Thanks a lot, really glad you appreciate the content from our blog!

You're welcome anytime, Fat Pug Studio! Give us a shout when your game's ready for localization

France, Italy, Spain and Russia do have a relatively low English proficiency, so localization is almost mandatory if you want to make the most of these markets.

[You're targetting casual gamers]

Localization will be worth it if:

- You're targetting casual gamers - Casual gamers are... casual. Their English proficiency is usually much lower than hardcore gamers. Your store description alone will filter them out if it's in English only, so localization matters a lot for them.

- Understanding the game is essential - If you have to explain gameplay mechanics or if you're telling a story, consider localization or people might get frustrated and leave bad reviews because they can't play the game or fully understand it.

- There's a potential audience for your game in foreign markets - Do some market research to see if similar games do well in certain markets, if there's a lot of competition, if you can have visibility, etc.

- Your game already has some visibility - If it doesn't, localization will still help it reach more people, but it won't do miracles either and you may not get ROI.

- It's well executed - This point is especially key if your game is narrative-heavy. Sloppy translations ruin the experience, so make sure you get quality translations.


If you're interested in reading stories on that topic, we recently asked 3 indie studios if localizing their game was worth it: http://www.leveluptranslation.com/single-post/is-it-worth-localizing-an-indie-game

[make sure it's clear for potential buyers that the in-game text won't be localized]

Hey Nijigames!

As a general rule, it's always better to localize everything, but if you don't have the budget for a full localization, it's perfectly acceptable to only have your storefront content localized.

If you only localize this though, make sure it's clear for potential buyers that the in-game text won't be localized, otherwise, some people might feel cheated and leave you awful reviews for that.

I manage a team of game translators and we actually discussed this point in a blog post focusing on localization-related stuff that can annoy players: http://www.leveluptranslation.com/single-post/how-you-put-off-gamers-with-careless-localization