Career prospects for people with and without higher education
Want to touch the wonderful world of game development, but don’t know how to program, or art, or sound? Let's talk about five professions associated with game development with a strong, but not obvious connection. From this material you will learn what qualities, skills and knowledge are needed to work in one or another role in the company localizing the game.
Written in Alconost
To bring the game to foreign markets, it needs to be localized. And to do this qualitatively, it is not enough just to translate the texts of dialogs and interface elements. The translation must be adapted taking into account the specificity of the target language and the cultural characteristics of the country for which the localization is being prepared. If the localization is done correctly, foreign users will perceive the game as their own and will get from the game exactly the emotions that the developer expected.
We at Alconost localize games in 70+ languages and want to talk in detail about the main participants in the game localization process. It:
- account manager who examines the client's existing localization needs and offers an individual solution;
- localization manager, managing specific translation projects;
- a translator who can have three roles: a translator, an editor, and a localization tester.
Account manager
This is an account manager. The account manager at Alconost is partly a sales manager. In addition to active work online, he also attends gamedev conferences and other events and communicates with developers personally. Therefore, an account manager is often the first company representative that a client meets.
What an account manager does
An account manager develops relationships with existing customers and establishes contacts with potential ones. Its mission is to build long-term, positive and mutually beneficial relationships.
Long term is the key word. Sometimes an account manager and a developer meet at a conference and stay in touch for months or even years before their relationship becomes client / performer.
Game developers are not required to be aware of all the intricacies of the localization process. Therefore, one of the tasks of an account manager is to delve into the client's problem and propose a solution. If the developer is not yet ready to order localization from the company, the connection with him is not interrupted. Perhaps, after some time, the situation on his side will change - and he already has a reliable contact on all localization issues.
Who should be an account manager
Ideally, this is a specialist with a higher economic (foreign economic) or management education, who understands the IT market in general and the gaming market in particular.
In terms of personal characteristics, this is a person with empathy. Without it, building relationships can turn into obsessive attempts to sell the services of a company. And this is a flimsy foundation for many years of constructive cooperation.
The account manager must understand that the client cannot be forced to make a decision. It is possible and necessary to search for a solution together; it is imperative to propose options and seek compromises. But the client must make the decision himself, without pressure.
What should an account manager be able to do
In general, the account manager consists of developed flexible skills (soft skills): sociability, high self-organization, the ability to listen, solve problems and take responsibility.
The account manager keeps in touch with clients both live, and by voice and by correspondence. Therefore, he needs to be able to speak and write competently, clearly and beautifully.
Confident knowledge of English and other foreign languages will help to communicate with foreign clients, which means it will be a plus.
Work experience in the field of translation is also a plus, although for a start it is enough to understand the business processes in game development companies, the areas of responsibility of the specialists working in them, and in general terms to imagine the development cycle.
Of the specific skills, one can mention working in CRM, and also working with numbers and document management (NDA, contracts, etc.).
Localization manager
If the account manager builds relationships with the client, then the localization manager (for short, the local manager) develops them. Although in some projects the local manager also acts as an account manager, the main difference between these roles is that most of the communication “local manager – client” occurs in work on specific tasks.
What does lockmanager do
The lock manager organizes the localization of a specific project: clarifies the requirements, forms a team of performers (translators, editors, localization testers) for each language pair, controls the timing and quality of work, keeps in touch with the client on all issues. The local manager also calculates the project budget and, if necessary, prepares closing documents.
The goal of the work of the local manager is to ensure high quality localization in accordance with the technical requirements, while maintaining the deadlines.
Who should be the lock manager
Ideally, this is a specialist with a higher linguistic education who has experience working with texts on a multilingual project.
The localization manager should have an understanding of how the localization process is structured and how to manage it. At Alconost, we believe that there are good prospects in this profession - a marketer responsible for multilingual content, a content manager who works with a translation agency or directly with translators, and a linguist who loves to work with texts. With such an introduction, you can get used to the profession in 3-6 months.
The more languages the lock manager knows, the better. Gaming experience and interest in games in general will not interfere: it will be easier to delve into the source materials from the client and work with translators' comments, and the process of familiarizing yourself with the game will not only be a duty, but also a pleasant experience.
. . , , , , — .When selecting lock managers at Alconost, they carefully read the cover letter and resume: these texts are already a preliminary test. After all, the lock manager will have to communicate a lot with clients and performers in correspondence. If the logic is lame in the cover letter, the resume is written illiterately, and it is psychologically uncomfortable to correspond with the candidate - the test is not passed. It would seem that these are obvious things, but in our experience, at this stage half of the candidates for the position are eliminated. So literacy and the ability to clearly express thoughts is the beginning of the beginning.
What a lock manager should be able to do
The lock manager should be comfortable for both the client and the team working on the project. More than 80% of the lock manager's working time is spent on communication, and the lock manager will send 8 messages out of 10 to the performers. Sociability, friendliness, the ability to prevent conflicts and smooth out what could not be prevented are important.
The local manager takes another 20% of the working time in planning, setting up projects in translation platforms (more on them below), working with comments and questions from translators. Here you need attentiveness, the ability to work with information, the ability to clearly formulate tasks, realistically assess deadlines, and strictly control quality.
The lock manager typically works with a pool of clients and projects that require attention at varying frequencies and volumes. For example, today you need to calculate the cost of localizing the site in 10 languages for a new client, tomorrow - to do localization testing of the application for a regular client, and the day after tomorrow - to translate a big update to the game that we worked on last year. And sometimes tasks of this type come one after another during the day! Therefore, you need to be able to switch between projects and prioritize.
Given the density of events in a lock manager's workday, self-organization is one of the key skills.
For some lock managers at Alconost, a tomato-like work schedule is fine. Like this: you choose a task, set a timer for 25 minutes, after the time expires you take a 5-minute break, and after 2 hours of work in this mode, you are distracted from business for 15-30 minutes. In our experience, immersion in one project with your head will not work effectively in multitasking conditions.To be a productive local manager and a happy person, you need flexibility in organizing the schedule and such a combination of internal settings that you can achieve a balance between work and personal matters.
Interpreter
On a localization project, a translator can perform one of three roles: translator, editor, localization tester. At Alconost, only native speakers of the target language do all this. That is, if you are a translator at Alconost, you will translate from a language that is foreign for you (for example, Spanish) into a language that is native to you (for example, Russian). And if Russian is your only native language, then in Alconost you can only translate into it, but not from it. Speakers of two languages - bilinguals - can translate into both native languages.
This approach allows for a natural, truly native translation. After all, localization is not just the translation of words and expressions: it is the stylistic and cultural adaptation of content to the characteristics of a particular country. No one knows these features better than the native. Therefore, the translator must be a native speaker not only of the language, but also of the cultural code of the region for which the product is localized.
Who should a translator be
Ideally, this is a person with higher education and experience in translation, well versed in any specific subject.
Higher education can be anything. For example, you can first get an education in any field, from medicine to mechanical engineering, and then - additional linguistic, where they teach technologies and translation tools and give a lot of practice. Or vice versa: first get a translation education, and then choose a specific subject area, delve into it and master its terminological apparatus.
If a translator is well versed in a certain subject, it may even mean more than a university diploma. Indeed, among the variety of games there are niche products, from an economic simulator to games in a historical setting.
Even if you have not graduated from a university, but, for example, are obsessed with robotics or are well versed in wine or gardening and know the subject vocabulary in both your native and foreign languages, your knowledge can be very useful in localization.Those who started out with volunteer translations of their favorite games can make a successful career in game localization. If the game is localized by the forces of the fan community (crowdsourcing) and you contribute, this is a good start. If you sincerely like to translate games, you can further develop in this direction and become, for example, a freelance translator. Moreover, if over time you gain experience and your portfolio will consist of game projects, you can become a serious competitor to translators who have a higher education, but do not have such experience in translating games as you do.
Sometimes thematic specialization is a decisive factor in choosing a translator. For example, Alconost has a religious translator, an electrician translator, and a translator - a mathematics teacher at the university. These are cool and valuable specialists, because they not only know the language - they also understand very narrow topics.
In a resume, it makes sense to list areas that you most often work with and that you know best. This may seem obvious, but in Alconost, when searching for translators, they often find it difficult to conclude from their resume that they specialize. Too many topics are indicated and it is unclear which of them translator localized dozens of projects, and which - a couple of times translated a couple of lines.
Unlike the account manager and localization manager, who basically need universal, flexible skills, the translator also needs specialized skills.
4 specialized skills a translator needs
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— Trados, memoQ, Passolo, OmegaT, Poedit. . , Trados memoQ. - Be able to work in cloud platforms for localization . In cloud platforms, it is convenient to manage localization projects and team work on them. After all, one project can be translated into dozens of languages at the same time, and translators can have the same questions on the same lines - for example, if there is not enough context. Crowdin, SmartCAT, Memsource, Transifex, OneSky, localise.co are the most popular cloud platforms for localization.
The cloud platform is the main environment in which the Alconost translator operates. To feel like a fish in water in this environment, you need to be able to swim. If you are not familiar with cloud platforms yet, start with Crowdin.
6 universal skills needed by a translator
This is the combination of skills a translator needs to be successful in localization.
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As we have already mentioned, a translator can have two more roles in a project: an editor and a localization tester.
Editor
The duties of the editor include checking the translation for terminological and stylistic uniformity, compliance with the glossary and other requirements specified in the terms of reference.
The editor must know the same foreign language from which the text was translated. Thanks to this, the editor can shorten the line with an eye to the original or reformulate the replica, if necessary.
The number of translators involved in the project is doubled when ordering proofreading. That is, when localizing from Russian to Italian, one native translator will translate Italian, and the second native translator will check the translation of a colleague.
An editor is especially needed in a project if the main text has been translated by several different translators (usually this is done if the volume is large, and localization is needed urgently). If the text had the same elements that were not included in the glossary, each translator could translate them in his own way. The editor identifies such places and makes corrections to make the localization consistent.
Localization Tester
Typically, client-side QA testers do functional testing. It partially overlaps with the linguistic one, but it checks only obvious things like formatting and encodings. Other specialists - LQA- or LQT-testers are responsible for complete testing of localization.
What should a localization tester be able to do?
The LQT tester should be able to read test cases, log errors in the form requested by the client, record video from the screen and use emulators to check localization on the device model specified by the client.
It would seem that the task is not difficult and any native speaker can perform it. At Alconost, this work is usually done by the translators who worked on the project because testing gives them the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the context of the game. If there were no questions about the context of some remark during the translation, it may turn out directly in the game that the context had a meaning, but was hidden. At the LQT stage, you can edit any line with the text so that it fits more organically into the game situation or into the interface.
But it also happens that on one project the translator deals only with localization, on another - only proofreading localized strings, and on the third - localization testing.
Summary
This, of course, is not a complete list of opportunities for self-realization in a company that localizes the game. There is also a vendor manager and a specialist in the localization of audio and video content, but these are even more niche professions. Perhaps, the statement about the value of translators with a narrow specialization is extrapolated to specialists in localization in general. The industry is surprisingly flexible, and the professionals in demand are born at the juncture of competencies.
A fresh study by Newzoo predicts that in 2020 the profitability of the global market for mobile, computer and console games will be USD 159.3 billion, which is 9.3% more than in 2019. But what is the market share of localization? In a Slator studyit was noted that in 2018 it amounted to about 1%. If we trust the optimistic forecast and assume that the localization market share will remain at least the same, the global localization market in 2020 could reach almost USD 1.6 billion.
In our opinion, this is great news. The demand for localization will grow along with the games market. Accordingly, new companies will appear, and new jobs in existing ones. Perhaps one of them is just for you.
Which of the described professions do you prefer? How could you, with your unique set of knowledge and skills, realize yourself in the gaming industry? Share in the comments.
about the author
Alconost engaged in the localization of games , applications and websites in 70+ languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources. We also make videos about games and applications, products and companies: selling, image-building, advertising, training, teasers, expellers, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
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