Towards a deeper understanding of localization as a game development process: Game studio studies in Sweden and China

IF 2.8 3区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, CYBERNETICS

Entertainment Computing Pub Date : 2025-03-22 DOI:10.1016/j.entcom.2025.100944

Marcus Toftedahl

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper presents field studies conducted at two indie game development companies – one in Sweden and one in China. The study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the complex nature of indie game development and how indie game developers using a self-publishing business model work with game localization as a part of the development process. The research is guided by the research question “ How do indie game developers prioritize and work with game localization as a development process?” explored from three perspectives: the strategic perspective, where the decisions behind the localization are in focus; the development perspective, exploring the development processes; and the product perspective, using a participatory observation method. The results indicate that game localization is a task among several important tasks, and by omitting to plan for localization can impact the game developed severely. An organizational model of indie game development companies is presented, highlighting the many different development tasks needed to be handled either by using internal or external competences.

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深入理解游戏开发过程中的本土化：对瑞典和中国游戏工作室的研究

本文介绍了在两家独立游戏开发公司（一家在瑞典，一家在中国）进行的实地研究。该研究旨在让我们更深入地了解独立游戏开发的复杂性，以及独立游戏开发者如何使用自主发行业务模式将游戏本土化作为开发过程的一部分。该研究的指导问题是“独立游戏开发者如何在开发过程中优先考虑游戏本土化？”，从三个角度进行探讨：战略角度，本地化背后的决策是重点；发展视角，探索发展历程；并从产品角度出发，采用参与式观察方法。结果表明，游戏本土化是众多重要任务中的一项，如果忽略了本土化计划，将会严重影响游戏的开发。本文呈现了独立游戏开发公司的组织模式，强调了需要使用内部或外部能力来处理的许多不同开发任务。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Entertainment Computing Computer Science-Human-Computer Interaction

CiteScore

5.90

自引率

7.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Entertainment Computing publishes original, peer-reviewed research articles and serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods and tools in all aspects of digital entertainment, new media, entertainment computing, gaming, robotics, toys and applications among researchers, engineers, social scientists, artists and practitioners. Theoretical, technical, empirical, survey articles and case studies are all appropriate to the journal.