How to become a localization dream

We communicate a lot with potential customers of localization services, and sometimes this communication leaves deep scars in our hearts, especially when we are denied. But even after we started cooperation, there is not always a smooth process of “grinding in” and building relationships. For example, we welcome the quality control of our customers - we are not perfect and sometimes make mistakes. But sometimes verification methods make us shiver in our hands and make it difficult to type the text for an answer.

All the examples described below are based on real events, but slightly modified. We hope we have not offended anyone.

Below, we tried to collect the most memorable answers and explain why it is better not to say so.

1. We tried to translate everything using Google Translate - users like, play.

At one of the reports, I don’t remember already at what game conference, Max Donskikh from Game Insight said that 4% of localized games earn 70% of money on mobile platforms. Games are fun, and the brain during the game should not be distracted by the translation of phrases (unless it is a game about translating phrases). Regarding Google Translate: our magazine published the results of a non-rigorous study of how Google’s statistical machine translation works (a spoiler — the translation into all languages ​​goes through English). Look at the Chinese games on Google Play, remember the jokes about the wrong translation - your game in a foreign language will look the same. I think you want another, right?
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Don't translate your game using google translate, no need.

2. We all translate fans.

Russian interface of social network Facebook, December 2009

This option is much better than the previous one (the player is well versed in your game and loves her!), But he also has his drawbacks. Take a close look at the Facebook interface: more recently, all men were offered the status of "married" - and this is not a tribute to tolerance, the option "married" simply was not. Precisely because ordinary users translated for Facebook. Be honest with yourself - a person with a lot of free time, for example, a schoolboy or a student, is able to translate the game for free. Remember that in this case you must provide it with a convenient interface for translation , and also think about how well your student will translate your game. To think faster, go to the popular game forums or read the messages to support your game.

Good localization costs good money.

3. We ourselves will recruit translators, so cheaper.

To give a translation to professionals is the right decision. Many companies have a staff of translators, for example, Blizzard. However, they also donate a significant part of localization work to subcontracting. In addition, it takes time and money to recruit a team of good translators. For example, it took us about a year to recruit a stable team of translators from English to 12 others, as well as the efforts of the 15 full-time employees involved in this process. At the same time, we implemented and set up a server solution for better work and led other projects. Perhaps we are sloops and you will succeed faster, but it is unlikely: localization is our profession. We believe that a professional is primarily engaged in his business: the developer develops games, the publisher publishes, the localizer localizes.

A good team of localizers can be assembled, as a rule, in two ways:

1) buy a localization company;
2) hire a manager with a good team of localizers (there are very few of these, as you understand).

Perhaps this: you yourself are well versed in localization, and you already have a team of translators (are you developing games exactly?). Or a whole year 15 people are engaged in the selection of a team of translators.

Estimate the costs of forming a team of translators within the company.

4. We already have a contractor, we are satisfied with everything.

You - well done, no kidding.

Now imagine that you received a translation and want to check it. Below are examples of how to do it.

1. “We pasted your Arabic translation into Google Translate and horror-horror! There is some nonsense! We doubt the advisability of further cooperation. ”

Google Translate translates phrases from a foreign language into Russian through English, and in the case of rare languages, an intermediate one is often added. In order to understand what might come out of this from a quite meaningful phrase, play with this service .

To make it quite clear how such a phrase looks in the eyes of a localizer, imagine that you choose a truck and opted for Volvo, but you want to arrange a test drive. To do this, you ask sellers to put two trucks nearby, get up on the side mirrors and ask to go, but not on the Swedish roads, but on the Russian ones. What do truck sellers think about you? Do not do it this way.

2. The reviewers do not speak the language of the translation. This has to be faced most often.

Sometimes it is not enough to make a good translation. He must also be defended in battle with the testers of the customer. We can translate for three weeks, and then drink Corvalol for months, reading the reports of the brave gamepad and mouse warriors. But we do not take offense, because in the end we are trusted more. We just leave here a few trophies from the last war, so that it is clear that the tester would like to know the language that he is testing.

Our translation option:

- There was no need.
- will appear. You sank the royal ship ... broke the rules of Hornigold ...

Edit tester:

- There was no need.
- Appear. You sank the royal ship ... broke the rules of Hornigold ...

Tester comment: Changed, grammar issue.

It happens that the work of the tester does not seem to be visible:

Source Code: Between two worlds

Our translation: Inter Two Worlds

Edit tester: Between two worlds

Tester Comment: Spelling issue

And it happens that something else is visible:

Our translation option: When the enemy makes a dive ...

Editing the tester: When the opponent is attached ...



Another case with a customer who checked the translation from Russian into Chinese Simplified Letter with the help of a Taiwanese (traditional letter is common in Taiwan), who does not know Russian. How was the translation checked? From the English translation, which we did not. Confused? We also understood a long time, but everything ended well.

The simple rule: make sure that the person who verifies the translation really knows the language of the translation and the language option you want.

3. "My friend knows English / Chinese / Japanese / any other language very well, and he says that the translation is bad."

You check the performance of your supplier, and this is good. But the degree of proficiency in a foreign language examiner may be different - from the top five in school in English to several years of residence in the country of native speakers. However, for some reason, it turns out that in most cases our work is not checked by native speakers and non-professional localizers.

Imagine that you have programmed some high-loaded front-end service, and I, the customer, please take a look at the code of my uncle Basil, because he can make a Wordpress site and knows a little PHP. And my uncle says your code is bad. Feel the emotions? We feel about the same.

The work of professionals should be checked by professionals.

4. “Your translator is asking too many questions. We began to doubt his competence. ”

The most important thing for the localizer is the context, as much context as possible. In this case, Lokkit consisted of a set of unrelated phrases, and it was very difficult to understand what was going on.

The better lokkit and the more context - the fewer questions.

Observing these simple rules, you will become a localizer's dream, and it will be your project managers who will call you nyashka and paws.