Indie game
localization

Localization priced for small teams: fixed €90 per language, real people on every pass, and your files back exactly as they left.

From €90 per language · 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

  • €90 per language, fixed, for up to 5,000 words — agreed before we start.
  • 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?

€90 per language for up to 5,000 words, 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