The tale of how I was scammed out of $3000.
In September 2023, when the script for episode 6 was almost finished, I noticed a large number of Turkish players who wanted to see Summer Crush in their language. So I decided to invest! There were so many people demanding Turkish that I decided that no matter how much money I put into this endeavor, it would pay off. In Russia, there is one application for smartphones - Profi.ru. In this app you can find anyone - from a geography tutor to a welder of a Tu-160 jet bomber. That's where I found Farida Adaletovna. A Russian-to-Turkish translator.
I told her about all the peculiarities of the localized project. Sex, teenage themes and so on. She agreed. I was happy. The final price for the translation, of course, made my head spin, but I hoped that sales in the Turkish region would cover the costs. I soon asked community members about the quality of the Turkish translation - they found it acceptable. However, Farida couldn't check the quality of her translation personally due to her unfamiliarity with Steam. But I didn't look for a new translator, as we seemed to work well together.
One day a guy appeared in discord and said that the translation was not very good in some places. I asked how bad it was, but he convinced me that it was playable. That calmed me down, and now I realize it was for nothing.
Today I got a message in my private messages from another Turkish player. What he told me shocked and embarrassed me. He specifically pointed out certain points. For example, the word "pussy" was literally translated as "cat". And the word "ass" was translated as "donkey".
In addition, this player also told me that the whole thing was an automated translation. According to him, DeepL would do the same. I myself use DeepL when writing posts, however when it comes to charging money for it...
I don't know whose fault it is, I asked her but so far there has been no response.
All year I thought it was ok, only because I don't know Turkish and the translation feedback was "acceptable". But this is unacceptable. There seems to be a curse of poor localization on Summer Crush, but this kind of translation is simply unacceptable.
In today's patch, I'm cutting out the Turkish localization completely. I would like to believe that this is a temporary measure. For all the time I've been working with Farida Adaletovna, I've spent 268,375 rubles on the Turkish translation, which at today's exchange rate equals 3,313 dollars. All this money seems to have been flushed down the toilet, and I cannot get a refund.
I deeply apologize to all Turkish players. You deserve better. I'm sorry.