The translation of video games has become mandatory because this industry has been heavily contributing to their respective economies. Every game developer and gaming distribution company is now investing in game translation for a better global reach. Game translation is a technical and challenging process and it helps with better and more effective coverage all around the world. The gaming content needs to be comprehensible and fully understood by the potential players regardless of the region. This practice demands accurate and precise translation. To make this process magical and effective it is imperative to follow the right techniques and strategies.
The magic of game translation goes beyond simply swapping words from one language to another. It’s a fascinating process that combines technical expertise, cultural understanding, and a part of creativity to bring games to life for a global audience.
Here are three important steps carried out which properly can help with the magical games leaving a lasting impact on audiences and players.
The Pre-Translation Phase
First of all, it is imperative to properly plan and execute the pre-translation phase for seamless video game translation services.
Understanding the game
To dig deeper into gaming translation, it is important that the translators have an interest in games. Translators should always check the game, its genre, and its target audience by immersing themselves in the story as potential players. Moreover, interacting with every possible content and character of the game can assist in maintaining an overall tone which further allows the game to show its magic.
Terminology management
Working on a glossary list and following it throughout the project also turns out to be an effective process. This helps with correct translations of the key terms that are used frequently. The character names and standard explanations of frequent terms throughout the content get to do wonders in beautifying the content. A great focus on consistency can help to be through an effective translation experience.
Cultural considerations
A game cannot be magical without considering cultural appropriateness. All the cultural references need to be interpreted according to the regional culture, humor, and social nuances. This is important to ensure that they adapt the gaming content effectively and as per the target audiences preferences. Jokes coming from one language can need rework and adaptation in other languages to resonate culturally with the intended audiences. The accurate adaptation of cultural considerations often makes the gaming content more effective, also making the process worthwhile.
The Translation Process
The next step that helps with effective video game translation services is looking into the translation process and doing more than the needful.
Masters of localization
It is important to take note of where skilled gaming translators can make the game effective. You also need to understand, there is something more important than translation when it comes to preparing games for global audiences. Yes, you need to look for masters of localizations for the localization process. These experts should have gaming experience and insight. They can handle the tasks more progressively as compared to others with limited knowledge about games. The experienced ones can understand the composition and functioning of a game.
Text elements like dialogues, menus, user interfaces, and in-game descriptions need an appropriate translation and effective localization to prove their magic in the gaming world, and that’s where you need help from a professional translation agency.
Context is important
Context is the main concern in every type of translation and for video games as it has to work around a story. So without context, it can ruin the whole effort. The gaming translators do not work in a vacuum, they rather need to consider the on-screen text limitations and have to adapt the voice acting and lip-syncing to ensure that translated text gets along well with the translated text within the game’s framework. Translators should be mindful of the fact that context can not be ignored or overlooked in the gaming translation or else it can affect the story and its plot.
Tools of the trade
With the passage of time and more advancements, machine translation tools and translation memory have progressed a lot. The translation memory tool can help with previously translated phrases also ensuring consistency throughout the gaming text. It saves time and money and helps to streamline the process further which adds great value to the gaming content.
Quality Assurance
Quality is a prime factor to consider and cannot be overlooked for a meaningful gaming text. Discussing quality assurance with your translation agency is imperative to consider for effective and magical gaming content. The translated text needs to be accurate. Sending it for rigorous testing by the native speakers who play games and ensuring that things are clear and good to send forward with grammatically correct and culturally appropriate content is mandatory. Accuracy comes with certain practices and these are the most important of these.
The localization specialists should be consulted to test the flow of the translated dialogues, also making sure that it has the exact matching in-game character’s tone and delivery. This is particularly evident in checking and scanning for the gaming content to ensure that the characters have been developed and tamed as per cultural appropriateness. This further helps to make the translation of the games standardized where opting for quality assurance timely helps with fixing any inconsistencies or awkward phrasing.
Conclusion
Video game translation is a creative yet challenging task. A robotic translation of the content does not work for video games. These rather demand meaningful translation with fluency and flow making potential players enjoy as if the game was originally developed for them. To work on magical gaming content it is important to carry out the pre-translation process responsibly followed by an accurate translation process and robust quality assurance.
