Why Indonesian Game Localization Became an Urgency?
Do you know that mostly gamers nowadays have their own investment in their favorite games? It’s caused by their loyalty, so they purchase items in the games they play. In the gaming market, 45.8% of gamers in Southeast Asia were Indonesian. All of these numbers are achieved, thanks to Indonesian game localization.
What is Indonesian Game Localization?
Game localization is the process of adapting a video game for a specific market or region, making it more relevant and accessible to players in a certain area. Since not everyone in every country knows English, the games need to be localized to look relatable and match with certain cultures.
Back to the percentage that is mentioned before, Indonesia is the one country with a big number of gamers — at least in Southeast Asia. However, like in other countries, not every Indonesian understands English. That is why localizing games (at least the language variations) is important to gain interest from Indonesian.
Furthermore, game localization here doesn’t mean only applicable around the language variations. Localization is also common in other elements especially in cultural aspect, such as character design, character stories, the background story of certain games, and also the design of game visuals overall.
Those elements are relevant to take inspirations from culture and even folklore that came from countries worldwide. This is interesting because they could be the chance to widen the lore of certain games.
Why Indonesian Game Localization Became Relevant?
To reach a wider global market, games also provide other language choices such as Mandarin, Korean, French, Spanish, and so on. But among those languages, why are some of them localized to Bahasa Indonesia? It is because the game market in Indonesia is growing bigger and wider in the period of time.
Foreign game developers mainly use English in their games. While gamers in the world are spread widely, and not every gamer knows English, this is the main reason why game localization is important to distribute games to other countries. By optimizing the strategies throughout Indonesian game localization, developers can reach more players and boost their revenue.
Here is the list of international game developers that reach its peak of profit caused by Indonesian game localization:
- Mihoyo (developer of Genshin Impact)
The game gained popularity after incorporating text and voice acting in Bahasa Indonesia. The design of the characters, the game lore, and the game dungeons attract both anime and manhwa lovers in Indonesia, that is why the game reaches so many Indonesian gamers.
- Moonton Technology (developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang)
MLBB has successfully gained profit through their release of two characters that are inspired by Indonesian folklore (Gatotkaca and Kadita) and also the localization in the language features. Knowing how big their market is in Indonesia, they also often create events that make Indonesian MLBB gamers gradually participate.
- Garena Online (developer of Free Fire)
This game debuted an Indonesian first playable character named Jota. The character Jota was inspired by Joe Taslim, an Indonesian actor. Other than this design character, the game also incorporates Bahasa Indonesia as the language choice features, along with the game advertising and campaigns that are also translated in Bahasa Indonesia.
Indonesian Games Localization other than Language Variations
Can you imagine, if fantasy RPG games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang only have elements that are referencing to western mythology creatures? Well, yeah, that’s still interesting but still — not many variations because the development was limited to those countries.
That is why some developers adapt designs of characters by other continental and country mythology and folklore. As we used to see in several games, there are many elements that are inspired by Chinese folklore. But, how about adaptations from Indonesia?
There are Gatotkaca and Kadita which are the characters in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) that involve elements of Indonesian culture. As we know, nowadays, MLBB is one of the most famous RPG games especially in Indonesia.
Originally, Gatotkaca is the character of Wayang, which is something like a traditional puppet show from Indonesia, especially Javanese and Balinese. On the other hand, Nyi Roro Kidul is a popular folklore creature, who is also called The Queen of the Southern Sea.
In Wayang, Gatotkaca is a noble warrior; his bones and muscles are made of iron and steel, he flies without wings, and he is also the protector of the Pandawa. Wearing traditional Javanese clothing, he is a symbol of wisdom and sacrifice. While in MLBB, Gatotkaca is depicted as a tank / fighter, with advanced golden armor and a horned headpiece.
On the other hand, Nyi Roro Kidul is the mystical Queen of the Southern Sea, also known for her beauty, as well as her ability to control the ocean as well as some supernatural powers. While in MLBB, as a comparison, Kadita is a heroic mage with the lore as a war princess with command over water magic.
Conclusion
Indonesian game localization is not only about how to widen the range of the global market of certain games with language transcription, but also how to involve certain cultures in certain aspects of the games.
In Indonesia itself, since the country catches the bigger range of gamers, localization of games also helps a lot for those who are interested with the game, but do not understand English as the main language of the majority of games. | AGL