minimizing human errors in game localization

1LOCALIZEDIRECT

www.localizedirect.com

THE BENEFITS OF A GREAT LOCALIZATION

TOOL A presentation from GameLocQA, San Diego, California,

by Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano, Localization Manager at

Warner Brothers Games Montréal inc

2LOCALIZEDIRECT

WARNER BROTHERSARE USING OUR LOC MANGEMENT TOOL LOCDIRECT

3LOCALIZEDIRECT

“Fixing an overlong string bug normally takes 1 week, but with Localize Direct only 1 minute”

Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano, Localizaton Manager

4LOCALIZEDIRECT

www.localizedirect.com

GET GREAT LOC INSIGHTSTake this opportunity, to see inside the loc process of one of the world’s leading game companies.

Minimizing Human ErrorIN LOCALIZATION

Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano

Games I’ve Localized

2005 - 2010

2010 - 2013

2013 -

What’s LOCALIZATION’s WORST ENEMY?

COPY/PASTE

How can tools and practices positively impact the game?

Drastically reduce amount of localization bugsReduce chances of broken localization buildsReduce translation and LQA costs (BAK 3 times more content, only 2.3 times $ more than BAC)Reduce wasted resourcesReduce dependency from development teamImprove quality of localized buildsReduce chances of compliance issues and MF bugs by first party

No overtime!


Internationalization PassShould be performed on pseudo-localized builds (a couple months before Loc QA)General idea of the localizability of the game before actual localization startsFont and encoding conversion issuesHardcoded stringsReal estate UI issuesNumber format issuesDate/Time format issuesNon-localized art

Establish punctuation guidelines for English and other languages before translation starts:Curly VS. straight apostrophes and quotation marksLong dashes VS. short dash1 VS. 2 spaces after periods Adolfo Gómez-Urda

Montijano

Pseudo-Localization30-100% length increase to catch real estate UI issues

Prefix made up of language-specific characters to catch font and encoding conversion issues

Non-pseudo-localized strings indicate hardcoded strings early in development


Real Estate UI Issues

Font glyph issuesHardcoded string

FONT VALIDATIONDevelop a tool to analyze all the game fontsSmall alphabet languages (European languages)Support ALL potentially necessary characters throughout the projectLarge alphabet languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.)Support most common + used characters only and update regularlyAlways support these special characters:

Ellipsis (… or Alt + 0133)Non-breaking space (Alt + 0160)Copyright (©), Trademark (™), and Registered (®) symbols


AUDIO ValidationMust also be performed in English assets prior to localization recordings to avoid re-recordings in other languagesExcellent task for localization testers when builds are not stable enough or to familiarize themselves with the gameOnly possible way of listening and validating all audio in the gameEnsure localized audio files are properly named


TranslationConsistency

Check4600 translation inconsistencies(around 460 per language in a 11500 string database)

Achievement & Trophy Localization

Along with metadata updates, #1 source of copy/paste in video game localizationMerge all assets into one single Excel file for translation:Sony *.trpMicrosoft *.Gameconfig/*.xmlSteam *.vdf

Ensure English texts match across all platforms (they never do)Diff, diff, and diff againEncourage translators to be creative when translating achievement names!


LOC-Friendly String Database Solution

LocalizeDirect Runtime String Update

Usual workflow to fix a localization bug:1. Notice cutoff in game.2. Guesstimate available space and shorten translation.3. Wait for a new build.4. Regress fix. If still cutoff, go back to step 2.

With runtime string update:5. Notice cutoff.6. Fix and ensure translation is no longer cutoff.

1 week

1 minute


2014 2015Nov 2015 Mar May Jul Sep Nov

VO Export for Translation and Recording1/12/2015

1st UI Export for Translation2/1/2015

Start of LocQA3/1/2015

Localized VO Integration3/2/2015

1st Party Submission

1/5/2015 - 1/9/2015

English Audio Validation

1/5/2015 - 1/14/2015Font Analysis

12/1/2014 - 12/30/2014

Internationalization Pass1/5/2015 - 1/14/2015English text proofreading

Constant ValidationAsian Font Texture Regeneration

3/6/2015 - 3/15/2015Localized VO Validation

11/3/2014 - 12/2/2014

Localization Process & Tools Setup


SummaryFont analysisConstant validation (and translation consistency)Audio validationAchievement localizationEfficient and localization-friendly string database solution


Pledge to 1st PartyMetadata:

•Represents around 1% of a AAA game’s content•Takes up around 10% of localization team’s time, involving marketing, loc QA, translators, legal team, communications, QA, Certification, and development.•1st party (Sony, Microsoft, and Steam) need to initiate a conversation to streamline the format and the process

Provide pre-localized TRC string repository


minimizing human errors in game localization

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