Download - Minimizing Human Errors in Game Localization
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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
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2LOCALIZEDIRECT
WARNER BROTHERSARE USING OUR LOC MANGEMENT TOOL LOCDIRECT
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3LOCALIZEDIRECT
“Fixing an overlong string bug normally takes 1 week, but with Localize Direct only 1 minute”
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano, Localizaton Manager
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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.
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Minimizing Human ErrorIN LOCALIZATION
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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Games I’ve Localized
2005 - 2010
2010 - 2013
2013 -
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What’s LOCALIZATION’s WORST ENEMY?
COPY/PASTE
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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!
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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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
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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Real Estate UI Issues
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Font glyph issuesHardcoded string
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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TranslationConsistency
Check4600 translation inconsistencies(around 460 per language in a 11500 string database)
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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!
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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LOC-Friendly String Database Solution
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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SummaryFont analysisConstant validation (and translation consistency)Audio validationAchievement localizationEfficient and localization-friendly string database solution
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano
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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
Adolfo Gómez-Urda Montijano