Culturalization
Long before the release of the game, a free demo version (fully localized) was released on Steam. A streamer from Romania complained that many words were obscure, and that she stumbled over multiple Slavicisms. The developers asked us to find a balance between retaining the Slavic flavor and making the text readable for western players.
Together with the client, we separated all the terms into those that were to be translated into English, and those that had to be transliterated. The formula was set by the client: 70% neutral words, 30% Slavic words.
For example, we’ve transliterated almost all the names. That’s how Radmila, Miryana, Zhdan, Dobromil, Boleslav, Lutobor, Marya, Gorazd, Mlad, Goluba, Stoyan, and Lyubava appeared in the game. While these names carry a clear meaning for a native Russian speaker, they don’t affect the gameplay, yet help to create a Slavic vibe.
In contrast, nicknames had to be adapted, so Mokrous (literally “wet whisker”) became Slimewhisker. Some names required a more creative approach: Gorynych (a hard-to-pronounce name, which could also be confused with Gorinya) became Zmey.
We approached the names of locations in a similar manner: Storona and Kamnegrad remained transliterated, while Smuroles (literally “gloomy/sad forest”) was adapted to Gloomcopse.
Common nouns were a little more difficult. We had to discuss each word with the localization team and the client in terms of how clear it was to non-Russian speakers. As a result, ‘boyar’, ‘bogatyr’, and ‘kvass’ made it into the game, but ‘veche’ became ‘council’, and ‘basurman’ became ‘hordeling’.
Fortunately, some mythological entities have already entered the general cultural milieu. For example, we could safely rename the vodyanoy (a Slavic water spirit) to merfolk, which is recognizable through fantasy works and D&D.