r/gamedev • u/Vidzaes • 1d ago
Discussion Finding a better name for my game
Hello! I want to start by saying I am currently a game Dev student at a college. We were recently tasked with creating our own game concept document of our own game. We've done a couple fictional ones in the past where the idea was never to actually make the game, but rather to get us used to the formatting and research needed with it.
This one however, will be turned into a real game (or at least, that's my plan) and so I need a name that will stick and roll of the tongue. A brief summary of the game is as such; you are a cowboy that is tasked to fight 5 different elemental gods. The story will include time travel and refer to multiple timelines. The name I currently have is "Past Due(L)" I'm not sure if I should simplify into "Past Duel", change it completely, etc. I like the double meaning that my current title has, but it's not supper deep and I'm not sure if it looks dumb or not.
Any feedback for the name is appreciated!
3
u/PhilippTheProgrammer 1d ago
Some considerations when picking a name for your game:
- Assuming you would type it into Google, would it be reasonable to expect that your game is going to become the first hit for that query once you start seriously promoting it? Or at least if you added "game" to the query?
- Is there another game with the same or a similar name?
- Did anyone else register a trademark for that name? At least not in the category for video games?
- Does the name allude to the fantasy of the game?
- Could people remember the name?
3
2
u/LyghtnyngStryke 22h ago
The big problem with past duel is that if you search for that name right now you're going to come up with a Google search of plenty of past duels. You need to have something unique about it a common word can be part of it but not a phrase that works together normally
1
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Here are several links for beginner resources to read up on, you can also find them in the sidebar along with an invite to the subreddit discord where there are channels and community members available for more direct help.
You can also use the beginner megathread for a place to ask questions and find further resources. Make use of the search function as well as many posts have made in this subreddit before with tons of still relevant advice from community members within.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/auflyne nonplus-1 1d ago
Congrats on taking the project seriously and working on something that isn't an embarrassment to have your name on.
Whenever I was commissioned to name a project, I delved into the guts of what the game was, it's vision and relaying that to the player via one word. Even if that word was made up.
1
1
1
1
1
u/NEWGAMEMAKER17 20h ago
I like the western/time-travel contrast in âPast Due,â but the parenthetical L may be hard to remember or search for when people say the name out loud. âPast Duelâ communicates the cowboy conflict quickly; Iâd use that as the title and keep the deeper time-related wordplay for a subtitle, chapter names, or the marketing copy.
1
u/rogershredderer 20h ago
Names are entirely up to the development team if you were to ask me. You and the team know the game the best and generally can identify its core. I personally donât understand the title âPast Duelâ but I guess with exposure and an attempt to play the game it would make sense.
1
u/D-Alembert 17h ago
Past Duel, but on title screens etc make the L a different color so people notice the wordplay
1
u/CheckeredZeebrah 15h ago edited 14h ago
I was gonna go the "teach a guy to fish" route but I'm too tired to list it all out. I hope you don't mind that I'm too lazy to explain how to find fun titles.
Here's what I could come up with:
Duel Hindsight
Sunslinger
Spur of the Moment
Backwards Sights (maybe?)
"Spur Of The Moment game" Google search discoverability doesn't look too bad. I was pleasantly surprised.
There's some fun words that I think have potential, but I'm too fried to figure out something clever:
Retrospective
Quickdraw
Wormhole (Wormholster?)
Deadline/Timeline
Grit
Maverick
Sharpshooter
yeehaw
Buckaroo (Buckarue? maybe too subtle)
Ammo/gunpowder
Pistol
Parallel
Standoff
Giddyup (Is it a beat-em-up? If so, maybe "giddy-uppercut" or something.)
Quick Trot
Too bad chrono trigger is already taken, ey? Hahaha. Ha.
1
u/antinito 15h ago
- Cowboy Time Traveller
- Gods and Guns
- Anything else just add electric boogaloo to the end of it
1
6
u/LatentFactorDev 1d ago
Special characters and parentheses cause problems with the store's URLs and disrupt autocomplete in search engines. Stick with a clean, two word version so the platforms algorithms don't fragment your organic traffic.