Who is a Localization Project Manager? This professional figure is extremely relevant when it comes to localization. A Localization Project Manager (LPM) is in fact the person who’s responsible for overseeing and coordinating the localization projects from one language to another. Speaking of video games, the LPM implements a development team’s or a publisher’s localization strategy with the goal of launching its game on new markets.
The role of a LPM is crucial whenever a company seeks to launch its products and services on the international market. Industries that heavily rely on LPMs are for instance the software industry, the film and television industry, the marketing and video game industries.
But now let’s find out about a Localization Project Manager’s tasks.
Project planning and coordination
During the initial phase the localization process has to be planned by defining its scope, timelines and required resources. There’s also the need to establish how to coordinate the translators team, the linguists team and the development team.
Resource and budget management
Then comes the resource allocation, including human resources but also tools, such as software and computers. Apart from this, the budget has to be defined while keeping track of cost estimation and expenses, to ensure that the project stays within financial constraints.
Quality assurance
A LPM always must ensure that the localization of a video game meets high linguistic and cultural standards. Therefore it is necessary, for example, to conduct linguistic testing which will establish the correctness of the adaptation to another cultural context.
Communication
Establishing communication between all the teams involved is another fundamental task for the LPM, who becomes a mediator. In the video game industry, communication mainly takes place between localization team, development team and/or publisher. Among these teams there’s a continuous exchange of information useful for making the project run smoothly.
Problem resolution
LPMs intervene whenever there are issues with the project, issues that can be technical, linked to linguistic ambiguities, or even cultural discrepancies.
Client liaison
It is crucial that the LPM constantly keeps in touch with the client that commissioned the localization in order to update them and eventually address concerns together. The objective is ensuring that the final product, the localized game, is in line with the client expectations.
Conclusions
Being a Localization Project Manager is hard and entails a lot of responsibility, since it requires attention towards multiple aspects. A LPM must be a localization veteran who has optimal management skills and also a certain cultural awareness towards the content of their current project.
By attending GLOS’s Specialization Course in Video Game Localization you’ll learn a lot more about this topic!
