

- #Localization xbench how to#
- #Localization xbench full#
- #Localization xbench software#
- #Localization xbench download#
Numeric mismatch: Translation contains two numbers that are not present in the source. Inconsistency in source: “Decrease” and “Increase” are opposites, yet both translations are exactly the same. You do not have to understand the translation to see there are two different words (“niewidzialność” and “nietykalność”).

Inconsistency in target: “Temporary invincibility” has two different translations. Leave all the boxes checked and click Check Ongoing Translation and see the results.Įven this basic set of check delivers some tangible results:

Now click QA In Check Groups and List of Check you can see all the basic checks Xbench can perform. Uncheck Remove Duplicates (you want to check all instances of strings) and check Ongoing Translation (this will allow Xbench to recognize the file as ready to check). – they must contain only source and target language columns in one tab). Remember: your files must be stripped of all additional columns (keys, IDs, character counts, etc. Big thank you to Enrique Pañios who allowed me to use some strings from his great game Immortal Redneck in this exercise).
#Localization xbench download#
Download and use it to get the same results as below. Press CTRL+N to display Project Properties dialogue.ĭrag and drop the bilingual tab delimited text file or press Add, Next and pick the file to check.
#Localization xbench how to#
Xbench is not a complicated software, but see below how to generate an error report. You can also generate a clear report of potential issues, send it to your translator, ask him/her to read the text again and fix all real errors.
#Localization xbench software#
What is great, however, that there is software that allows you to check the files. Yet SOMETIMES small errors are indeed an indicator that your friendly localizer is not the best specialist to choose. Do watch out with this kind of speculations and remember that everybody makes mistakes. This could be tempting to assume that your translator is sloppy, when he/she did not remove these pesky double spaces. Many small “technical” errors in one file MIGHT suggest the presence of more serious issues. Small errors such as spaces before punctuation marks, wrong quotation marks etc. Not noticing a NOT is a more common error than you could imagine. Your translator was in a hurry, did not pay enough attention, or was tired, and translated both of them the same: “Podoba mi się ta zbroja”. Correct Polish number is “100 000” with a non-breaking space.Īnother example: you have 2 different strings: “I do like this armor”, “I do not like this armor”. Where is the tiny “technical” error? 100,000 in Polish means one hundred tons (with three decimal places), and not one hundred thousand tons. One string is “The ship weighs 100,000 tons”-> “Statek waży 100,000 ton”. Let’s say you had your game localized from English to Polish. These tiny “technical” issues can completely alter the meaning. OK, but “technical errors” are tiny issues, right? Nor do you have time to find a qualified one. You do not have financial resources to look for the external reviewer, You have very limited knowledge about the translation process, You do not know the foreign language the game was translated into, So is there a quick and inexpensive way you – a game developer – can check the localization quality of strings translated to foreign languages by your language professionals? Yet the developers are restricted in this field mostly with time and money. It struck me I have to expand this article (which was almost ready at that moment), as the need for quality localizations is ubiquitous and developers require some ways to control the translations they receive form their localization specialists. We had the chance to know someone personally for the Japanese version of our game and to have you for the Polish version.

But it’s hard to know someone for all the languages. It’s good to know people in this field so you can hire freelancers you trust. It was at that moment that we really realized that we don’t have the power and money to verify the quality of the translation of the company we hire. I think we were lucky because we didn’t have much complaint from the community for the translation except from some Chinese players. We were wrapping up Polish localization of Mages of Mystralia. Recently I have been exchanging e-mails with Cassie Nantais from Borealys Games. Now I am preparing part 2 with more methods that allow to detect even more issues but require spending some time on configurations.
#Localization xbench full#
The full text with graphics and proper formatting is at my blog:. Have little time to spare (about 20 minutes), Now I'd like to share some simple tips for developers who want to check quality of translations they receive from localizers. In some of my previous posts I tried to shed some light on financial matters and savings when localizing games ( Save money on game localziation.
