How do you choose names for your projects and/or games?

DashXero

How do you go about choosing names for your projects and/or games?

To be clear, I'm asking for a "teach a man to fish" approach as opposed to a "give me a title for x, y, or z" approach. For example:

What kinds of considerations do you make when naming things? What kinds of thought processes drive the decisions? What works? What doesn't? Why?

That kind of thing.

I ask because I'm making some small progress (takin' dem baby steps) in a project that I'm working on (and have been working on for a while), and I still don't have a name or title for it. Ordinarily, it would be like, "so what?" But eventually, I'm gonna have to start showing stuff to people, and having a title to group stuff under would probably be a good idea.

Thanks for your time.

Muzzoid

There isnt any process, Good names come from the strangest places.

Justin Meisse

I just throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks - usually Rhinokey & I just riff off of eachother throwing whacky ideas around.

I'm currently working on a game that I probably won't finished that involves a 4 armed kickboxer, it's called 4RMZ, mostly because I like the way the logo looks and I was going for the bizarre, frustrate the end user, indie style.
(i have to fix the kerning issues)

leilei

I like that logo. Is that Fixedsys?



The name OpenArena was a lucky and rather obvious choice. It doubles its meaning for being open source, and well, the game takes place in open arenas. How punnerific.

However i'm not so lucky with my others, and are nowhere near as nicely inspired (Dave 3-D, Open Quartz PLUS, Haktoria, Engoo)

I'd like to know a better project naming process too. Can't just slap Open on a name or a word for everything. What the hell would I call the Q2-based equivelent?


If it helps, Deus Ex was called "Shooter".

ZacD

My current project has 3 names, I'm sure one of them will stick. Sometimes being clever, sometimes being blunt. Mass Effect fan art is a completely valid name for a project. Generic Scifi scene is not. A name should set a theme and mood that stands out, and shouldn't be too boring. Mojangs new game is called 0x10c, or "ten to the c" it may be a weird name, but it is memorable, stands out, and says something about the story (0x10c = 281,474,976,712,644 AD = a coding bug caused people to be in stasis for that long instead of a year).

Autocon

If it has a name that doesn't contain the words "Sci Fi, Alleyway, Hallway, Generic, Modern, Futuristic, Doorway, Tunnel, then your probably pretty good.

Justin Meisse

lol, I guess I should have read the post a little better, you're asking what to name your thread title?

Brendan

1: Don't let marketing or business people anywhere near something that doesn't have a name. They'll try to come up with something very cringe-worthy, but at least you've already started working on your game (which is good because they'll occasionally try to make a game around a bad pun for a name).

2: Find a female friend or colleague (who is, ideally, at least partly, interested in your game). I'm not even joking, they tend to be 999 times better at coming up with names.

3: If all else fails, write down all the abstract adjectives you can about your game and see which ones don't work as a title. If there's any left, well, that's a start.

MainManiac

play around with wordplay in latin

cholden

I'm pretty awesome at naming things. When I make levels I usually list the gameplay as the title, such as "Jump On This Rock". I got the idea from strip mall places having the name of what they are "Nails", "Karate", "Chinese Food"

But on a more serious note, write down a bunch of ideas, google them to make sure it's not a porn title or major movie/game titles.

DashXero

Justin Meisse
I'm not asking about thread titles in particular... When I say "project" I refer to anything from written works to sculpture to (insert whatever a project can be here).

I think you've come up with a good idea for naming stuff, though. Having a sounding board to throw things at and riff off of seems to be a valid way of getting a good name.

I mean "4RMS" is actually quite effective. The four functions as both a "leetspeak" letter "A" and the indicator that your kickboxer has four arms. It's quite clever.

Leilei

I can't believe that Deus Ex once was named "Shooter!" Do you happen to know how long the game was stuck with that tentative title?

ZacD
I can't help but wonder if the title to that game was trying to be too clever, or if the intended audience is simply those who can understand hex code. I think you have a point in stating that a name should set a theme and mood without being boring. I think it's a start at approaching a fairly decent metric.

Autocon
I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I noticed that you're an environment artist at Naughty Dog. How'd you guys decide on the name "Uncharted"? There were all kinds of potential titles that game series could have had. Yet, we know that it was successfully named because if you utter the word "uncharted" to just about anyone, they start thinking of the game series. If you can't answer the question, I understand.

Muzz
It's possible, but then you have to wonder, "where do I find the strangest places?"

Brendan
As strange as it sounds, that all sounds like gold. #1 sounds suspiciously like it comes from experience, though.

frell
Now there's an idea I'd have never thought of.

cholden
That naming convention certainly sounds like it keeps things descriptive. You bring up a good point about cross-checking to make sure the name hasn't been used before. . . Or used "questionably"...

Muzzoid

Muzz
It's possible, but then you have to wonder, "where do I find the strangest places?"

Take drugs.

Justin Meisse

I recently got an idea for a fps project I'd like to do one day form these very forums:

MEATSHOOTER
shoot monsters to keep your murder-meter full to stay alive and finish the level

Paradan

Chaotic Shiny?

cptSwing

Add Umlauts.

MeteöR

Andreas

Brendan wrote: »

1: Don't let marketing or business people anywhere near something that doesn't have a name. They'll try to come up with something very cringe-worthy, but at least you've already started working on your game (which is good because they'll occasionally try to make a game around a bad pun for a name).

I often wonder whether Rockstar were given/forced to call their sequel to Asylum 'Arkham City' by WB and their marketing staff because people would associate easier, and had to try and write a story around that.

McGreed

I have this issue whenever I have to make project folders, and used a name and then decides to change the name, but all filepaths and such is pointing to the other name...real pain to cleanup.

MainManiac

whatever you do, NEVER put the words "online" or "realm" in the name

Mask_Salesman

This --> Video Game Name Generator

Racer445

who cares

ZacD

frell wrote: »

whatever you do, NEVER put the words "online" or "realm" in the name

Or "edge".

leilei

"Simulator", "ville" and "Tycoon" are shovelware saturated, so it might be also best to avoid those. "nauts" is getting ridiculous too. "Extreme" and its variants have no place unless it's ironic.

Steve Schulze

frell wrote: »

play around with wordplay in latin

It doesn't need to make sense (Deus Ex - "God out of") or have any relation to the game (Sine Mora - "Without Delay") either.

One major consideration when coming up with a title is to find one that hasn't been used in the past. Run anything you come up with though the patents and trademarks pages.