Indie game
localization

Localization priced for small teams: fixed €120 per language, minimum order €50, real people on every pass, and your files back exactly as they left.

From €50 per order · 1–7 working days · free corrections, anytime.

Get a free test
語 Я Δ ß 한 Ł

Most indie games ship in one language, and half the world scrolls past. Agencies quote what a small team cannot justify, machine translation reads like machine translation, and a friend who speaks German is not a localizer. TraLed sits in between: a studio that localizes games carefully, by hand, at a price an indie team can say yes to.

1Why localize an indie game at all

  • Steam shows you where your page speaks the language. Regional recommendations, tags and “More like this” shelves lean on the languages your store page declares.
  • Players filter by language. An English-only page is filtered out of their catalogue before anyone sees the art.
  • Reviews follow. Players who get their own language leave more reviews - and review volume keeps a small title visible after launch week.

2What we localize

  • Game UI, menus, tooltips and system messages
  • Dialogue, quests, item and lore text
  • Steam store page, capsule text, trailers’ subtitles and patch notes
  • Achievements, tutorials, marketing copy

3Languages

French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and more. See the language guides: German, French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese.

4How the work is done

Every line goes through five passes, and a person owns each one: we mark the jokes and wordplay, do an early pass for terminology, rewrite by hand whatever sounds translated, run a late pass against your UI limits, and finish with a final read. Tools keep terms consistent; a translator reads every line in context.

5Price, timing and what you get

  • €120 per language, fixed, for up to 3,000 words - agreed before we start. Minimum order €50.
  • 1–7 working days per language, depending on volume. You get a firm date with the price.
  • Free test first: up to 600 words translated within five working days, no payment, no obligation.
  • 30% upfront, 70% after you have run the localization in your own build.
  • Free corrections for as long as the game is yours - patches, new lines, renamed items.

Your files come back in the structure you sent: JSON, CSV, XLSX, PO/POT, XML, RESX, YAML, XLIFF, Unity or Unreal string tables. Keys, tags and placeholders like {playerName}, %s and <color> stay untouched, so the build drops straight in. A glossary of the terms we settled comes with it.

6Start with a free test

Send us the passage you care about most - the tricky joke, the tutorial, the item descriptions. Up to 600 words, back within five working days. Use the contact form or write to contact@traled.eu. We usually reply within two hours.

7Questions

How much does it cost to localize an indie game?

€120 per language for up to 3,000 words (minimum order €50), fixed before we start. Most indie UI files and short scripts fit in that.

How long does game localization take?

One to seven working days per language, depending on volume. A short UI file lands in a day or two.

Do you use machine translation?

Tools keep terminology consistent, but a person reads and rewrites every line in context. Every file is checked by a human before it goes back to you.

More guides: Steam localization · German · French · Russian · Spanish · Japanese