Localization Glossaries: What They Are, and Why They Matter

Getting lost in translation? Sounds like your project might need a glossary. The glossary or term base is the backbone of any project, keeping your brand and game voice consistent, reducing translation errors and mishaps, as well as saving time and budget. Get the 411 on how to create, run, and maintain a proper term base from our article.

Game localization is a complex process that goes far beyond simple translation. For your game to feel native to its new audience, you need to adapt the language and cultural features while preserving the style, essence, and feel of the original game. To achieve this, localization teams must maintain a high level of consistency throughout the entire project, and this is where glossaries come into play.

In this article, we’ll explore the role of glossaries in video game localization, discuss best practices for creating and maintaining them, as well as provide practical tips to ensure quality across all languages.

What Is a Glossary?

A glossary is a specialized dictionary, a curated list of the established terms and expressions used in the game, along with their translations into target languages. It is an essential tool for translators, editors, and other team members involved in the localization process that helps ensure uniform and accurate language throughout the project.

Key Components

Your typical glossary entry includes the following:

• Term: The original game-specific word or phrase in the source language.
• Translation: The corresponding term in the target language.
• Definition/Description: A detailed explanation of the term’s meaning and context of use.
• Context / Examples of Use: Sentences or fragments that show how the term is used in the game.
• Notes: Additional information on tone, style, as well as nuances and restrictions. It can also contain information on capitalization, i.e., noting that one term should never be used in lowercase; inflections (forms) that make the term easy to look for in synthetic languages.

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Why Do You Need a Glossary?

1. Keeping your language uniform

During the localization process, it is crucial that the core terms are translated consistently throughout the game. This helps create a seamless and natural experience for the player as they navigate the different areas of your game, without breaking their connection to the world.

Example: If your healing item is established as a “health potion,” referring to it as an “elixir of life” later on can cause much confusion. Players might wonder if they’re dealing with a different item altogether, making them question game logic.

2. Reducing the number of errors

Glossaries help prevent common mistakes and mistranslations, especially when multiple translators or teams are involved in a project. When working with a well-maintained glossary, you can always turn to it to clear things up, and this often has a positive impact on the speed of translation. Glossaries are vital for eliminating grammatical and contextual errors, such as keeping character genders correct (as some languages reveal gender through inflection). The same applies to capitalization, ensuring that terms and names are correctly formatted throughout the game.

3. Maintaining speech style and tone

Every game has its own distinct style and feel. Glossaries help preserve these elements during translation by setting clear rules and guidelines for the use of key terms and phrases.

4. Benefits for machine translation (MT) and post-editing (MTPE)

Machine translation stands to benefit the most from a clear and consistent glossary. By providing a predefined key list of terms, glossaries help these systems keep the translation accurate and to the point. It also means your editors will have fewer inconsistencies to weed out, helping streamline the process.

5. Cross-team compatibility

Glossaries become truly indispensable when interacting with multiple vendors or bringing on new team members, making sure everyone is aligned on terminology.

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Glossary Basics

1. Creating a Glossary

• For new projects: If the game is a new project without an existing glossary, one should be created. This typically occurs during the initial stages and is often discussed during a kick-off meeting with the client.
• For existing glossaries: If the game has been translated before, the client may provide a glossary. In this case, it’s important to agree on its use and update it as needed. Some older projects might come without a glossary, though creating one is still a must to refine legacy texts and ensure compatibility with new translations.

2. Approving Terms

• Vision check: All essential and game-specific terms should be approved with the client.
• Feedback: Regular revisions can help avoid misunderstandings and ensure every new term and entity is accurately translated.

3. Using Glossaries

• Integration with CAT tools: Modern Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) systems allow integrating glossaries, making it easier for translators to do their job and saving time.
• Team training: All project participants should be trained on the proper use of the glossary and its relevance.

4. Maintaining Glossaries

• Tracking term changes: If a key term changes during the development or live operations, it should be updated in the glossary and reflected across all translated materials.
• Regular updates: You should make a proactive effort to keep the glossary up to date.

Glossary Nuances and Challenges

1. Changing Terms

Although glossaries are usually more established, nothing is set in stone, and sometimes you may require to change a key term. It’s important to remember that this means you’ll need to update all materials translated prior to maintain consistency, which can be a time-consuming process.

Example: If your team decides to change the term “accelerator” to “gas pedal,” you need to update all instances of “accelerator” previously translated.

2. Working with Multiple Vendors

If you happen to be working with multiple teams to localize a game, it is vital to provide them with a centralized glossary and regularly communicate any updates. This will help prevent discrepancies and improve the overall quality of localization.

3. Naming Conventions and Platform Features

Naming conventions are naming standards developed by platform holders. In simpler terms, this is something you tend to encounter often on consoles—terms that must be used in the interface or description of the game.

• Example: Button text on Xbox must conform to Microsoft standards.
• Why it’s important: Failing to follow platform requirements may result in the game being rejected when you attempt to place or update it on the platform.
• Platform specifics: Each console may require different translation strings for similar items to meet its specific standards. These variations exist not only between platforms but also between generations, as is the case with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, while others can be language-specific. For example, “button” has two spellings in Italian, varying based on the type of button on the controller.

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4. Stereotypes and Reservations

Not all clients understand the critical role glossaries play in localization. As such, localization teams and agencies often have to stress the importance of keeping an up-to-date term base, and this sometimes requires a little convincing before the project.

Conclusion

Glossaries are the cornerstone of video game localization, ensuring your language and terminology are uniform, reducing the number of errors, preserving style and tone of voice, and streamlining processes for all involved teams.

With the right approach, glossaries elevate the quality of your game, creating a polished and natural experience for your audience.

Key Takeaways

• Establish a glossary early in the project.
• Approve all terms with the client.
• Train the team to use the glossary properly.
• Update and maintain the glossary regularly.
• Respect platform specifics and naming standards.

Follow these points, and you’ll be sure to never get lost in translation! After all, proper localization is your key to tapping the local markets and making your game truly international.