How to Localize a Video Game // Unity Localization Tutorial

Localizing your game can improve the chances of your game becoming successful and even provide a major boost to your sales numbers. But if you haven’t ever localized a game before, you might be curious: how do you actually localize a game in practice?

So in this video I will show you, step by step, how you can localize your game in Unity, starting from the very beginning. I will also give my advice on how to prepare your game for localization, even if you are not yet sure whether or not you will actually localize the game.

0:00​ Intro
1:11 i2 Localization asset setup
1:58 Setting dynamic strings
5:29 Working with translators
10:56 TextMesh Pro alphabet support
16:18 Preparing for localization

[Drasora]

I am a game dev myself and I also offer game localization as a freelancer (EN->DE) and I wish every client would provide enough information and answer questions, as you state in your video! Because I would like to make suitable and good translations :)

[mrussogamedev]

Thanks man. Best tutorial on this asset I've found. Best of luck in your projects.

[madeinbrooklyngames]

Dope Video! Thank you for the easy script examples in the video.

[alisaneei]

Great video! I just didn't understand something. If I2 Localization asset translates all the words, then why should we get help from translators? Isn't it better to get help from them in the first place?
Also, I have another question. How do you change UI game objects to dynamic strings? For example, for the "Start" button, do you use "UI.main.play" as the name of the game object?
Thank you!

[localberry]

As a translator I would actively discourage any dev from using machine translation for their games (especially in their entirety). The best way you can make sure that your translation and localisation is good and natural is to choose a native speaker of the target language. They will know what sounds natural, and not choose translations which are synonyms, but not right in the context. (For example, 'quit' and 'leave' might both mean the same thing, but any English native knows that in game context, you always use 'quit').

[TezFraser]

Great video! Super informative and thorough. I'll definitely be referencing this when I'm ready for localizing my game!

[ceren]

Hey, I'm a translator interested in localization. I didn't get those dynamic strings (i have zero coding knowledge :D) such as "UI.ENDSCREEN.LOSE"? Which part made it dynamic actually? sorry if it sounds ridiculous 😅😅

[jutekpixel]

Good tutorial but I am struggling with this tool a little bit. For example when i am generating csv spread sheet it is showing some errors in unity. It is generated in the end but it is not as prepared by columns like in your video. everything is in one cell. :/ strange.

[lt.gonflette]

Good video! Just to be clear, is I2 Localization mostly for game developers or can localizers directly use it to work on games?
Thanks

[lemapp]

Thank you so much for making this video.

[BramOuwerkerk]

I just discovered your channel and I really like your videos :)

[RecOgMission]

Thanks for this. I need to start localizing, and this video gave me most of the info I need. One thing I would add is to have the keys as an enum or something similar so you can only select feasible values, to reduce the occurrence of not linking strings properly.

[tobiasrieper]

Thanks. Learned a lot and will definately need this later on.

Common terms in the desired language are a thing in itself.
I have an German example from your video:

'Power' is translated to "Leistung".
This is not wrong, but not common and somewhat out of context.
If you say in English 'I've got the power!', then you don't say in German "Ich habe die Leistung".
"Leistung" is more regarding to mechanical power, like from your car or how you performed to a test.
Instead you say "Ich habe die Kraft!" But this is a whole statement, not just a single term.
Single term as an attribute here is translated to "Stärke".
You could even not translate it, because 'Power' has a very common understanding worldwide, but this would be inconsistently to the other translations.



So what I'm trying to second is that a special native gaming language translator/editor is super important, like Auro mentioned in the video.
Otherwise it can disturb or break your game immersion.

[redabeg]

How do you have the data separated by columns? Because Unity doesn't understand this way of data recording, it requires all data in one column, separated by commas. So, how?

[DualGenStudios]

Hi Auro. One question. Can videos (trailers in the Steam Store be localized)?

[shiny_dark_]

Дякую автору відео, за корисну інформацію

[happytofu]

Hmm weird, the game does not know the LocalizationManager. It gives me the error: The type or namespace name 'LocalizationManager' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) - do I need to include a library for it? Or do I have to make a localization manager script myself? Should it come with the localization package? - Edit: nevermind, I think it is because I use another localization package, the one that nowadays comes with unity.

[Goomba_Smash]

How do I localize a game where the text is all hand drawn pixel art and drawn directly on the assets?

[voldy]

Can I use this method to localize an existing game?

[termway]

Thank you for sharing this. It was a very interesting watch.
Though I would not recommend people to use hard coded key in their code.
Instead I would recommend them to create a custom class (or MB) which contains the key as parameters which can have a custom property drawer (or Editor) for preview. You will have more flexibility that way.

At 03:25, I didn't catch the difference. Won't you get the same string in the end?