How to prepare a game for localization?
- by kevin42
Many projects don't think about localization until the game is done. Then localization is done as a hack, and it's obvious that it was added on later. Some specific areas of concern:
Text strings (obviously)
Audio clips such as music and/or narratives
Text rendered on textures (e.g. a label on a crate)
Text rendered in frames in pre-rendered movies
Fonts/Character sets for different languages
Etc.
What are some good ways to prepare for these challenges in the initial development stages, so you can make it easier without incurring too much cost up front?