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By Munira Rangwala

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To prepare for a global audience, mobile game localisation has become an absolute must. But what is localisation? To put it simply, localisation is making your mobile games to be more inclusive and tailored to diverse demographics, regions, and cultures. It involves transforming your game to suit the preference of specific local audiences. Want to expand beyond your current reach? Localisation is the way! 

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Did you know? Apple Arcade requires its games to be available in at least 14 languages - including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian.

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What are the benefits of mobile game localisation?

• Expanded Market Reach: Localisation enables you to tap into new markets expanding your audience reach
• Improved User Experience: Localization enhances the user experience by providing content in players' native language. It makes the game more accessible and enjoyable, allowing players to fully understand the game mechanics, storylines, instructions, and in-game communication.
• Builds Higher Engagement: When players can fully understand and connect with the game, they are more likely to spend more time playing, invite friends, and become loyal fans. This can result in higher user ratings, positive reviews, and word-of-mouth recommendations.
• Competitive Advantage: By catering to specific regions and languages, you differentiate yourself from competitors who may not have localized their games. It helps you stand out, attract players who prefer localized experiences, and potentially dominate specific markets.
• Monetization Opportunities: Players are more likely to make in-app purchases, subscribe to premium features, or engage with ads when they have a seamless and localized experience. It can lead to increased revenue streams and a higher return on investment.

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How can mobile games be localised?

The process of localising text-light games is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is localize your in-app dialogue. However, story-driven games invariably require lengthier translation processes. If you want your localisation to actually strike a chord, you’ll need to translate local puns, slang, and take cultural nuances of the language into account. Localizing your mobile game is just one part of the process. Don’t forget that App Store Optimization (ASO) is essential for your mobile game if you want to see it succeed in several territories.

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1. Decide which languages you want to localise your game in

The one thing that all developers dream about is conquering as many gamers as they can. But for that, you need to decide where you want to begin your localisation journey. Language is always the main determinant of your localisation project. It determines the budget, ROI, as well as your target audience. App analytics tools like Sensor Tower and Data.ai can help guide your app market analysis. These tools will help with the following points:

• ROI of localizing into a particular language
• No. of users you can target by localizing into chosen language
• How are your competitors faring with their localisation?

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2. Design your interface for all possible languages

This one is fairly simple to execute. While designing your interface, plan at least 30% - or more - of additional text space. Localisation in another language might occupy a greater extension of your interface. This is especially helpful when you’re trying to accommodate smaller elements such as menu items.

For example, written German takes up a lot of space when typed out. When localised to German, games’ texts have an average of 30% longer extension compared to English versions. Similarly, while traditional Chinese characters occupy less memory space than English ones, Arabic and Cyrillic characters are twice as large. 

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3. Isolate all text strings from source code

When initiating a localisation process, you need to start by translating all of the text strings displayed by your mobile game. How can this be done? You need to extract all text from your executable code into resources files. Resource files should ideally consist of more than one key-value pair along with optional comments. Avoid ‘hard coding’ any text into your source code. 

Learn more about Apple’s Xcode localisation here and Android’s localisation support here. 

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4. Localisation needs to be done holistically

Once your game is localised into a certain language, you need to make sure you’ve not left out important details like the audio-visual content, currency, date and time of that region etc. Some countries - like the United States - follow a MM/DD/YY format. Whereas, some other countries - like India - follow the DD/MM/YY format. Localisation doesn’t just mean  translating a game into another language. Successful localization is when every detail of the interface is adapted to the target culture language and particularities.

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5. Prepare a style guide and glossary list

Planning ahead and preparing a style guide and glossary list will come in handy for when your game localisation process begins. Both these things help by providing clear instructions to your translators. A style guide is a framework that helps your translator understand how a game’s content should be presented. A glossary list consists of standardised and approved terms that are specific to your gameplay. 

Typical elements of a style guide include:

• Branding elements unique to a particular language
• Tone - formal v/s informal
• Formatting - trademarks and fonts

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6. Localising characters

Want to open up your game to a wide audience? You can start by localising characters! You can either change the character to better suit local ethnicities or you can choose a popular name and face from the culture and base your character after them. For instance, Free Fire introduced Jai in India and they based the styled the character to look like popular Bollywood star Hritik Roshan. Featuring a Bollywood superstar as a playable character generated overwhelming interest and a lot of hype amongst Indian players. Users could claim the character for free - all they had to do was complete in-game missions!

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7. In-game story elements

Localising story elements draws users in and keeps them engaged. Character names, weapons, names of places, and other story elemets can be localised to make the script of the game relatable for the player. Food is yet another element that can change how your game is perceived by a certain audience if you cater to their liking.

For example, if the story is set in Japan, the local bar should have cocktails that are less American and more suitable to the Japanese culture. In some cases, like the Polish version of The Witcher, even the names of your main characters will need to be changed.

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8. LGBTQ+ inclusion

From queer-positive barbie dolls like the ​​Laverne Cox Barbie doll to other queer toys for children, the world is embracing the LGBTQ+ community in all its glory. Mobile game localisation for LGBTQ+ representation - like including a trans character - will help your game garner wider acceptance. It is crucial to tell diverse stories with sensitivity from the start. Depicting LGBTQ+ characters with compassion, nuance, and complexity makes it unequivocally clear that LGBTQ+ gamers belong.

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CASE STUDY - ARENA OF VALOR: Localising characters for better relevancy & connection

Developed by Tencent Games, Arena of Valor (AoV) is a multiplayer battle arena published for iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch in Shenzhen, China. Originally released in 2016, AoV is actually the international adaptation of the game’s Chinese version, Honor of Kings. Through meticulous localisation, Tencent’s distribution of AoV outside of mainland China recorded massive success. In May 2019, AoV had a daily active user rate of over 13 million players. To make an impact with the Western audiences, AoV’s localizations for Europe and the United States included superheroes, like Batman and Superman. Since its inception, AoV has been localised in: English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Tamil.

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Over the past few years, new technological methods have enabled the gaming industry to become one of the highest-grossing industries. For your game localisation to be successful, every aspect has to be addressed. In addition to translating the core gameplay, you also need to localise character names, cultural elements, images, map names, stats, location names, and in-game announcements. Working with experts who have experience in game localization is the key to successfully distributing video games internationally.

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CASE STUDY - HonorBound: Rising up app store ranks after localisation

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JuiceBox Games decided early on to localize HonorBound. HonorBound was localised in several languages: French, German, Turkish, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Russian and Japanese. A translation guide was tailor-made for the game. Before localization, the iOS App Store had featured HonorBound only 24 times. In the two months after the localization release, HonorBound was featured 340 times on the iOS App Store, a fourteen-fold increase!

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Remember, localization is an iterative process, and ongoing updates and improvements based on player feedback are essential to create a successful in-game experience for your new markets.

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