Screwed by localization team. Anyone have suggestions for studios that could help finish their work?

Summary · qwen2.5:32b

A solo indie developer seeks recommendations for a reliable localization studio to complete final LQA and revisions on their visual novel, after experiencing delays and unreliability from a previously hired team; they prefer studios with AAA experience and currently consider Allcorrect as a top candidate. The developer advises against partial payments before thorough work review due to this negative experience.

Excerpt

<!-- SC_OFF --><div class="md"><p>Not an employment or collaboration post! </p> <p>I'm legitimately asking for suggestions to find a trusted localization studios that might be able to help me (a solo indie dev) with final LQA and revisions, as well as sharing my experience.</p> <p>I'm preferably looking for a studio that has shipped AAA, or has otherwise proven to be reliable and proficient. My current top candidate is Allcorrect, because they're the only studio I personally know that has done reliable localization, but I wanted to ask others for suggestions first. I'm also not sure if they'd be available or interested in taking on an indie project that could theoretically be done in 1-2 days. </p> <p>Backstory for those curious: </p> <p>I hired a small studio to localize my visual novel into 3 languages. This studio seemed passionate, professional, and most importantly, had a portfolio of indie games that I recognized.</p> <p>They did end up localizing my game, but some texts still had translator notes, or otherwise needed to be reviewed/revised. I made detailed (yet simple and very straightforward) notes of exactly what needed to be addressed. It really wasn't that much work left to do, but it was still important that it needed to be done before release.</p> <p>For over a month they said they'd have it done in the next &quot;24-48 hours,&quot; but they always had an excuse as to why it wasn't done. Now, 5 days after the firm, agreed on deadline, I can only assume they never even looked at the notes and are somehow still trying to string me along by saying they can have it done &quot;in the next 12 hours.&quot; This is after I told them I needed it done in the next 2 hours, or I would have to finish it myself because I cannot delay it any longer. So, of course, after receiving that message, I'm almost certain that they never had any intention of doing the remaining work; essentially wasting my time indefinitely for whatever reason.</p> <p>This was my first experience working with a localization studio for my own projects (I have experience from my day job, but I wasn't the one paying). Now I've spent the money, am in too deep to cancel the localization update, can't really ask for a refund since they did 99% of the work outlined, and now I need to spend even more money to hire someone else to clean up their work. </p> <p>I guess the lesson learned is to not send any payment until the entirety of the work has been completely and thoroughly reviewed (took me several weeks because it's a visual novel). And/or spend more money for top quality upfront, because you'll end up having to pay for it in the end anyways.</p> </div><!-- SC_ON --> &#32; submitted by &#32; <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CAJJI"> /u/CAJJI </a> <br /> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1upgkye/screwed_by_localization_team_anyone_have/">[link]</a></span> &#32; <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1upgkye/screwed_by_localization_team_anyone_have/">[comments]</a></span>