How POEditor can help with your indie game localization

We believe localization shouldn’t be just for AAA studios with international teams and seven-digit budgets. If your game only supports one language, you might be locking out a huge part of your potential audience. But here’s the good news: tools like POEditor are designed to make the l10n process accessible, even if you’re a one-person studio. And we’re going to tell you just how it works and how you can benefit from indie game localization.

Indie games need localization too

Unlike major studios with massive marketing budgets, as an indie game developer, you rely on organic growth, word of mouth, and community engagement. Localization is one of the most cost-effective ways to expand your audience without redesigning your entire game.

You can’t afford to ignore global markets, because Steam, mobile app stores, and console platforms all have massive user bases in non-English-speaking countries. Even by localizing your game into just a few key languages, you can greatly increase your discoverability and potential revenue.

Indie games kinda live or die by the strength of their community. It’s a known fact that when we experience something (including games) into our native language, we are more likely to connect with it emotionally, and share it with friends (… and stick around for updates or sequels, in this case).

What is POEditor?

POEditor is a collaborative translation management platform that helps developers and localization teams manage strings across multiple languages. It’s particularly well-suited for software projects, including indie games, thanks to its clean interface, automation features, and broad file format support.

Indie developer friendly pricing

Indie game localization doesn’t have to be expensive. POEditor offers a free tier that supports up to 1,000 strings, which can be enough for a small or mid-sized indie project. Paid plans are more than affordable and scale based on the number of strings and contributors. This makes POEditor accessible even if you’re operating on a shoestring budget.

How POEditor supports indie game localization

In short, here’s what we offer:

• Streamlined string management
• Efficient collaboration
• Features like translation memory
• Automatic sync with your codebase, and more

POEditor allows you to import your game’s language files in a variety of formats like .json, .xml, .po, .strings, and more. Once imported, the platform organizes these strings into an easily navigable structure, making it simple to manage translations across multiple languages.

Since localization often involves multiple contributors like translators, reviewers, and even the developers themselves, with POEditor, you can invite collaborators with custom permissions. You can assign specific languages to translators and even track their progress in real-time.

Features like translation memory automatically suggests previously used translations for recurring strings. It’s a way of ensuring your game’s UI and dialogues consistency, and it also saves time and reduces repetitive work.

POEditor also integrates with machine translation services like Google Translate or DeepL, which can offer a starting point for human translators. This is useful when you’re on a tight budget. If not, you can pick from one of our human translation services and get professional linguists to work on your content.

If you host your localization files in a GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket repository, POEditor can sync with your repo automatically. Your translation files will stay up to date with every commit, so no more manual uploading or version confusion.

Ready to take on indie game localization?