5 Challenges in Indonesian Game Localization Process

As the gaming industry has become more modern, several companies are trying their best to do game localization to reach a larger audience in the gaming industry. It also happens in Indonesia, where there are a lot of companies that offer Indonesian game localization services to meet the needs of Indonesian gamers.

However, the companies will likely find a few challenges while doing Indonesian game localization as it is normal to occur in the industry.

Before diving into the challenges that the companies will find in doing game localization, we should understand the definition of game localization first.

Read Also: Why Indonesia Game Localization Is The Next Big Thing in Gaming

What is Game Localization?

According to Tomedes (2024), game localization could be defined as a way to adapt a game’s meaning, translate text, and adjust the game’s cultural reference for the gamers so that they could comprehend the context of the game easier.

There are several elements that are included in doing game localization, they are:

• UI information containing player info stats and names of location, items, map, and non-player characters.
• Dialogues between characters and prompts coming from NPCs.
• Quest texts and related information and instructions that could guide the players throughout the game.
• Subtitles for the cut-scene dialogues.
• Cultural references that help the player understand the game’s characters’ backgrounds.

These elements are important to be noted by the companies while doing game localization since they can help the process of localization run perfectly. Therefore, gamers will get the best quality of game localization.

Why Is Indonesian Game Localization Important for Gamers?

The answer is simple. It is because the gamers themselves are passionate about the games they play nowadays. They have high expectations with the game as they want to interact in their native language, in this case, Indonesian.

If game localization were to be omitted, the gamers would most likely play another game, which would reduce the probability of the game being played.

Moreover, the gamers could give a review about the game, for instance, “I do NOT recommend this game because it does not add Indonesian subtitles for the local gamers.” It will have a bad impact on the game later, as the Indonesian gamers will not even bother to play the game for fun.

The interest in the game, which is not localized to Indonesian, decreases and detrimentally affects the company that wants to reach a larger audience.

Consequently, it is important for the companies to localize their games so that Indonesian gamers are willing to play them.

However, localizing games is a difficult task that involves a number of challenges in the process. These challenges should be handled well to make the game localization appear perfect for gamers.

5 Challenges in Indonesia Game Localization Process

These challenges will likely appear since there is a barrier of culture and language involved in localizing a game. Then, what are the 5 localization challenges that will be encountered by the companies?

Here is the list!

1. Quotes

A quote is defined as a statement expressed by another person and included within a text verbatim. Usually, quotes come from books, poems, speeches, etc. Within the game, a quote can come in various forms. For example, Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are able to talk with players using quotes as a code to convey important information.

In dealing with a quote, the translator should be familiar with cultural references and contextual understanding as these two are very important. Providing an accurate translation is not enough. The translator should go beyond their thinking to understand the quote’s full meaning.

For example, consider this English quote:

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

With the literal translation, it could be translated into Indonesian as “Kehidupan tidak teruji itu tidak layak hidup”. Does it make sense? Unfortunately, it does not.

If the translator considers a cultural reference in Indonesian, it could be translated into “Kehidupan yang belum pernah diuji itu tidak layak untuk dinikmati”. So that, Indonesian gamers could comprehend the meaning of quotes well.

2. Slang

Slang becomes the trickiest challenge that will be encountered by game localization translators, as it is known that every language has slang and it’s usually new and ever-changing.

To overcome this challenge, the translator should pay attention to cultural references in which the slang is commonly used by people in their own native language. This is because the meaning of slang could be different each year as it undergoes a change.

For instance, the MOBA industry has its own slang, such as Lane, Carry, Push, etc. These slangs could be translated well into Indonesian if the translator plays the games and understands the cultural reference weight behind it.

3. Format Issue

In doing game localization, a format issue becomes one of the uncommon challenges that sometimes happen to the translator. It happens because of the difference in language length. The string length in English sometimes differs from that in Indonesian. This becomes a reason for the translator to avoid literal translations and focus more on the meaning and its form.

For example, ‘See you next time’ in English appears shorter than in Indonesia as it is translated into ‘Sampai jumpa di lain waktu’. This script could be too long for the textbox within the game.

This issue may seem insignificant; however, it gives an unpolished look if it appears within the game being localized, which makes the gamers not excited about it at all. Therefore, the translator should find a way to use a suitable-length translation as the source language to avoid the formatting issue while doing game localization.

4. Coding

Another challenge that will appear while doing game localization is coding which can cause in game-issue and affect the experience of playing a game.

For instance, the coding issue could appear and interrupt the players with a symbol like this “���”. It means there is no encoded match within the target text for the characters from the source text.

5. Placeholders

Placeholders are defined as short codes put in sentences that are replaced by in-game texts, for example, %s, %1$@. These placeholders should become a real value in the game; not merely symbols. These values are able to represent or import values by players, including name, date, figures, texts, etc.

In doing game localization, a translator should never alter placeholders during the localizing process. If the changes happen, the in-game bugs will appear while the gamers play the game.

To conclude, game localization could be defined as a way to adapt and translate game text and cultural references to the target language. Yet, it is not an easy task to do, as translators will likely face the challenges mentioned above in the process. Translators should be able to avoid these challenges so that the game can reach a larger audience.