Roblox users come from a variety of cultures around the world and speak different languages. Using localization tools effectively makes sure all users can understand and enjoy your game as intended. Any game can immediately take advantage of Roblox's automatic localization tools to instantly expand your potential audience. As your game grows, use Roblox's various localization API tools, manual translator portals, and analytics, to ensure that users from around the world can fully participate and socialize in your game.
User-facing setting
Every user has an Automatic Translations setting in their Account Settings page that allows them to turn on automatic translation for game content. If a player has this setting turned on, all game names, game descriptions, and in-game text will be translated for them, even if you have not explicitly enabled translation for your game.
If you add any manual translations to your game, they will always be shown to players. Roblox only automatically generates translations if they are missing. To preview and manage translations, follow the steps below to enable localization settings for your game.
There may be text in your game that should never be translated (for example, NPC names or street signs). To ensure translations are not generated for them, you can disable the AutoLocalize property for those objects in Studio.
Localization settings
Your game's localization settings is the starting place for enabling translations and accessing your localization tools. You'll need to set your source and supported languages before starting any localization to a new language.
The localization page also includes tools to start translating your games, add translation collaborators and download translation analytics.
You can access your game's localization settings through the Creator Dashboard main page:
- Navigate to the Creator Dashboard.
- Hover over your game and click Manage Experience.
- In the left navigation, navigate to Audience → Localization.
You can also access your game's localization settings in the on your Creations page:
Navigate to your Creator Dashboard.
In the Experiences tab, find your game and select the ⋯ button.
Select Configure Localization.
A link to your game's localization settings is also available in Studio. To find the link:
Open Studio's File ⟩ Experience Settings window.
In the Localization section, click the link indicated below to launch the localization settings in your default browser.
Set source language
Before you can start any localization, Roblox needs to know which language you are translating from and which languages you are translating to.
The source language is the primary language that the game has been written in. Roblox currently only supports one source language at a time. The default is set to your Roblox account language.
To set the source language:
In the localization settings, navigate to Languages and select the Source Language dropdown.
Select a language from the list.
Click Confirm to add the language.
Set supported languages
The supported languages are the languages you intend to provide translations for. You can have multiple supported languages for your game. See language codes for a list of all languages Roblox supports. To set the supported languages:
In the localization settings, navigate to Languages and select the Source Language.
In the Supported Languages section, click Add Language to add the languages you intend to localize to.
Click the input box and type in the language you would like to add, or select from the list of languages.
Click Confirm to add the language.
Automatic translations
Roblox's automatic translation tool is available on any game and allows you to immediately begin localizing the strings in your game and broadening your potential audience. In many cases, you can start making significant progress on your localization journey using automatic translations before adding manual translations or working with translators.
For more information on enabling automatic translations in your game, see Automatic translations.
Manual translations
Apply various customizations to your translations to improve and expand your game's localization. You, or any assigned translator, can manually add and modify translations to your game's translation table. You can also access this table programmatically, allowing you to create contextual translations, switch out images or assets based on language, or even manually display translations from a different language.
For more information on custom translation use-cases, see Translate in-game content.
Work with translators
Add Roblox users as translators for your game to help you review and polish automatic translations or provide and edit manual translations.
You can download monthly analytics to track your translation coverage and the contribution of your translators. For more information on working with localization contributors, see Work with translators.