
Hence, by localizing into all 20 countries, you’ll get access to the markets with nearly 90% of the world’s game revenue. Asia-Pacific brings about 50% whilst North America generates 20% of the global game revenue.
If your monetization model is based on ads, then it’s reasonable to consider localizing into the countries with the largest gamer user base, such as China, India, Brazil, or Russia.
Do I need to translate my game into 20 languages?
We assume that your source language is already English, otherwise, translating it into English is the first thing you should do. Having your game in English will allow you to reach North American, Australian, British, part of the Indian and some other Asian markets. You may want to also look at separate British and American versions. It can irk if the player finds words that aren’t local or expected. If they are game genre specific then this is fine, however many are not.
Now, let’s have a look at the most popular languages we localized games into in 2019 in terms of word count.
More than one-third of the localization orders we receive fall into four languages, so-called FIGS: French, Italian, German, Spanish.
Then we have Japanese, Russian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Polish.
They are followed by Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), Turkish, Swedish, Dutch, Latin American Spanish, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Arabic, Thai, Danish, and Indonesian.
Again, the first 10 languages made over 80% of the overall word count pool.
7 best game localization languages
The majority of the game development companies based in Europe or North America select FIGS+PT+RU as the primary choice while Asian game studios and publishers prefer CJK as the first wave in their localization process.
Our must-have list includes FIGS+ZH+PT+RU. And here’s why.
French
As well as France, it opens the door to Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco and a number of African countries. Metropolitan (or Standard European) French works for Canada too (about 20% of Canadian population speaks French) although Canadians may prefer the local version of it.
The difference? Canadian (Québec) French contains many adopted English or aboriginal words, and displays more local idioms and expressions. For instance, “ma blonde” means “my girlfriend” in Québec, but European French speakers will take it literally for “my blonde”.
If you distribute your game online in Canada, you may leave it in English. However, the francization of video games is necessary if you sell offline.
Italian
Italian is officially spoken in Italy, Switzerland and San Marino. Italy is the 9th largest gaming market in the world. It got accustomed to the high-quality game localizations due to the low English penetration rates.
German
German was #1 second time in a row in our annual game localization rank. With German, you’ll be able to reach German and Austrian gamers, as well as those in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein.
Spanish
Important: Latin American Spanish is different from the European. Nevertheless, in South America, a game in any Spanish is welcomed more than just an English version.
Simplified Chinese
Localization into Chinese often requires game culturalization. Google Play Store is banned in mainland China and replaced by the local Android stores. If you use other mobile app stores (like Amazon or Tencent) then we recommend translating your game into Simplified Chinese too.
Important: Publishing your game in Hong Kong or Taiwan, you’ll need to translate your game into Traditional Chinese (local versions).
By the way, Chinese is the second most popular language on Steam, followed by Russian. Bare it in mind if you prepare your PC game for Steam.
The most popular Steam languages, May 2020.
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
A lingua franca in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. It’s a big one especially if the game is to be released on Steam. Statistically, Russian gamers leave negative comments more often than others if the game isn’t localized in their language. It can hurt the overall score of the game.
The fastest-growing languages in game localization
Finally, let’s examine the languages that demonstrated the highest growth in the past four years.
In the past four years, Thai demonstrated a 4x increase in the growth rate, followed by Polish and Korean (3.5x each), Japanese (3x), Turkish and Vietnamese (2.5x each). Hindi and Simplified Chinese also joined the ranks of the fastest-growing game localization languages. Apart from Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean (which were already pretty big), emerging markets with a high number of gamers are the ones attracting attention within the games industry, this growth will most likely continue.
Having your game translated into “traditional” European + Asian languages is always a safe bet. But stepping into emerging markets now may be a reasonable move for further expansion. Check our free game localization tool to find markets that work best for your game.