How to Prepare Your Game for Localization

Introduction

Localizing a video game is more than just translating text. It requires careful planning, technical preparation, and understanding of cultural nuances. Many indie developers approach localization as an afterthought, which often results in costly delays, quality issues, and missed market opportunities.

This guide walks you through the essential steps to prepare your game for professional localization, ensuring a smooth process and better results in every language.

1. Audit Your Game's Text

The first step is to identify all text that needs localization. This encompasses UI elements such as menus, buttons, and tooltips, as well as in-game dialogue and character names. You'll also need to account for quest descriptions and objectives, item names and descriptions, loading screens and tutorials, error messages and notifications, and credits and subtitles.

Creating a comprehensive spreadsheet that documents all text is essential for a successful localization process. Include context information showing where each text element appears in the game, along with character limits for each piece of content. This documentation helps your localization team understand the constraints and deliver translations that fit perfectly within your game's interface. When your translators understand these limitations from the start, they can make informed decisions about how to adapt content while maintaining the intended meaning and impact.

2. Understand Character Limits

Different languages expand or contract differently when translated from English. German and Spanish typically expand 15-30% compared to English, while Chinese and Japanese can be much more compact. This linguistic reality means that UI elements with fixed space constraints require careful planning. A button that fits perfectly in English might overflow in German, or feel cramped in Japanese.

The best practice is to document character limits for each UI element in your game. For example, a button might have a maximum of 20 characters, while a quest description might allow 200 characters. Share this information with your localization team upfront to avoid truncation issues and ensure that translations look professional in every language. When translators know these constraints from the beginning, they can make smart decisions about phrasing and terminology that fit within the available space while preserving meaning and impact.

3. Extract Text from Your Engine

Most modern game engines including Unity, Unreal, and Godot have built-in localization systems that streamline the translation process. These tools allow you to extract all text into standardized formats like CSV, JSON, or XLIFF, which are industry-standard formats that translators work with regularly. Using your engine's native localization system makes it significantly easier for translators to work with your content and for you to import translations back into the game once they're complete.

If your game engine doesn't have a built-in localization system, consider implementing one before starting the localization process. This upfront investment will save significant time during translation and reduce the likelihood of errors. A proper localization pipeline ensures that translations are correctly integrated into your game without manual workarounds that can introduce bugs or inconsistencies.

4. Create a Terminology Database

Game-specific terms including character names, item names, locations, and game mechanics should be consistent across all languages. Creating a terminology database that defines how these terms should be translated is crucial for maintaining a cohesive player experience. When players encounter the same item or character in different languages, they should see consistent naming that reinforces the game world's identity.

Consider examples like translating "Mana Shield" to Spanish as "Escudo de Maná" rather than "Protección Mágica", or "Quest Giver" to French as "Donneur de quête" instead of "Maître de quête". Character names like "Aria" typically remain unchanged across all languages. This consistency prevents confusion among players across different language versions and ensures that the game world feels cohesive and intentional, regardless of which language players are using.

5. Prepare Your Narrative Content

If your game has dialogue, cutscenes, or story elements, preparing this content carefully is essential for maintaining narrative impact across languages. Include detailed context about tone, character voice, and emotional intent so that translators understand not just what to translate, but how to translate it. Is a character formal or casual in their speech? Are they using slang or technical language? What's the emotional tone of the scene—is it humorous, dramatic, or contemplative? Are there cultural references that need adaptation for different regions?

This contextual information helps translators make informed decisions about how to adapt your narrative for different cultures while preserving the original intent and emotional resonance. A joke that lands perfectly in English might need cultural adaptation to work in Japanese or German. By providing this context upfront, you enable your localization team to create translations that feel natural and engaging to players in each market, rather than literal translations that might miss the mark culturally.

6. Test Your Localization Pipeline

Before sending content to translators, test your localization pipeline with one language to identify technical issues early. This pilot approach helps you verify that translations import correctly into your game without data loss or corruption. Check for formatting issues such as special characters, line breaks, and text encoding that might cause problems in specific languages.

Verify that UI elements display properly with longer translations, since some languages expand significantly more than English. Ensure that your game's fonts support all character sets needed for your target languages, particularly for Asian languages that require specialized font support. Fixing these technical issues early in the process prevents costly delays later when you're closer to launch. A successful test with one language gives you confidence that your entire localization pipeline will work smoothly for all your target markets.

7. Plan for Localization QA

Localization QA (LQA) is the process of testing your game in each localized language to ensure quality and consistency. This goes far beyond simple spell-checking. LQA testing includes checking for UI overflow or truncation where translations don't fit properly in interface elements, verifying terminology consistency across the entire game, and testing gameplay clarity to ensure that instructions and tutorials are understandable to players who speak that language.

LQA also involves checking for cultural appropriateness and verifying audio/subtitle synchronization if your game includes voice acting. Budget adequate time and resources for LQA testing—it's crucial for delivering quality results that will satisfy players in each market. A game that looks perfect in English might have subtle issues in other languages that only native speakers can catch, and LQA testing ensures these issues are identified and fixed before launch.

8. Consider Cultural Adaptation

Localization goes far beyond translation. True localization requires considering cultural differences that can significantly impact how players in different regions experience your game. Are there cultural references that won't resonate in other markets? Do colors have different meanings—for example, white symbolizes mourning in some Asian cultures while it represents purity in Western contexts? Are there religious or political sensitivities that your game might inadvertently trigger in certain regions?

Consider whether your UI/UX should be adapted for different regions, as user interface conventions and preferences can vary significantly across cultures. Working with native speakers and cultural consultants ensures your game feels authentic and respectful in each market. This level of cultural attention transforms a translated game into a truly localized experience that resonates with players in each region, rather than feeling like a foreign product that was merely translated into their language.

Conclusion

Preparing your game for localization requires planning and attention to detail, but the payoff is significant. By following these steps, you'll ensure a smoother localization process, better quality results, and faster time to market in new regions.

At NextLevel Loc, we guide developers through each of these steps to ensure a smooth localization process. If you're ready to expand your game to new markets and want to work with a team that understands both the technical and creative aspects of game localization, we're here to help. Our team has experience preparing games for localization across all major platforms and languages, and we understand the unique challenges that indie developers face when expanding globally.