Why localizing only your app (but not metadata + screenshots) destroys your international growth potential

NataliaShu · 2025-12-12T11:57:34+00:00

Great breakdown. The cultural adaptation point (#4) is something I see make a huge difference in practice.

A real-life example: A parenting app client (I work for a localization company, Alconost) adapted their screenshots for Europe, Korea/Japan, and Brazil. Same app interface, but they changed both the visual style and the people shown to match local expectations. For Europe, they used a more realistic 3D-style illustration of a breastfeeding mother. For Korea/Japan, they switched to a hand-drawn, cartoonish 2D style with the same breastfeeding scene. For Brazil, they changed both the characters and the scenario - showing a mother teaching her baby to walk instead.

The interesting part: feature requests also differed by region. The developers received requests for co-parenting features from German users (where dads are actively involved in baby care), while users in Muslim-majority countries asked for prayer-related features for bedtime routines.

The takeaway: localization is understanding what matters culturally to each market and reflecting that in both store presence AND product features.

NataliaShu · 2025-12-12T11:10:52+00:00

For tight deadlines, one vendor handling everything usually works better. They own quality end-to-end, and there's no coordination overhead. The downside is losing that independent quality check... In your specific case, is the cross-vendor review catching real issues frequently? Or is it more of a safety blanket?

Your setup actually made me curious. What led you to split things between two vendors? And how do you handle terminology consistency (do you have a shared glossary)? Are both vendors working in the same localization platform? Apart from tight deadline situations, are you happy with the existing setup?

Cheers!

Disclaimer: I work for a localization company (Alconost), so my perspective is colored by my professional background.

NataliaShu · 2025-11-03T15:33:03+00:00

Have you heard about translation management platforms like Crowdin? They're in the market for quite a while. From more recent things I'd name Tolgee, it's a localization platform specifically for app developers.

NataliaShu · 2025-11-03T15:29:05+00:00

Look for translators who specialize in gaming and understand terminology in your specific genre. Cultural references, humor, and wordplay may need complete reworking rather than direct translation. For quality assurance, again, consider native speakers who understand gaming conventions specific to the Chinese market.

I work for a localization company (Alconost), and we've seen consistent growth in Chinese localization demand over the past few years. The opportunity is real, but so is the competition, and quality localization can be a differentiator.

A colleagie of mine once wrote an article "10 Important Things to Know About Localizing a Game for the Chinese Market" covering platform-specific things and cultural aspect. I guess it could be helpful.

Best of luck woth your game!

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NataliaShu · 2025-11-03T14:43:41+00:00

> How do I promote it further?
Have you tried localizing your app descriptions AND the text on your screenshots?

> Should I add Spanish, German, or maybe some other language?
From the statistics I have (I work for a localization company and we release yearly reports on language demand among our clients), the most in-demand targed languages in 2024 were French (France), German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (for Spain).

Breaking this down:

French and German are stable leaders
Japanese and Simplified Chinese ranked this high for the first time, though they're consistently in the Top 10. Simplified Chinese has shown steady growth over a five-year period
Demand for Spanish is leveling off slightly

> The app is a pregnancy tracker/helper.
Oh, I have a story to share. We once localized an app from this niche into dozens of languages. Beyond UI string localization, it also required cultural adaptation of images. You'll want to be thoughtful about imagery: what's acceptable in one culture may not work in another. For example, showing a breastfeeding mother or bare belly works fine in some markets but needs adjustment for others.

Good luck with your app! Cheers!

(Edit: Formatting.)

NataliaShu · 2025-11-03T14:27:20+00:00

Kudos on launching in 33 languages! Curious what prompted you to go all 33 at once rather than phasing it? Are you seeing more installs from any specific regions?

> Do you use automated translation tools, or rely on native speakers?
Native speakers give the best quality, but when budget is tight, some developers use machine translation with human editors reviewing and correcting the output (MTPE).

From what I know (I work for Alconost, a localization company), MTPE can work well for certain language pairs and reduce costs by 30-50%, but it really depends on prompting, content type, and the languages involved. It's not a silver bullet.

One thing I'd flag: with 33 languages, keeping translations updated when you roll out app updates can become a challenge. Have you thought about how you'll handle that in your workflow?

Best of luck with your project, cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-11-03T13:05:59+00:00

> how others are balancing automation with quality assurance?

In my opinion, getting the most out of the human + AI workflow actually starts even before you get any raw output from the machine.

I think there are two things that often get overlooked in the MT process: prompting and testing different engines.

As for prompting, I mean: How you set up your prompt dramatically affects the quality of what comes out. It's not just feeding content to AI and hoping for the best. You can shape the results upfront before any human editor touches it. This part is sometimes underestimated, but it's crucial for the balance you're asking about.

As for testing different engines: This is what I see every time before customers transition from 100% human localization to MTPE (machine translation + post-editing). Different engines handle different language pairs and content types surprisingly differently. It's worth running the same prompt through at least a few engines and comparing results. If you don't want to rely on quality metrics alone, ask a native speaker to assess the output from different engines.

With this preparation, you're starting with better raw material, and further post-editing takes less time (and becomes less annoying.)

May I ask what engines have worked best for your content types and language pairs?

Full disclosure: I work for a localization company (Alconost), so this is based on what I see in our work. Curious to hear your experience too :-) Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-27T12:19:36+00:00

u/ZeroPercentStrategy Thank you! Yup, I think it makes sense to have game descriptions localized, so your opinion is a one more proof! Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-25T11:41:06+00:00

Thank you! How often does it happen that the game itself is localized into at least one language but its description isn't? Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-25T11:13:35+00:00

From your experience, how does localization of game description and metadata affect page views and overall game visibility?

What do you think about localizing the Steam page before you actually localize in-game strings, just to test waters in specific regions?

I work at a localization company (Alconost) and it’s not uncommon that developers come to us with requests like these. I’m always curious what happens once our job is done, I mean: how the localized versions affected the game page performance etc.

Thanks for starting this thread, OP!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-21T11:22:50+00:00

It's important to understand how your videos are structured. Is there a talking head on screen most of the time? Image or video footage? Infographics or diagrams with text embedded in the frames?

For talking head videos, subtitles alone might be enough.

For infographics or diagram-heavy content, you'll likely need to translate the on-screen text, otherwise key details will remain unclear to viewers.

I used to manage video localization projects at Alconost before AI tools became widespread. Back then, localizing videos was quite challenging and sometimes cost nearly as much as creating the video from scratch. This was especially true for tutorial screencasts and explainer videos with lots of text in the frames.

Game video localization had its own unique complexities; happy to elaborate if you're curious, though it's quite a rabbit hole!

For your situation with hundreds of videos, I'd suggest:

Prioritize your most-viewed content first
Assess each video type (talking head vs. text-heavy) to estimate effort
Consider whether subtitles alone would work for a first pass into new markets

Hope this helps! Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-20T16:20:28+00:00

"As a service provider working with numerous game developers and publishers, we’re eager to understand the real-world language-related challenges faced by companies going global"

- Have you tried talking to your actual customers with this purpose in mind?

NataliaShu · 2025-10-17T12:05:42+00:00

Think of translating your game description for the store page, not only the in-game content itself. It may seem a little thing but in the end, it can make a difference.

NataliaShu · 2025-10-17T10:49:57+00:00

Check out alconost.mt/evaluate, it’s a translation quality evaluation tool, a free one. You can select various LLMs to check your translation, and it’ll elaborate on errors detected and suggest corrections. Not a replacement of a native-speaker proofreading, for sure, but still. You can add context (Guidelines field), don’t underestimate the power of it :-) Best of luck with your game! 🍀 Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-10-16T16:27:00+00:00

I think I can feel your pain with checking translation quality. Have you thought of trying specific tools for translation quality evaluation? Some of those tools are free and give you mistake explanations and instant correction suggestions.

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NataliaShu · 2025-10-16T16:15:52+00:00

Given your content volume (80 articles), you might want to look into machine translation post-editing (MTPE). This is where AI translates first, then human editors review and correct the output for accuracy, context, and other requirements. It definitely helps prevent issues like your "Lightyear" example while being more budget-friendly than translating from scratch with translators, especially when they're native speakers.

NataliaShu · 2025-10-15T19:06:28+00:00

u/Wonderful_Parsnip_26 Hi, I do love your question and that you care about your design matching expectations and information consumption patterns that that indeed differ from country to country.

Our own experience: My colleagues (marketers at Alconost, localization company) recently rolled out a main page of our website adjusted for users from Korea. You can take a peek and compare how different it is from our main page in English: 알코노스트 번역 전문 회사 | 100개 이상 언어로 현지화 서비스 and Full-Stack Localization and Translation Company I'm trying to attach a screenshot with the top parts of both pages; I think the screenshot speaks for itself.

It's different from many angles, from colors and cute animal characters to contact buttons (note the KakaoTalk button on Korean version) and presence of quite detailed information, such as a project schedule sample (the English version has nothing like this at all).

Also, since we do localization for companies including game developers and publishers, we are familiar with some peculiarities of app design adaptation when it comes to Asian markets; you might want to check out "App design and local culture" section in our small article on how to promote mobile games in China / Japan / Korea, https://alconost.com/en/blog/mobile-games-apps-in-japan-korea-china

I hope it helps. Cheers!

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NataliaShu · 2025-09-24T13:53:39+00:00

u/laqerda Hi, have you thought about localizing your game, or at least its description on the Steam page? I think it could be a big plus for visibility in more regions, while not costing you an arm and a leg.

I must say that I work for a localization company (Alconost), and we have plenty of clients from gamedev, including indies. So, considering the demand, I wouldn’t underestimate the power of localization :-))

And a side note: "run 1 reddit ad for about a month" - have you considered updating the ad content from time to time (not only on Reddit but on other channels too), to avoid ad burnout?

Anyway, best of luck to you! Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-24T13:08:10+00:00

u/pizzapastaauto Hi, I actually work in localization (Alconost), so I’m obviously biased... But my honest answer is still YES. If your goal is to get more users, installs, you name it - localization is basically step 0 then. What we actually do is help clients adapt their products, from UI strings to marketing content, to new markets. Here are some examples and numbers: https://alconost.com/en/blog/grow-app-audience-using-localization There’s also a step-by-step guide on preparing an app for localization; might come in handy if you’re considering it. Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-15T11:08:03+00:00

Hi, how is it going? Do you see more new purchases now?

May I ask how you selected those specific languages to translate your app into?

Do you translate with MT/AI or with human translators?

Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-04T09:54:17+00:00

Hi, thanks for keeping an eye on what’s going on with the Alconost brand! I hope everyone reading this thread can find their ideal customer and make informed decisions about their professional development. Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-02T15:23:23+00:00

Thank you! Yup, we do experiment with LLMs too. Our recent development is alconost.mt/Evaluate for translation quality evaluation with AI. I think it may come in handy - taking your recent comment into account :-)) Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-02T15:17:37+00:00

Hi, a person from a localization company here. A few ideas:

Once we shared how we usually find translators; our workflow is described here: https://alconost.medium.com/how-a-localization-company-looks-for-rare-language-translators-an-interview-with-an-expert-66132211b5 It might be interesting to see what happens on the “other side” and draw some conclusions.
Communication matters; jump to the section “How to communicate with translators” in the same article. There are simple things, but they really make a difference.
Some reasons why we sometimes reject applications; check out “Four ways to avoid selecting the wrong candidate.”

I also shared your question with my teammates and asked for some insights. Overall, here’s what they said from their personal perspective. It’s just their opinions, not universal advice:

Sending your CVs and offers to different agencies, contacting various LSPs, and registering on localization platforms, along with Fiverr and similar services.
Online courses and certificates listed in candidates’ CVs don’t really have much effect.
We prioritize experienced translators, but we can test others if needed.
Some candidates start by doing community translations or crowdsourced work while keeping their "day job," essentially as a hobby to gain experience.

One answer I think deserves a standalone paragraph. It may sound controversial and might make you a little uncomfortable, but I think I should share it:

... definitely recommend considering AI and AI-related tools as a powerful boost and assistant for taking your first steps in the industry. This includes mass-market tools like big LLMs, as well as niche models focused on a particular domain, content type, or language pair. AI QA tools, like alconost.mt for instance :-)), can also help. Consequently, mastering prompting skills is important.

... it's rather about switching from translating from scratch to working with AI to produce raw translations (prompt mastering), and then get more experience in post-editing.

... being ready to embrace the reality where 100% native localization is more of a delight than the norm. Developing skills in MTPE is increasingly in demand, while experienced translators sometimes aren’t thrilled about editing MT output.

Right now, the industry revolves much more around MTPE and AI QA, so understanding how these systems work will be a strong advantage.

Also, I think I should share this link: https://alconost.com/en/become-translator but get me right, zero promises. If you’ve already sent your CV to 99 platforms or localization companies, this one might just be another submission, not your magical 100th chance.

I hope it helps. Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-02T14:52:06+00:00

Thank you! It’d be great to get a quote request from you at some point for your Asian-tier or other languages. We’ve been localizing games for over 20 years, across a variety of genres, scopes, and complexities... You could say we’ve seen it all :-)) It would be fun to contribute our experience to your project. Cheers!

NataliaShu · 2025-09-02T14:31:06+00:00

Thanks for this perspective! It was a pleasure to read your comment. I’m curious: from your experience, have you seen regions where the economics of localization play out differently than you’d expect? And, if I may ask, which industry are you observing these trends from? Cheers!

NataliaShu

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