Thread by @OnTakahashi

Dear #indiedev

Please don't expect game translators to do QA for you. It's not our job and most aren't trained for it.

Some offer LQA (Localization QA) if you provide a proper build. But if there are bugs in your game, that's for you to find and fix.

Hire actual testers.

1/4

Just like how you won't ask your "sound guy" to do the "level design", it's dumb to ask trasnslators to handle testing. Sure, translators play the game for context, but it really isn't our responsibility to find gameplay bugs.

At best, we look for bad line breaks.

2/4

There are many devs who are adamant that localization isn't part of game development. That translators aren't "worthy" of being listed in the credits because "all they did was change language X to language Y", and thus, game translators aren't "part of the team".

3/4

So here's a caveat. If game locs are "outsiders" who aren't part of the team, why should they bother to make the game better by offering QA testing (uncredited) on their own time?

There's no incentive for them to make your game bug-free.

Hire actual testers for QA.

4/4