Castle in the Sands

Castle in the Sands is a pixel art visual novel set in a world inspired by "One Thousand and One Nights" and North African culture. The adventure begins in the heart of the desert and leads you to fairytale places full of magic and danger.

This beautiful game was our first localization project, and it is a compelling, narrative-driven indie title. We worked closely alongside its creator to ensure that the game’s core essence, atmosphere, and tone were seamlessly translated, guaranteeing an immersive and truthful experience for Chinese and Spanish-speaking players.

15,000+ word package (dialogue & core in-game text, user Interface, store page optimization, and achievements), the challenge was to accurately capture the game's Arabic and North African atmosphere and tone. Many words that refer to this unique culture are important to keep the player fully immersed in the story. Therefore, it was essential for us at Taima Translations to avoid literal translations and to carefully adapt wordplay, colloquialisms, and cultural nuances.

1 . Quick Overview

Game Word Count: 14,000+ words (dialogue, lore, and core in-game text).

Additional Components: 1,000+ words (Glossary, User Interface (UI), store page optimization, and achievements).

Services Provided: Full Video Game Localization, Terminology Management, LQA & Hotfixes.

Languages: English to Spanish and Simplified Chinese.

2. Our Approach & Process

Direct Collaboration: We worked hand in hand with the developer, maintaining open lines of communication to clarify context and ensure the final translation stayed 100% faithful to her original vision.

UI & Steam Localization: We didn't just localize the story; we also adapted the user interface (UI) while keeping strict character limits in mind to prevent text clipping or overflow. Additionally, we localized the Steam store page description to help the developer better connect with the Spanish-speaking community at first glance.

3. Workflow & Timeline

For Castle in the Sands, we successfully managed, localized, and reviewed the entire 15,000+ word package, encompassing dialogue, interface, and the Steam store page, in just 9 days. Our process kicked off with the immediate development of the game's core glossary and technical framework, followed by intensive rounds of dedicated localization and cultural adaptation. Thanks to seamless team coordination and a rigorous review process, the fully localized and QA-tested game files were delivered exactly on schedule, perfectly meeting the developer's tight timeline.

Day 1: First steps, initial asset review, framework setup, and development of the Core Glossary and Core Spreadsheet.

Days 2 - 6: Intensive localization and cultural adaptation of the 15,000+ word main script and narrative files, user interface (UI), Steam store page localization, and achievements.

Day 7 - 8: Comprehensive quality control review, Linguistic Quality Evaluation (LQE), and Localization Quality Assurance (LQA).

Day 9 (Final Delivery): Successful delivery to the developer, completing the entire project of over 15,000 words right on schedule within our strict 9-day turnaround.

4. Localization Highlights

Take a look at how we adapted some of the game's dialogue to ensure an immersive and narrative-driven experience for Spanish-speaking players:

Original English: "If one knows the way, one can find everything."
Our Spanish Localization: "Aquel que conoce el camino puede encontrarlo todo."

Localization Insight: A literal translation like "Si uno conoce el camino..." would have sounded a little bit strange for the Spanish-speaking player. By restructuring the sentence to use the phrase "Aquel que..." (He who / The one who), we elevated the poetic and mysterious tone of the sentence, also making it sound more natural.

Original English: "They not only sell goods, but always bring many beautiful gifts for Lalla Aaliyah: jewelry, silk, spices... all kinds of things."

Our Spanish Localization: "No solo venden productos, sino que siempre traen muchos regalos preciosos para Lalla Aaliyah: joyas, seda, especias... todo tipo de cosas."

Localization Insight: For this segment, we intentionally preserved the cultural honorific "Lalla" rather than translating it into a generic Spanish equivalent such as "Señora" or "Princesa". Doing so maintains the specific historical and geographical flavor of the game's setting. Additionally, we adapted the tone of the sentence by translating "beautiful gifts" as "regalos preciosos", which carries a much stronger narrative weight in Spanish, matching the high value of items like jewelry, silk, and spices.

5. Developer's Insights

"The Taima Translations team localized my visual novel Castle in the Sands into Spanish. I was happy to cooperate with them since their work was excellent and completed within a short timeframe. I appreciate their attention to detail and thorough localization testing, which ensured the translation was accurate and fit the game perfectly. It was also a pleasure communicating with the team's representative, who answered all my questions and provided all the necessary information. I would definitely work with them again in the future and recommend them to other developers."

— Winter Apple, Developer of Castle in the Sands

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