Secrets of the Game Business (Game Development Series)

Heather Maxwell

<hbmaxwell@mindspring.com>

Creating International Content

Localization is often the last thing on people's minds and the last thing that is completed in the game development cycle. If localizations are planned for in advance, they can be completed in a timely fashion and can get the game more exposure in international markets. These days, most publishers localize their games into French, German, Spanish, and Italian. This article mainly concentrates on these languages, but this information can also be applied to localizations for other languages such as Korean, Japanese, and Polish. Determining which languages your game will be localized into at the beginning of the project will save time in the long run, since you can prepare for any problems you are sure to encounter.

Get International Input Early

Think about how the name and content will sell in other countries. Will you be able to sell very many copies of a "Route 66" adventure game in Japan if no one there has any idea what "Route 66" is? How about trying to market a real-time strategy game called "Third World" in Mexico—where connotations of this phrase are completely different than in the United States? Will a baseball game sell very well in Europe?

Create special hooks or exclusive content to appeal to an international market. If making a car-racing game, include a special French car that is available exclusively in the French version. If designing a skateboarding game, include a skate park from the UK or Italy. The same goes for music. If licensing music from well-known American bands, replace one of the tracks with the hottest band in Germany.

Avoid making specific references to American culture and slang, unless it is necessary for game design. For example, avoid references to the Survivor TV show like "You have been voted off." And don't use slang like "Keep it on the DL," and "That is whack!" This will also prevent the setting of your game from appearing too dated.

Usually, the U.S. version is completed and then the localized versions follow. In some cases, the localized versions will need to change or remove some of the assets that were originally intended for the U.S. market. For example:

• Electronic registration. You don't want to include U.S. electronic registration on international builds, but you might want to include country-specific registration. This might require you to get different registration software for each national version of the game.

• Subtitles. In lieu of fully localizing the product, you can subtitle the voice-over. If this is the case, subtitling functionality needs to be built into the game engine.

• Blood. Germany has strict censorship guidelines, particularly in regard to blood and violence. Games released in Germany will need to have the blood completely removed or changed to another color so it does not look like blood. Adhering to Germany's censorship guidelines might require you to make a separate German master, especially if you are not going to alter the violence for release in other countries.

European Ratings Boards

Certification for videogames is not centralized internationally so there are several software rating entities that operate in Europe and other countries. If you are planning to release a game in another country, check if they have a software rating system and what the submission requirements are. You might need to modify your game before it can be released in a particular country. Some of the rating boards that operate in Europe are:

• United Kingdom: European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA)

• Germany: Unterhaltungssoftware SelbstKontrolle (USK)

• Spain: La Asociaci n Espa ola de Distribuidores y Editores de Software de Entretenimiento (ADESE)

• France: Syndicate des Editeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs (SELL)