Accidental Marketing at Its Best: Indie Dungeon RPG Mistranslated as “Shitty Dungeon” Goes Viral on Japanese Steam

The Italian indie title The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles briefly appeared on Steam Japan with an unintended localization that translated its name as “Shitty Dungeon” — and that mishap unexpectedly drove a large spike in wishlists.

In August, the 2D dungeon-crawling, roguelite-influenced RPG The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles received a Japanese Steam page. Players quickly noticed the localization was off: the title had been rendered as “Kuso Dungeon,” a phrase which reads as “Shitty Dungeon” (or more mildly, “Crap Dungeon”) in Japanese.

Creator Paolo Nicoletti spoke with GameSpark (English coverage via Automaton) and acknowledged the “Shitty Dungeon” incident.

“Everyone found it hilarious — myself included,” Nicoletti said, adding that the mistranslation was entirely accidental but ended up drawing a lot of attention to the title.

Nicoletti explained that, although the game’s Japanese listing was later corrected, the “Shitty Dungeon” meme had already gone viral and produced a notable surge in wishlists. According to SteamDB, the game saw a visible bump in wishlist activity, which Nicoletti described as “accidental marketing at its finest.”

Despite the flubbed name, the game itself has been well received — it currently holds a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam. One of the top reviews (in Japanese) observes, via machine translation: “The name ‘Shitty Dungeon’ sounds like a joke, but the game is actually well made.”

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