On Naming Your Games Weird Things

This is DOOM. It is one word, it is short, it is memorable. It is a title that is instantly recognizable. Please, for the love of God, when you are naming your game, follow the same rule of simplicity. Even if it's more than one word, say "God of War" or "Super Meat Boy" stick with words that people know and can immediately form an image in their mind of what the game will be without even seeing it.

"But my game has to have this weird name or my creative vision is compromised!"

Guess what? EVERYBODY judges a book by its cover, and everybody judges a game by its name. Do not allow the narrow scope of your creative vision to potentially hurt any press or sales your game will get in the end.

Take, for instance, Slam Bolt Scrappers. A great game, but not a title that easily defines what the game is. At a Boston Post Mortem, the Fire Hose Team described the troubles they had involving the game's name, mainly that they were getting hits on their site from other Google searches, including "Slam Bot Scrappers" or "Slam Bolt Scrapers." In some cases, these can be as simple as typos, but in others, it can be as bad as people not actually knowing what the name of your game is.

For instance, there was an article recently that referred to my company's game as "Children of Lantana," when the game's name is "Children of Liberty," and the company's name is "Lantana Games." Granted, this is just a slip of the keys, and in the end does not affect our Google results, so this could have been a lot worse.

All I ask is that you take a step back and think about the title of your game from a buyer's perspective. Ask yourself, and your friends, these questions:

1. Can you pronounce the game's title?
2. Can you spell the game's title?
3. What do you think of when you hear this title?

If the answer to any of these questions is, "I Don't Know," especially the third one, you've done something wrong. A title needs to conjure up images of... something, anything! Even if it's wrong, it needs to get the buyer's brain churning. Take "Lord of the Rings," for instance. Even if you had never read the books, just from hearing the title, you would know there is some kind of watchful figure who had something to do with having a godlike power over some rings, and from that we can infer those rings must be very, very powerful. Now then, if you had never heard of "Slam Bolt Scrappers" what would you think the game is about?

I've been guilty of this on a couple occasions. I once made a Poker/Tetris combo game named "Avalanche," a word that has nothing to do with cards. My first game after college, "The Longest Night," didn't describe the fact that you'd be running a homeless shelter, but it gave the sense that you would be in for, well, a long night, possibly with some tedium.

Please keep simplicity in mind in your titles. You will find that you gain a lot more traction a lot quicker if you appeal to the lowest common denominator. It may not seem ideal. In fact, it may feel like selling out, but when it comes down to it, would you rather people play and enjoy your game, or see its really weird title and keep walking?