Games

Game localization
written to fit the box

A game is written in fragments: a button label, an item name, a tooltip, a line of dialogue. Each fragment has a space it must fit, a voice it must keep, and a build it must not break. Miss one of the three and the player sees it.

  • Interface, items, quests and dialogue
  • Written to the character limit
  • Names and terms kept consistent throughout
  • Placeholders and variables left intact
  • Linguistic QA against a build
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Send us your string files, an export, or just a description of the project, and we will reply with a fixed price.

Your documents

    Three constraints, all at once

    The translation of a website or an app has to be accurate and readable. Game text has to be accurate, readable, and three other things simultaneously — and each of the three fails visibly, in front of the player, at the worst possible moment.

    It has to fit

    A button label, a tooltip, an item name, a quest log and the subtitles under a cutscene all have hard space limits, and languages do not run to the same length. German in particular runs long, and a compound noun does not get shorter because your button needs it to. So the translation is written to the box from the start rather than trimmed afterwards, because a line trimmed at the end is a line that lost whatever it was trying to say.

    It has to read like the game

    A character has a register, and keeps it. A running joke has to still be the same joke forty hours later. Invented vocabulary, place names, item names and ability names have to be the same word every time they appear, including in the three places nobody remembers they appear — the tooltip, the achievement and the patch note. That is a glossary problem before it is a writing problem, which is why we build the glossary before the bulk of the text is translated, not after somebody notices the sword has two names.

    It has to survive the build

    Game strings are full of variables, placeholders, tags and formatting codes, and they break if a translator moves them. Worse, they break quietly: gendered and plural forms fall apart the moment a name or a number is injected into a sentence that was only ever built for English grammar. Some of those strings cannot be fixed by translating them better — they have to be rewritten as strings, and we flag them rather than shipping something that reads as broken in four languages.

    The only way to know a game reads properly is to see the text in the running game. That is what linguistic QA is for, and it is the step most often cut.

    Happy to be of service,

    Founder

    What that means in practice

    Four things we do differently on game text than on a document. None of them are optional if the result has to hold up on screen.

    • The glossary comes first

      Item names, abilities, places, factions, invented words and each character’s register are agreed before the bulk translation starts — so consistency is a decision made once, not a correction made a thousand times.

    • Written to the limit

      Give us the character count per string and we write inside it. Where a limit genuinely cannot be met without losing the meaning, you get the shortest honest version and a note, rather than a silent truncation.

    • Code stays code

      Variables, placeholders, tags and formatting codes are protected during translation and checked before delivery. A string that breaks the build is not a translation problem you should be finding.

    • Grammar that survives injection

      Gender, number, articles and word order all shift once a player name or a quantity is dropped into a sentence. We write around it where we can and tell you where the string itself needs splitting.

    What we translate in a game

    The text inside the game, and all the text around it that players read before and after they play. Send whichever part you need.

    Game localization languages

    Below are the languages we are asked for most often for games. For any other language, just contact our team.

    • German
    • English
    • Spanish
    • French
    • Italian
    • Norwegian
    • Arabic
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Romanian
    • Portuguese
    • Polish
    • Swedish
    • Finnish
    • Thai
    • Russian
    • Greek
    • Ukrainian
    • …and many others
    EnglishPortugueseSwedishGermanPolishGreekSpanishDutchTurkishFrenchRomanianJapaneseArabicUkrainianMandarinItalianRussianNorwegian

    How a game project runs

    1. 1

      Send the strings and the context

      The export as it comes out of your project, plus whatever context exists: character notes, screenshots, a build, a lore document, the spreadsheet where someone wrote down what the item actually does.

    2. 2

      Receive your quote

      A fixed price for the scope you sent, with repeated strings discounted, and a delivery date we confirm with you before you commit to anything.

    3. 3

      Glossary, then text

      Names and recurring terms are settled and sent to you for approval first. Then the text is translated to your character limits, with placeholders protected throughout.

    4. 4

      Check it in the build

      Where you can give us a build or screenshots, we read the text where the player will read it and fix what only shows up in place — overflow, wrong register, a line that made sense out of context and does not in it.

    5. 5

      Patches and updates

      Send the new strings when the game changes. Only the new lines are translated and charged, and they come out consistent with everything already shipped in that language.

    Frequently asked questions

    Tap any question to see the answer!
    Our strings have hard character limits. Can you work to them?
    Yes, and it is much easier if you send the limits with the strings — one column with the maximum length is enough. We then write inside the limit instead of translating first and hacking it down afterwards, which is where meaning gets lost. If a limit is genuinely impossible in a language, we tell you which strings and why, rather than quietly cutting a word off.
    What do you actually need from us to start?
    The string files in whatever format your project exports, and context. Context is the part that changes the result: character notes, screenshots, a playable build, a glossary if you already have one, and a note on who is speaking. A bare column of strings can be translated, but nobody can tell from it whether “Charge” is an attack, a battery level or a price.
    What is linguistic QA and do we need it?
    It is reading the translated text in the running game rather than in a spreadsheet. It catches what no amount of care in the file can catch: text overflowing its box, a line that reads wrong once you see who says it, a variable that resolves into nonsense, the same item under two names in two screens. If you can give us a build, take this step — it is where most of the visible errors are found.
    Will our placeholders and variables survive?
    Yes. They are locked during translation and checked before delivery, so what you get back has the same tags and tokens it left with. That is a minimum, not a feature.
    The player can choose a name and a gender. How do you handle that?
    Carefully, and sometimes by telling you the string has to change. English tolerates a name being injected into almost any sentence; German, Spanish and most other languages then need the right article, ending or agreement. Where we can write around it we do. Where we cannot, you get a list of the strings that need splitting or reworking, before it turns into a bug report in your community forum.
    We ship updates constantly. Does every patch mean a new project?
    No. Your translations and terminology are kept in a memory and a termbase, so a patch means translating the lines that are new and paying for those. Everything already translated stays as it was, and the new text matches it.
    Can you do the store listing and the patch notes too?
    Yes, and it is worth having the same people do it. Your store page, your patch notes and your support replies are read by the same players as the game, and it is obvious when the item in the patch note is not called what it is called in the game.
    What does game localization cost?
    It depends on the word count, the language pairs, how much repeats, and whether you want linguistic QA on a build. Send us the export or a description of the project and you will have a fixed price and a confirmed date before you commit to anything.