STANDARDIZING THE LOCALIZATION PROCESS

DAVE KIM

LOCALIZATION PRODUCERSONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT

Sony Online EntertainmentInternational Operations and Development (created in 2001)

Current Active Localization Projects EverQuest II, PlanetSide, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Free Realms, The Agency, DC Universe Online, Legends of Norrath, Free Realms TCG, Match Attax, Station.com

Annual Workload Number of Updates: 50~60 updates New English Word Count: ~ 2.0 Million words annually Total Translated Word Count: ~ 8.5 Million words annually

Total Word Count in Translation Memory Database Total English Word Count: ~ 15 Million words Total Translated Word Count: ~ 60 Million words

OVERVIEW

OptimizingFocus on process improvement

Quantitatively ManagedProcess is measured and controlled

Defined Process for the Organization, Proactive

Managed Process for Projects, Often Reactive

InitialUnpredictable, Poorly controlled, Reactive

CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL INTEGRATION (CMMI)

CMM WAS DEVELOPED BY SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE (SEI), CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (CMU)

Localization without Standardization• No Translation Engine• No Persistent Unique

IDs• No Standard

Translation Data Exchange Format

• Ad Hoc Localization

Localization with Standardization• Integrated Translation

Engine• English Strings with

Persistent and Unique IDs

• Streamlined Translation Data Exchange Format

• Modern Localization Workflow

Localization with Optimized Standardization• Translation Engine

Captures Lookup Calls• Translation Strings

with Status• Contextual Data

Exchanged• Work Flow

Automation with Feedback

EVOLUTION OF LOCALIZATION STANDARDIZATION

LOCALIZATION WITHOUT STANDARDIZATION

•Problem: Not able to handle dynamic text

•Result: Poor quality translation

No Translation Engine

•Problem: Used English to look up translation

•Result: Translation was lost when the English changed from “Go!” to “Go!!!”

No Persistent Unique IDs

•Problem: Different every time, chaotic

•Result: Lost files, data errors, user errors

Ad Hoc Translation Data Exchange

Format

•Problem: No Translation Database.

•Result: Inefficiency. Delays.

Ad Hoc Localization Work Flow

LOCALIZATION WITHOUT STANDARDIZATION

•6~12 man months of engineering clean up

No Translation Engine

•Excessive retranslation. $10,000’s

No Persistent Unique IDs

•12-18 man months of localization clean up

Ad Hoc Translation Data Exchange

Format

•Labor intensive and error-prone

Ad Hoc Localization Work Flow

INITIAL LOCALIZATION PROCESS

New Content to Localize

Eyeballing the Data

Prepare and Send Batches

Translation and QueriesQA and Bugs

Dev and Bugs

Publish

• The first step is managing the chaos. You can get quite good at each of these steps in the chain.

• Eventually you reach the limits of chaos.• The next step is standardization.

Standardization of process. Standardization of data. Standardization of tools.

• At SCE standardization is LAMS, at SOE it is C*STAR.

MATURATION

IMPLEMENTING STANDARDIZATION

No Translation Engine

Integrated Translation Engine

No Persistent Unique IDs

English Strings with Persistent and Unique IDs

Ad Hoc Translation Data Exchange Format

StandardizedTranslation Data Exchange Format

Ad Hoc Localization Work

Flow

Modern Localization Work

Flow

BENEFITS AFTER STANDARDIZATION

•Improved quality with dynamic grammar

Integrated Translation

Engine

•Ability to track changes in the English text

English Strings with Persistent and Unique IDs

•Simplified import and export process

Streamlined Translation Data Exchange Format

•Centralized translation database and tools

Modern Localization

Work Flow

New Game Assets

Incremental Translation(50% Disc)

Exact Match Translation (70% Disc)

Outsourced Translation

60% workload

Publish(15% Disc)

25% workload

15% workload

BENEFITS AFTER STANDARDIZATION

• Standardization for each project. Standardize the data (content and context).

XLIFF, Java Properties, XML schemas Standardize the tools. Standardize the processes.

• The next step is to measure and optimize your standardization. Create metrics and feedback systems. Optimize based on those metrics and feedback.

• The goal is continuous improvement, in all areas: Cost reductions. Quality improvements. Greater speed and agility.

OPTIMIZATION

OPTIMIZING THE STANDARDIZATION

Integrated Translation Engine

Translation Engine Captures Lookup

Calls

English Strings with Persistent and Unique ID

Translation Strings with Status

Streamlined Translation Data Exchange Format

Contextual Data Exchanged

Modern Localization Work

Flow

Work Flow Automation with

Feedback

Master Tool

PM Team

Translation/QA

CS/Commu

nity

Game Design(new

content)

Publish

OPTIMIZED STANDARDIZATION

• Standardization = Efficiency 40% of translations internally from tools. Saving 2+ man years of engineering per

MMO. Turn around 105K words in 10 days,

pushing daily with no new builds from engineering.

• Optimization = Quality Proper grammar. Better translations from fuller context. Faster, more productive QA.

TAKEAWAY