Today marks the release of the very first localization project for Three Bees. Perfect Tides is now available in Russian.
There has been much chatter about localization lately, and while I can only speak to my own experience, I believe it's very personal to translate the writing of a single author, and should be treated the same way in games as it is in books. The truth is when it comes to games with a small audience and a mountain of words, this kind of work will never be part of any economic strategy. It's a ton of work, it takes a long time, and the chance of making back the cost is not great.
I despaired for a while about the impossibility of translating my games. When Alexander Preymak approached me in 2024 with a passionate desire to work on PT, I decided it was worth a shot. I wanted to experience the translation process for myself and see who else in the world might find this game. It took over a year, between Alexander and fellow translator Arina Bedrina's hard work, and - much more - my ability to work on it myself while deep into PT:STS' development.
I'm very pleased we were able to make it happen. I don't know what this means for the likelihood of future translations, but it's definitely a start. For one thing, I now know what is required. And hopefully this release will find its people, and give some idea of the game's reach beyond its native tongue.
A huge thanks to:
- Alexander Preymak & Arina Bedrina for the translation + QA help
- James Spanos for helping me work out Mac-specific ridiculousness
Happy playing!