One of the best ways to increase the number of users and revenue for your game is through localization. However, localization is an extremely meticulous process as it requires large-scale planning right from the time you start developing your game. Localizing the game process is long and time-consuming, a number of developers tend to turn away from localization even though it has the following benefits:
Higher sales
When you localize your game into a new language, it will have a huge impact on your sales. By adding a new language, you are giving more gamers a reason to download your game. As you earn from every download, your sales revenue will go up considerably. In other words, when you go local, you are making your game global. Markets such as China, Korea, and Japan have a large number of gamers. To ignore these markets would be a huge mistake because you miss out on raking in large sums of money.
Increased competitiveness
When you opt for localizing your game into a new language, you capture the attention of a whole new market. When your game has a new language, more users from that specific region will be interested. As a result of this, your game will become highly competitive, both in the global and local market.
Which language to choose
There are a large number of languages to choose from when you want to localize your game. However, as the user base of each language differs greatly, it is vital that you localize your game in the most popular dialect.
According to this article:
Statista
The Asia Pacific region has more than 900 million gamers. Following this region is Europe, Middle East, and Africa with over 600 million gamers.
If you want your game to be a huge hit locally, then you should focus on languages such as Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. You can also add Russian, Spanish, and French to your list of local languages as these regions also have a large gamer population.
Tips for localizing your game into a new language
To make sure that you make the most of localizing your game into a new language, follow these tips:
Avoid hard-coding on source code
One of the most important tips we can offer to you is that you should never hard-code on the source code. To save time developing games, many developers cultivate this habit. However, the problem with this technique is that it makes it more challenging to localize the game into a new language. The best technique for localization is to create an independent resource file for all the new languages of the game. As a result of this, it becomes easier to manage translations and text.
Create and define strategy for localization
When you think about localization, make sure that you create and define a sound strategy before taking action. It is vital that you study the local market before you go about making changes in your game. Every region’s gamers exhibit behavior that is unique to that location. For example, the buying habits of American gamers will be different from their Japanese counterparts. With effective planning, you will use your resources wisely. It’s okay to spend additional time studying the market before you start localization.
Make a glossary for translation
To make the process of translation faster and easier, you need to make a glossary which contains all the terms used in your game. One of the major benefits of a glossary for translation is that it makes the changes consistent and uniform. It will also decrease the cost and time taken for translation. Due to lesser development time, you will be able to capture the global market at a faster pace.
