Elden Pixels started as a small crew of self-proclaimed nerds with a passion for retro-flavored, atmospheric pixel-art games. Since then, they’ve shipped several well-received titles and carved out a clear creative identity of their own.
Now they’re entering a new chapter. Their upcoming release will be the first time they launch a game together with a publisher, which marks a notable step for a studio that has mostly gone its own way so far.
Check out the trailer for Elden Pixels’ upcoming game The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest:
Challenges
Multiple spreadsheets per language created heavy overhead
Before adopting Gridly, Elden Pixels managed localization in Google Sheets and Excel. For every language, they maintained a separate spreadsheet where all cells were locked except for the translator’s column. This meant:
- One spreadsheet per language existing in multiple versions
- Manual control over what translators could and couldn’t edit
- Complicated navigation between a plethora of files
- No reliable way to see what changed or fell out of date
Updating content or adding new strings required opening several files.
Before Gridly, I spent a lot of hours just navigating different spreadsheets and worrying if something wasn’t broken in, say, the French file.”
— Mikael Forslind, Co-Founder & CEO, Elden Pixels
Manual CSV pipeline and homegrown tools
Earlier projects relied on exporting text to CSV files and manually placing them into the game project, where a custom-built tool in Unity would read them. This older pipeline forced the team to:
- Manually export and import CSVs
- Double-check formatting issues
- Keep track of changes with notes or memory
- Manage custom code for the integration
Everything depended on manual discipline, making it difficult to answer basic questions like: What changed? Is every language up to date? Is it safe to ship?
Hard to track updates and source changes
Another problem that led the Elden Pixels team to seek a solution was that whenever a feature introduced new strings or changed existing ones, they struggled to see:
- Which translations were outdated
- Which languages needed an update
- Whether content was complete
This uncertainty added friction to every update cycle.
The solution
Localization connected from day one
For their upcoming title The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest, published by Acclaim and planned for release in early 2026, Elden Pixels moved localization into Gridly right at the start of development. Every new string is created directly in Gridly and hooked into Unity via the official Gridly plugin. This means:
- No more CSV exporting or custom importer
- No duplicated spreadsheets
- The game gets the latest text directly from Gridly.
“We push new text straight into Gridly with the press of a button, and Unity fetches new content and updates for all languages the same way. The whole process is super smooth.”
— Mikael Forslind
Dependencies automatically reveal exactly what changed
Instead of juggling multiple language files, Elden Pixels uses Gridly’s dependency system to anchor all languages to a single source column.
When the source changes, outdated translations are flagged automatically. When the team is re-importing translations from their vendor, the system automatically checks whether they match the updated source, or they refer to the outdated version.
This replaced the fragile combo of notes, memory, and cross-checking spreadsheets.
Views and tag detection for clean exports
The team now maintains:
- A default working view for development
- An export view used for localization partners
While the export view is locked to prevent accidental updates, in the default view Elden Pixels can quickly filter and review anything. By using a string naming convention for their IDs, they can filter a group of related strings simply by typing into the quick filter of their ID column.
In-game text often contains tags, for example for elements like icons in buttons, and the tag detection system makes sure they stay correct across languages. This helps Elden Pixels export cleanly without needing to check or update anything manually.
Built-in quality tools replace ad-hoc checks
At the review stage, Gridly’s built-in checks give the team the final control needed over localization batches:
- Spell checking
- Word counts and summaries
- Detection of unwanted characters like extra line breaks
“Time save was definitely the big one. And the peace of mind, knowing that everything that has been changed, even accidentally, can always be found in one place.
— Mikael Forslind
Results
≈80% reduction in time spent managing localization files
Replacing the whole stack of spreadsheets for each language (along with their versions and batches) and all their CSV handling with a single Gridly workspace cut manual work from several days per game to just a few hours.
Zero risk of accidental edits across languages
Dependencies, views, and a single source of truth have eliminated the biggest source of errors in their spreadsheet-based workflow.
New updates reach the game in minutes, not hours
With Gridly connected to Unity, adding or updating text no longer means exporting, copying, and replacing CSVs. New content goes into Gridly and is pulled into the game with a button press, so late text changes no longer slow down builds.
Future plans
Elden Pixels is now preparing for the launch of their upcoming game together with a publisher that handles localization and QA. Gridly sits at the center of that launch prep.
For the new launch, Gridly is not a side tool; it’s the platform that covers all localization work, so the team can focus on shipping the game, not managing files.
