Localizing a game doesn't just mean translating it. When it came to localizing the cutesy Animal Crossing-like Cozy Grove for the Spanish audience, Native Prime's localizers decided not to give players the stress of thinking about how messed up healthcare is in the US.

In Cozy Grove, players stranded on an island full of ghosts are supposed to make friends. Making friends is important, says one of the ghost neighbors: "What if you get sick and need to crowdfund an appendectomy!"

This is a good idea.

This is understandable if you're an American, or at least someone who knows that the U.S. health care system is so seriously broken that by 2019, one-third of GoFundMe campaigns will go toward health care costs. Dark and comical in its home country, it might read as a bit sad in other languages.

"If a Spanish player reads, 'I want my friend to pay for my appendectomy,' he probably won't laugh. It would be like, 'Why do you want your friend to pay for it?'" said Isa Gutierrez, project manager for Native Prime, in a tweet. 'That's why we made the situation more friendly to Spaniards.'

Instead, Native Prime decided to use a less dire example for translation, asking for help moving a couch. Instead, Native Prime chose the less dire example of asking for help in moving the couch.

"The point of localizing a game is not simply to translate what is said or to "erase" some of the different culture.

It seems to have landed well enough for Cozy Grove co-writer Chris Rigman, who joked: "The game's references to a bleak American dystopia were so out of touch with European audiences that the famous "appendectomy crowdfunded" line, he had to help his friend move his couch instead.

Thanks, Kotaku.