Game Testing Services: Localization Quality Assurance (LQA)

Key takeaways:

• The challenges of introducing your game to the international market do not end in translation and localization.
• Game testing services ensure that games are completely ready for the international market.
• Localization quality assurance covers three integral parts: Linguistic, visual, and functional.
• Game creators and developers aiming to reach a wider audience must also invest in game quality assurance.
• The last step of game translation and localization is game localization QA. 
• Linguistic quality assurance (LQA) goes hand in hand with visual and functionality QA, ensuring that all aspects of the translated game are correct, functional, and visually pleasing.
• The quality of your game has an impact on its overall success in the global market.

Table of contents

• Localization Quality Assurance in Games
• Linguistic vs. Visual vs. Functional QA
• CCCI – Professional Game Quality Assurance Services

The growth of the video game industry across the globe is unstoppable. Over the years, the market had gone beyond being just a hobby, especially when the pandemic affected the gaming industry and pushed us to adjust our lifestyles to stay safe. With the new normal, people have more time for gaming. That means we need game testing services now more than ever!

To get a deeper understanding of how crucial video game quality assurance is, let us first see how big the video game industry is. In 2021, the market size in the United States alone surpassed 85.86 billion U.S. dollars. The world thought the industry had already reached its peak in 2020 when it hit 76.15 billion U.S. dollars, but it only went higher.

Well, video gaming has always been big. Its long history showed that way back in 1970, Nintendo acquired 318 million in home console sales. And now, with more developers introducing more games to the audience, there is no other to go but up.

Still, developing a game and putting it out on the market do not always guarantee success, especially when technology is also continuously evolving. We have come from tic-tac-toe to Pac-Man to more arcade video games. Now, we have consoles and mobile games that demand user-friendly and clean interfaces. The list of genres is longer than ever! Moreover, the age range of gamers does not only include youngsters. Even the oldies have their favorite games, too.

Video gaming is more accessible to gamers now, so it is easier to reach your target audiences.Game translators have also made it more possible to reach international markets, allowing gamers to explore fascinating storylines like it is their own.

There are many factors that affect your game’s stand in the market, and these include video game testing services. If you have not considered looking for the best game testing companies out there yet, you will definitely start after we see their importance together!

You think of a plot, create and build your characters, design the whole game, and then make it available to the gamers. All games probably start with that, right? But when you decide to make your game available to a broader audience, you will have to get them translated and localized. This is where localization quality assurance testing services come in handy.

Localization quality assurance or LQA is actually the last stage in the game localization process. After you have your game translated and localized, you have it tested and reviewed, covering UI/UX evaluation as well. LQA also covers compliance testing, culturalization, internationalization, and functional tests in your game. It involves native-speaking linguists who are also experts in gaming, ensuring that your game is free from errors or problems. LQA guarantees that your game is linguistically and visually ready for the market.

Note: LQA is crucial for games that are available in different languages. Consider the languages that have two and more variations, like European and Canadian French and European and Brazilian Portuguese. Localization is pivotal for international gamers, so it must always be of good quality.

Game localization is a vital aspect of a game’s worldwide success. Your game has to go through proper planning and internationalization, content analysis, and maintaining brand consistency without compromising the context of the game. You take several steps to localize your game properly!

Skipping quality assurance into the localization is like missing the opportunity to confirm that the translations have consistency and a natural flow. LQA confirms that your game terminology meets the requirements of hardware manufacturers and that there are no implementation issues. It is the last and the most significant step your game must take.

Diving deeper into game testing services, you will come across three integral parts of LQA: linguistic, visual, and functional. Let us go over them one by one to get an overview of the whole game localization quality assurance process.

Some of the best languages for game translation include English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Whatever your target language is, those who translate and localize your game must make sure that their output is accurate and excellent. Linguistic QA directs that!

Linguistic quality assurance (LQA) sees to it that your localized game fits the linguistic and cultural requirements. The tester checks the following:

• Grammar, spelling, and punctuation
• Geography mistakes
• Numbers, calendars, dates, financial symbols, and measurement units
• Taboos, broken and cultural languages
• Inconsistent translations
• Relation between images and texts
• Voice-overs
• Overall naturalness
• Correctness of all information

Through linguistic QA, you fix mistakes in the game scripts and voice-overs before your game goes out to the public. Testers provide suggestions on how to improve these problems and even alternative translations. They correct the contextual issues that may affect your game once it goes live.

Checking any design-related issues happens during the visual QA. It is another crucial part since the design is what your gamers will first see. Localization quality assurance services providing high-caliber visual QA covers the following:

• Font issues
• UI/UX issues
• Overlong strings
• Compliance check
• Shortened characters
• Untranslated or partially translated texts
• Inappropriate graphics placements

Visual QA ensures that the translated and localized game looks organized and pleasing without compromising correctness. This process checks if the texts are too big or too small or if they are cut off from their assigned spaces. Visual QA fixes common problems for translations as well, especially when some languages are longer than others. Moreover, visual QA directs how your game will appear on different platforms and devices.

Lastly, a quality assurance game tester also performs functional QA. This step is as crucial as linguistic and visual QA as it targets art, graphic, or engineering bugs that can only be fixed through a code change. Apart from that, it also checks the following:

• Correct links and commands
• Keyboard issues
• Corrupted audios
• Incorrectly displayed texts
• Game code compatibility
• NPS issues
• Keyboard issues
• Overall game performance

Functionality QA testing directs how your localized game will function once the gamers get their hands on it. It ensures that there are no input problems, incorrect links, and misbehaving non-player characters. This step also sees if your game suddenly crashes or freezes and fixes it before it is too late.

Game localization QA helps your game reach an international audience with great eagerness. The process determines how you have prepared for translation and localization and how ready your game is for the market. There are many video game testing companies that can provide the services you are looking for, but you do not need to look further. You have already found CCCI.

CCCI is a game translation and localization company that operates across Europe, Asia, and the US. We deliver language services in up to 30 languages in various industries, focusing on video game localization, manga translation, content creation, and BPO services. Our team understands how long the process is, so why should you skip the biggest and last step?

CCCI has been working with top game companies for over a decade, helping them reach gaming markets across the globe. We are a team of language experts, covering a wide range of services with our native proofreaders and quality checkers. We ensure good quality and excellent partnership and provide game customer support for your target audience. We aim to improve the overall quality of your game.

We know that the challenges do not end after you translate and localize the texts in your game. Just like you, we want gamers to get the best experience with whatever game they are playing. It is only possible with excellent localization, which we can only assure through our game testing services. You have already spent a lot of time and money building that game. Go big by making it available in other languages!

Let us make your game 100% ready for the market. Connect with us today!

Check also – Game industry in Italy: Italian Game Localization, German Game Industry: Game Localization in Germany.