An indie title from Italy, The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles, recently became notable on Steam due to an unforeseen translation mishap that localized it as “Shitty Dungeon” for Japanese audiences. This odd translation incident has surprisingly led to a surge in wishlists for the game.
In August, this 2D dungeon-crawling RPG, which leans towards the roguelite genre, was given a Japanese Steam page that caught the eye of gamers. Many players quickly realized that the translation was far from accurate. The title “Kuso Dungeon,” which translates roughly to “Shitty Dungeon” or the somewhat softer “Crap Dungeon,” sparked a lot of reactions.
Paolo Nicoletti, the mind behind The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles, discussed the humorous fallout of this translation with GameSpark (translated by Automaton), acknowledging the unexpected attention the title received. “Everyone was laughing their heads off, and I was too. It was a completely unintentional accident, but it ended up bringing the game lots of attention,” Nicoletti shared.
Although a proper translation was eventually added to the game’s Steam page for Japanese users, the viral reach of “Shitty Dungeon” boosted the number of wishlists tremendously. According to SteamDB, the game is currently positioned 327th in wishlist rankings, with Nicoletti dubbing this incident “truly accidental marketing at its finest.”
Following all the commotion, it turns out that The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is indeed a well-received game, boasting a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam. One of the top reviews is in Japanese and translates (via machine translation) to: “The name ‘Shitty Dungeon’ makes me think it’s a joke game, but it’s actually quite well-made.”
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