I come from the retail side of the games industry and it is just now dawning on me that the criteria for shareware game "naming" is a little different:


RETAIL GAME NAMING

1. You want a name and a box cover that will compel potential customers to pick up the product and turn it over. (The back of the box contains the actual sales tools: screen shots, features, reviews, etc.)

2. A lot of retail games try to feature a marketable character in the title. (Duke Nukem, Max Payne, the Mario games, etc.)

SHAREWARE GAME NAMING

1. There is no box cover. Gamers may not see screenshots, features, and reviews. (Depending on where they download the game.)

2. A really entertaining and/or provocative name such as "Microwaveable Underpants" might generate a lot of downloads but garner a LOW conversion rate. I always thought, "Pretty Good Solitaire" was a terrible name for a product, but you certainly can't argue with GoodSol's success. Does this name actually discourage casual customers that wouldn't have paid for the game anyway?

3. I'm not sure if there is as much value in using a marketable character name in your title, since most indie developers don't have the marketing budgets to support this kind of campaign.

Any other thoughts on this subject???

It's a great question, and I don't have the answers, just a few comments.

- As a joke we did a one-day game last Fall and called it "When Clones Attack!"... it got huge downloads without any advertising. I don't know though how well it would have sold, since it was freeware. :)

- For "Wonderland" we kept swinging between that title and "The Adventures of Stinky and Loof" - which we thought would get a lot of curiosity downloads. Ended up going for the "safer" one, but I always thought it might be an interesting idea to distribute the same game under two names to see which one does better.

- One thing we do try to do is pick a name that easily shows up on a Google search - that way we can find fairly quickly what shareware sites carry the game, if there have been reviews, if it's been on pirate sites, etc. Wonderland wasn't great for that, but e.g. that's the reason we gave Intensity XS that extra "XS" at the end - just so we wouldn't have to sift through tons of google entries on Intensity this and Intensity that.

From my point of view, naming a shareware game should be about the same as a retail game. Or a book, song, etc.
Something descriptive and catchy is best, You want something memorable, and origional...

If your game has a main character, naming it after that character no matter the budget would bode well, especially if you want sequals. 'Dark Quest' sounds alright. It is, however rather.. Common sounding. 'Vextars Dark Quest' is a bit more memorable, the character gives it an origional feel... And it would lend itself well into a sequal called 'Vextars Dark Quest II: Undead rising'.

Emotions and moods work well for this, 'dark' is such a word that immediately makes people think of a setting with demons, evil conquest, and other such simular things. If thats your target audiance, the simple word could do well to attract them.

I rather like the subject, should do a bit of research on it... After all, a name makes the differance between looking elsewhere and stopping to have a little peek.

Just a bit of rambling for you to toy with :rolleyes:

Also, consider that a number of download sites sort the titles by name (tucows and simtel.net come to mind). Adding a 3D or 100% in front of the game name or at least choosing a name starting with a,b,c can keep you at the top of the list. Did I mention my game is called "RedBlue Classics" yet? :/

Well if you consider most shareware games do not have a marketable character mainly due to the fact that most are puzzle games. But some puzzle games do have characters which can be marketable.

For my first shareware game I specifically designed a cartoon character to go with my puzzle game. I wanted to make a mascot type character to go with my development team. I also want to create multiple games featuring this character. This will help people recognize this character and associate it with my games. I also named the game after the character.

I don't think it is a bad idea to make a mock box art for your own website. Such as an image of the front and back to promote your game.


"I always thought, "Pretty Good Solitaire" was a terrible name for a product, but you certainly can't argue with GoodSol's success. Does this name actually discourage casual customers that wouldn't have paid for the game anyway? "

I think it also depends on you target market. Pretty good solitar is probably targeting an older audience who don't care much for flashy names?

"Also, consider that a number of download sites sort the titles by name (tucows and simtel.net come to mind). "

The game i'm working on starts with D heh. Maybe I should change it to start with A now.


John

One thing we do try to do is pick a name that easily shows up on a Google search

This is an EXCELLENT point and I even have a story to help illustrate it. I recently watched a music video for Pink's "Family Affair". The little girl in this video did a fantastic job and I was curious if anyone else had the same reaction, or knew anything about her. So last night, while taking a break from my game, I went to Google to do a search:

GOOGLE SEARCH: Pink "little girl" video

I was *about* to hit the Enter key when I realized, to my horror, that these keywords were NOT going to give me the results I wanted. If Pink had a more unique name, like "Cher", it would have been much easier to find appropriate websites. By the same token, someone looking for the "Dweep" homepage is going to have an easier time than someone trying to find the main site for a game called "Bubbles".

Originally posted by John Cutter
What's in a [shareware game] name

The name is everything.

In a lot of cases, people download on the basis of the name alone. A shareware product name has to do 2 things: 1) Tell what the game is, and 2) make the game stand out and be different from all the other games like it.

A few people do #1 right, very few do #2 right. In fact, the most common naming advice (starting the name with a number or an A to get listed first) is absolutely the worst thing you can do because everyone is doing it. It doesn't even do what it is intended to do, which is to be listed first on the download sites. Only one download site has enough traffic to matter, and download.com lists by date. The product names starting with 123, ABC, #1 etc have become so common that they have become generic and make the product just blend in with all the others similarly named. You want your product to stand out and get noticed, which means having a distinctive name that isn't like any other.

Originally posted by John Cutter
I always thought, "Pretty Good Solitaire" was a terrible name for a product, but you certainly can't argue with GoodSol's success. Does this name actually discourage casual customers that wouldn't have paid for the game anyway?


The name has probably been responsible for at least 50% of the product's success and likely more. Especially in the early days when it was just starting out, the name really helped get the game noticed. It was different from the names of all of it's competitors (it still is). It also has a bit of understatement, which really helps. Had it been named "Great Solitaire" or even "Good Solitaire" without the "Pretty", it would come off as bragging or hype. The understatement makes the name more believable.

Coming up with the right name is probably as important as all the programming. The difference between the right name and an almost right name is the difference between success and failure. A game by any other name would not sell as sweet.

We stumbled into the start-with-A thing with Artifact (http://www.samugames.com/artifact). It was unintentional, but it has helped, actually. Not because there aren't a lot of games that begin with an "A", because there are. But there aren't a lot of multi-player, real-time strategy games that start with an "A". Just lucky, really.

If I was naming the game today, I would *never* use something as generic as "Artifact" again. At the very least I would add another word to modify it (e.g., "Alien Artifact", "Ancient Artifacts", etc.).

With "Paintball Net" we stumbled into a name that was instantly recongizeable: It's a multi-player paintball game. And, lucky again, it's something people search on google for: "paintball game".

You live, you learn.

-David

Well, amazingly enough there are books about this very subject!

One is "positioning" by Al Ries.

Ok, its not solely about naming, but it has a good bearing on things.

Scott Miller and George Broussard of 3DRealms are VERY VERY convinced that naming your game (and of course, having something in your game that is nameable) can have a significant effect.

For instance, the suggestion is to use a name that will suggest the type of product it is. Duke Nukem kind of sounds like a rough-tough shooting kinda guy with a very over the top attitude.

Max Payne, another one, sounds like a man with a troubled past.

In general, I think Scott and George take these things a little too literally, but I take thier point, to be fair, they know better than I do, having done the deals :))

Another thing they suggest is to make sure your game has a central "character" and to name the game after that. There are other "do not" items, like naming things sequels, naming things generically etc.

Try that book, it might make some light go on for you.

.Z.