I'm all jittery and nervous because I -just- got approved by Apple, and my game is now Ready For Sale. Not available yet, but I plan to release it on Tuesday 3/20. Now, while waiting for approval, I looked into the cost of localizing my iTunes description text of the game into a few other languages. I ended up doing it, and have 6 translations I thought I could just add in. My fault for not noticing even localized iTunes text needs to be pushed out in a new update. So now, my question is: should I submit a new version of my game, even though the first isn't even in the App Store (but is approved, with the green Ready for Sale sign lit)? Do you think it would mess anything up to do that? I'd love to have the localized text up before the official launch, but if I should wait until after Tuesday, I can live with that. Thanks!
As far as I remember, submitting a new version doesn't affect your current one in any way. You could probably go ahead, add a new version with your new localizations, release the current version on 3/20 and the update when it's approved. But if you didn't spend a lot of money and/or time on marketing and promoting yet, I'd probably add the new version and wait until it's approved and release it then. This way the countries you localized for will have a native language description from day one too.
Phew! That's a relief. I was hoping that was the case, but I'm this far--didn't want to jinx or mess anything up. You're right on the Day One bit, I'll organize all the notes I have right away for it. Thanks!
What localization service did you use? Were you happy with the results? And good luck with your first app!
icanlocalize.com -- loved it. The translations were pretty cheap (I think) -- abotu 7 cents a word. And the process was insanely simple. I had 6 of my 7 translations done in under 24 hours. And thanks.
I think I've tried all the translation services for iPhone apps, icanlocalize.com included. I was happy with the results in terms of turnaround time, but after a quality check I have to admit I'm very disappointed. It ended up costing double. I asked a friend of mine (French native speaker) to check some of their other translations (you can find the list here: http://www.icanlocalize.com/site/services/software-localization/iphone-application-localization/) and he confirmed the quality is very poor. So far I can say I'm satisfied with DYS (partner of Chillingo) and MyGengo. Almost four years have passed, but this topic about localization services remains interesting: Localizations.
Really? That's good to keep in mind, and dys looks pretty neat. I know Spanish, and really liked the Spanish translation. But it's great to have other options if I decide to translate the text in the game.
Unfortunately, yes, but maybe it's because I chose the 7 cents/word option. In my case the Spanish translation was also fine. I had problems with French and German. If you use their service, I highly recommend the "two translators" option (11 cents/word), even though you would end up spending more than DYS (about 8 €cents/word) and MyGengo (10 cents/word for the "business" option). And yes, it's good to know there are other options. Despite I was very satisfied with DYS at the very beginning of my experience, I tried many different services just to get an idea.
You had the option to go live on a Friday evening and you chose a Tuesday? You must be a new developer. What is it you are waiting for?
Does it really matter? I don't think so. If everyone else releases on Friday, I'd avoid it as much as I can.