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Mobile game translation

Mobile game translation is obviously a relatively new thing. Although many of us cannot remember our lives without our phones – since these gadgets seem to have been with us forever – their widespread use is quite recent.

 

In the early days, we could see on TV those cellular telephones that were the size of a house brick, like the Motorola DynaTAC. All of us wanted to have one of those magic thingies from which you could call anyone even when you were not at home, although the size of those early models clearly discouraged that. But to play games on a phone? Who would fancy that? As it turns out, quite a few people. But the mobile games surely need to be translated, if they are to be understood by people from all over the world and not only from the English-speaking regions.

Learn more about our App/Mobile game localization service.
mobile games translation
Picture via unsplash.com – @mbaumi

Not much to translate in first mobile game

When the first affordable phones built for the general public were released, the Finnish brand Nokia undoubtedly played a major role in bringing them to the people. Of course, those early phones were nothing like the ones we use nowadays. They were reliable, but also heavy to carry and kind of bulky. When the display showed only one bar of battery power left, the mobile would still stay alive for another day.

Models like Nokia 6110 and 3210 could even survive falling a dozen metres. Even more, and above all, they had GAMES! Well, at least one – the critically acclaimed Snake. Snake was the first game embedded within the software of a telephone. However, this mobile game did not really need translation, and that for obvious reasons.

Snake led the way for other mobile games

It’s not hard to guess that a mobile game as simple as Snake did not require complex instructions. The game was about a snake spinning around itself, eating to grow in length, and trying to avoid hitting the screen borders and other obstacles. But it did lead the way for future video games. Snake showed us that you did not need to buy a console in order to play. You could do that on your very own mobile phone!

Throughout the years, mobile game software have become less complicated and more prone to open-source solutions. It became “easy” for companies to program games specifically meant for mobile devices.

All-in – an obvious choice for mobile game translation

Nowadays, almost anyone can create a game or an app for Android, iOS, or Windows Phone devices. All one needs is some knowledge of how to do it, money, and adequate tools. If you create a mobile game and want it to quickly grow in popularity, you will most likely want your game to reach as wide an audience as possible. At All-in Global we can make that happen. We too are discontent with those appalling translations one so often sees in mobile games (even more often than in regular games). This makes us the obvious choice if you want people to actually talk about your game… and not about how poorly translated your mobile game is.

Post-editing mobile game translations

We have been translating all sorts of games since 2008, and we know how the best possible result is achieved. For mobile game translation, an important step is post-editing, which means the translators carefully proofreading the mobile game translation in its full context.

 

Whether this is via screenshots or on an actual phone varies. However, this is the only bulletproof way to avoid misunderstandings and secure a precise and attractive translation of your mobile games. Few words are usually used in mobile game texts, and it is truly an art form to get a user-friendly end result with such limitations. Our mobile game translators are truly the artists at doing this, and they are available to translate into 80+ languages.

 

Contact us now for a free quote or more information.

salesteam@all-in.global


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