Amongst our clients is one of the largest Nintendo Switch game publishers in the world, operating as a partner of multiple independent (“indie”) developers and supporting them also in the process of getting their games on Steam.

Read on to learn how we did it.

Our client wanted to add new language versions to an already published game available on Steam. The project’s objective was to reach recipients from regions known for their large gaming communities – for this reason, the game was to be translated into:

The project file sent by our client was, admittedly, very extensive, but once we had skimmed it through, it turned out that most of content pieces were arranged by keys and ID numbers.

Dialogues and tutorial elements were ordered chronologically, which allowed for better understanding of the context in which a given fragment appeared in the game.

Basing on these materials, we prepared a reference file containing descriptions and ID numbers of segments, so that they could be easily pinpointed and comprehended. Moreover, our linguists were given a link to the game on Steam as well as access to a huge database with in-game videos, forum threads, etc.

The huge source file and multiple reference materials – also created by the gamers themselves on Steam’s forums – were a clear indication that localisation into 5 different languages would raise more than many questions.

For this reason, at the very beginning of the project, we created an editable online query sheet available for the entire team – both for the linguists, and for the project managers supervising the venture.

One of our linguists’ tasks was to check the sheet regularly, so that no one would miss any important changes or updates related to the project.

Yet another facilitation was a video sent by our client – it was a recording of a gameplay that also showed all UI and tutorial elements. Our project managers not only provided linguists with a link to the footage, but also spent additional time searching for key moments and appropriately annotating them in the query sheet along with relevant screenshots.

Thanks to the close-knit team of project managers, tried-and-tested processes, as well as proven operational strategies, localising a game into five different languages didn’t pose a challenge for our agency.

Great communication between our linguists, the project team, and the client resulted in a major growth of the game’s user base.