Maximizing Gaming Localization Efficiency:

How memoQ TMS is a Game-Changer

As game experiences increase in scale and scope, so does the amount of in-game text and dialogue needed to facilitate them. Therefore, efficiency in managing these assets is paramount in both our game development technology solutions and processes. As developers and publishers, we want to tailor our games to global markets, making it crucial to pay attention to what translation management systems can do for us. If used in the right way, these offer a robust solution to the unique needs of the gaming sector.

As intricate pieces of interactive entertainment, game development pipelines present specific pain points for localization. We usually see five common areas:

Consistency is Key

Depending on the game, we look at bodies of text of various lengths. To ensure that players have a consistent experience with the scripts, we need to guarantee their investment, comprehension, and immersion. The biggest blockers are the lack of consistency of asset and file organization (naming conventions), terminology (legacy and new terms), and a process that is wholly specific to game text and dialogue like annotations (tags, code, regular expression terms).

Dynamic Content

Since the development of a game is never a static process, content changes and additions are a frequent occurrence in the pipeline. This creates new challenges for the localization teams. New characters and dialogues are introduced, user interfaces are revamped, errors are corrected, and the source text that needs to be localized undergoes constant rewrites.

Turnaround Times

A global product launch requires a lot of localization resources. In the past, turnaround times could delay game launches in international markets. Because of lengthy localization processes, it was often an afterthought. In many cases, developers considered it a lost revenue.

Budgeting Challenges

Games live or die by their budgets. It’s one of the most important resources in development. Because game localization was lengthy and difficult to plan for, it was seen as a time and money sink. Precious resources had to be allocated to the game’s development and could not be risked for a cost-prohibitive localization pipeline.

Global Collaboration

Game development teams tend to be distributed globally, especially localization teams. It requires time and people to facilitate proper communication between every department involved, from translators to developers to project managers. Localization professionals don’t always use the same tools as developers and require specific formats for asset deliveries as well as clear outlines of their work areas through assignments and data management. The lack of similar tools can stall the process and make development teams deprioritize localization.

How To Solve These Challenges?

A good and well-set-up translation management system can present tools to efficiently address these pain points, streamlining the localization process. Friction can be minimized, and games can seamlessly maximize their potential in global markets.

An example of a popular TMS that is widely used is memoQ’s Translation Management System, which provides robust solutions for the above game localization challenges. It helps us tackle consistency issues through terminology management, asset naming conventions, and regular expression filters for annotating text. memoQ TMS offers functionality to address the reimport of files in case of text iterations and the addition of new files in multiple formats. This meets the scalability needs of any game project.

Through automatic assignment features, clear outlines of roles, and word counts, memoQ TMS facilitates better planning, measurement, and scheduling for small and large projects. This helps reduce turnaround times drastically and makes global launches more cost-effective. Through the clearly structured process, budgets can be effectively allocated to every phase of localization.

Streamlined Communication and a Dedicated Gaming Unit

memoQ TMS even incorporates communication channels so that the project managers as well as the localization professionals can easily access a collaborative development environment. By removing silos in the localization process and encouraging communication, important points are addressed quickly, resulting in a higher-quality localization.

One of the biggest benefits of incorporating memoQ TMS into the game development process is their dedicated Gaming Unit. The team at memoQ provides support directly to developers working with the tools and handles requests for fixes and new features. They are also familiar with the specific challenges that game developers or publishers face when bringing their products to market and are experts in this field.

“The challenges of developers and publishers are unique to their own workflows, so there’s no single recipe to overcome them all. Since memoQ TMS is the tool of choice of so many gaming companies worldwide, we have witnessed a huge number of use cases and scenarios, which enables us to advise our clients based on real-life experiences”, shares Santiago de Miguel, Gaming Solution Engineer at memoQ.

Since memoQ has also built up a sizeable user and knowledge base within the game development and game localization communities, memoQ TMS is a tool that gaming companies can leverage right away. The memoQ Gaming Unit offers professional onboarding services for new clients, addressing their specific and technical requirements within the game industry. Additionally, it delivers premium solutions and customized training courses to ensure that game developers fully utilize memoQ TMS.

“As a professional localization producer with years in the field, I have personally used memoQ TMS to help me manage my localization projects for multiple language pairs. It provided me with great features on multiple projects of different sizes and was very easy to set up. memoQ TMS made tagging text and code within the game script a trivial exercise, and the assignment for translators, editors, and deadlines was straightforward. It’s become an integral part of my day-to-day localization services”, shares Julia Gstoettner, Localization Producer & IGDA Localization SIG Co-Chair.

The gaming market is increasingly hyper-competitive. Having your product stand out requires adaptable solutions to meet the challenges of this growing industry. Reaching an international audience in a cost-optimized way means that efficiency needs to be the cornerstone of every localization pipeline. For developers and publishers, this means that finding a TMS tailored to their product’s unique needs is crucial to a successful global launch.

You can learn more about our partner memoQ’s TMS solution here.