Atlus: Localization is no simple process, steps outlined |
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Ever wondered why localization of a game takes as much as six months? Am sure you have, along with countless other curious souls. And finally, somebody takes the time to explain, step by step. Atlus lists the detailed procedure of localization, in hopes of appeasing the impatient gamers out there.
There are six steps in all, but you can bet each one spends a great deal of tedious work, hence the long weeks, long hours, long months before the final product.
- Step 1: Familiarization (1-3 weeks) -- Play the game and understand context of written material.
- Step 2: Localization (1-8 weeks) -- Depends on amount of text and if voice acting is required.
- Step 3: Programming (4-6 weeks) -- All implemented by original developers.
- Step 4: Quality Assurance (5-8 weeks) -- Bugs are natural side effect of localization, along with "test issues."
- Step 5: Manufacturer Approval (3-8 weeks) -- "Internal testers go over the submitted master candidate."
- Step 6: Manufacturing (3-5 weeks) -- Print, box and ship.
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Via Atlus
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Comments [refresh]
the process is kinda tedious and hard such that some games don't even see the light of day outside of Japan... altho i still kinda liked if they included the undub ver of the game (i know the audio files are very2 large)
Video Games should be treated like movies: distribute it in original language with subtitles in various languages. This would dramatically increase internationaliz ation speed.
Skilled fansubbers can translate 30 minutes of animation in a couple hours. And this requires time synchronization and encoding, which are not required for a game.
Creating a video game with subtitles in mind should be the norm. A few video games here in Japan ship with english subtitles. This is a great thing, but it should always be the case.
I couldn't care less about voice acting and such, but give me subtitles, dammit!
If internationaliz ation (through subtitles only) was integrated in the development cycle from the start, the extra development and QA times would clearly be lower than what the article states.
Also, once a company creates a "subtitle" API, they can probably reuse it in all their games easily to reduce further development costs/time related to translation. Consequently, QA for this module would also be done seriously once, and then would be much more lighter.
Unfortunately Japanese companies (in the entertainment business) don't think at all about internationaliz ation until it's too late. How long will it take before they realize how much money they could make from worldwide otakus with simple improvements?
Japanese speaking market: 130 millions. English speaking market: 1 billion? So I'm not saying all games should be translated into all languages, but seriously, english, spanish and chinese should be considered... (none of those is my native language, if you ask)
kind of...maybe last generation that would work, but not so much this generation. what if you are racing a car and they tell you where you are going or to take a turn or describe your mission while you drive? it would be annoying to constantly have to pause and stuff to figure out what they are saying.
same goes for like an action game when you are like maybe going for someone and they tell you specifics or something.
In general, this is a good idea for cut-scenes, but won't really work in game when something is intense.
agree!
Sure, that can be applied in games with cutscenes. But how about the game interface itself e.g. menus? o.O
mayb in the future where the game will come with a patcher that subs the cutscenes and patched the in-game interface... e.g. using the PP extractor application....
Ah now I see why games always come this late to Europe: Ok I knew that translating a game into 5 languages would be alot of work (almost every game released in Europe has the language options English, German, French, Italian, Spanish). But I didn't know it's THAT much work...
just put sbutitles in, honestly
no game or subtitled?
yeah, i'd choose subtitled too
Actually, it's not only a straight fall-through(waterfa ll) process. In many(or all) cases, once the production goes to QA, it will go back and forth to developers to sort all things out -all up to the tiniest detail. This is a little worse if the producer/director is very very picky -the cycle will go on endlessly.
So for people who haven't worked at game development, expect the process from #3 to #4 to go for about at least 3-4 cycles before it goes to #5.
Am I the only one who played Monster Hunter portable 2g with the English patch? Its an excellent example of what willow is talking about. ill admit that there is no voice acting in this game, which makes it easier, but a dedicated group of fans had taken an existing game and released a very small patch file that re-coded all text dialogue for nearly the entire game. The only things that did not get translated in the final patch were scattered, unimportant conversations with some NPCs, and a few small things at the very start and end of the game.
Truth be told, the translation done by the fans has been noticeably better then the official translation done in the multi region release of Monster Hunter Unite. If it were not for the release of Unite, the patch would be 100% complete by now. This was totally fan created, done well, and quickly. The first patch was out in less than a month, translated more than half the game.
Keeping this model in mind, there really is no reason willows idea wouldnt work great. Subtitle cut scenes, patch dialogue and text, if there are verbal commands, voice act only those or stick with subtitles. It wouldnt really matter the type of game play, this would work. An example of this is that GTA even uses on screen directions for mission objectives. It simply takes a different business model, and a fresh approach to an old problem.
what about the baby?
The Dissidia (English) demo is online now, downloaded it earlier.
I give the game a 2/5 for effort.
It's set in the FF universe, so of course fanboys will be all over it.
The localization process may take a lot of time, but I think it's worth it. Maybe it's just me being OCD, but when I have to read subtitles I feel like I'm missing some of the action.
I think the reason we Americans get so cranky is because we're used to our instant gratification. A high quality game is worth the wait; rather than a game that has subtitles slapped on it.
i personaly hate subtitles! i had a girlfriend that HAD to have them on EVERY movie she watched, not cuz she needed it she just liked it. dont ask me why. i really think it takes away from getting into (in this case) the game.
DISSIDA ROCKS! and i would prefer to wate longer to get a game in my own language!
@ ptspyder
I have also played mhp2ndg translated by team hgg, and they did one hell of a job, even better than capcom's. IMO the localisation process by fans is easier done on a portable console e.g. psp, since most of my fan-localised game (FFVIICC, mhp2ng, persona 2 etc) comes on a psp. as for including the undub files, one of the games that i have encountered are p3:fes, p4, SO1 and SO2 (yes, i did have a legit copy of all of them) and also the last remnant (random squeenix game on 360/PC with undub ver officially made by SE)
Some people like subtitles (or closed-captioning). With them, it's like watching TV the modern way. You don't ever have to tell people to shut up because you can't hear, you don't have to raise the volume, you don't have to get closer to the TV to hear better. With subtitles, you "hear" everything, so you don't ever miss anything.
You don't ever have to ask,"What'd that person say?"
Seriously, my brother hated it when I started putting subtitles on everything (watching TV, watching movies), but after a few years, even he puts them on!
yea after a few YEARS... i get what your sayin tho. sometimes i cant even under stand someones accent. it dose come in handy... sometimes