Localization is crucial for reaching out to a global audience, however, it’s often an afterthought for most developers and non-trivial to implement. Traditionally, game developers have outsourced this task due to its time consuming nature. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Yan Cui will show you a simple technique his team used at GameSys which allowed them to localize an entire story-driven, episodic MMORPG (with over 5000 items and 1500 quests) in under an hour of work and 50 lines of code, with the help of PostSharp.

1. Simplify Localization with
Design Pattern Automation
an AOP success story by Yan Cui
@theburningmonk

2. Hi, my name is Yan Cui
@theburningmonk

3. plz ask question in
the questions window

8. more text than first 3 Harry Porter
books COMBINED!

12. localization needs to be applied in
many, many places!

13. http://engt.co/2eQav4x

14. http://engt.co/2eQav4x

15. traditionally…

16. ingest gettext (.po) file

18. msgid = original text
msgstr = localized text

19. ingest gettext (.po) file
substitute display text

20. button.text = getLocalizedText("back");
label.text = getLocalizedText("baits");
monster.name = getLocalizedText(monster.name);
...

21. ingest gettext (.po) file
substitute display text
render translated text instead

24. but wait…

25. but wait…
what if we add another type of
domain object or add/change
an screen?

26. ingest gettext (.po) file
substitute display text
render translated text instead

27. ingest gettext (.po) file
substitute display text
render translated text instead

28. http://engt.co/2eQav4x

29. hard to get good test coverage
scope is too big

30. easy for regressions to creep in
during frequent release cycles

31. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

33. THINK
OUTSIDE

34. publisher
service
our pipeline

35. publisher
service
our pipeline
+
i’m a CMS

38. publisher
service
our pipeline
validate
pre-compute
transform schema

40. yup, we iterate A LOT!

41. publisher
service
our pipeline
flash/gamespec/298/…
ios/gamespec/298/…
server/gamespec/298/…

43. http://bit.ly/2fwvkmS

44. publisher
service
our pipeline
chomp,
chomp,
chomp
chomp,
chomp,
chomp
chomp,
chomp,
chomp

45. publisher
service
our pipeline
what if we
localize here?

46. publisher
service
our pipeline
so what goes here is
already localized (where
necessary)

47. publisher
service
our pipeline
flash/gamespec/en_GB/298/…
flash/gamespec/pt_BR/298/…
ios/gamespec/en_GB/298/…
ios/gamespec/pt_BR/298/…
server/gamespec/298/…

48. publisher
service
our pipeline
flash/gamespec/en_GB/298/…
flash/gamespec/pt_BR/298/…
ios/gamespec/en_GB/298/…
ios/gamespec/pt_BR/298/…
server/gamespec/298/…
don’t localize
my stuff!

49. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

50. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

51. ingest gettext (.po) file
substitute display text
render translated text instead

52. server team

53. 1. ingest gettext (.po) file
2. check domain objects for
string fields/properties
3. use localized text when
transforming to DTO
4. repeat for next language

54. 1. ingest gettext (.po) file
2. check domain objects for
string fields/properties
3. use localized text when
transforming to DTO
4. repeat for next language
hey Watson!
I found a Pattern!

55. “thou shall not burn me”
- a server dev

56. to ingest .po files in .Net

57. to automate implementation
patterns in .Net

63. ps. we had a convention of suffix DTO types with VO

64. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

65. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

66. 6 sins of traditional approach to localization
large up-front development effort
not future proof
duplicated effort for each client platform
hard to get good test coverage
prone to regressions
pressure on QA resources

67. Q. how do I exclude a DTO from localization?

68. Q. how do I exclude a DTO from localization?
A. use [Localize(AttributeExclude = true)]

69. Q. where did the .po files come from?

70. Q. where did the .po files come from?
A. TNT
publisher
service
+.PO
.PO

71. Q. where did the .po files come from?
A. TNT
publisher
service
+.PO
.PO

72. Q. where did TNT get the .po files from?

73. A. you
publisher
service
Q. where did TNT get the .po files from?
game designer
tool for generating new .po file

76. A. you
publisher
service
Q. where did TNT get the .po files from?
game designer
tool for generating new .po file
unchanged strings keep msgstr
changed strings has empty msgstr

77. A. you
publisher
service
Q. where did TNT get the .po files from?
game designer
tool for uploading .po file

79. @theburningmonk
theburningmonk.com
github.com/theburningmonk