Well... the game i am working on is coming along quite nicely, but i really want to get one of the last steps out of the way... THE NAME All the characters have names, and the towns, and a good lot of the enemies, but the game doesnt. It is currently referred to as its project name "False Prophecies", named after a movie me and my friends made. So basically my question is "How do you come up with a name for the game?"

Metaphorical names are the best. Deus Ex for example is a shortened form of Deus Ex Machina--latin for "God from a machine", a theatre term referring to an ending where some god(who is suspended by a crane) saves the day, basically. In Deux Ex, after you''ve played the game, you can probably think of correlations between both the literal(several from the literal one) and theatrical definitions.

Look at the ending, or a primary plot point, item, character, or particularly potent quote. Words that have to do with your game that have emotionally charged connotations are good as well.

Fallout, for example, is associated with "consequences", nuclear warfare, and wastelands, none of which is derived from the game itself. Civilization, Alpha Centauri, Diablo and Warcraft have pretty straightforward names. Dark Reign was based on a concept in which water was the primary resource, and the homophonous nature of "Reign" with "rain", combined with the conflict between an empire and rebels. Sacrifice was named after the act which destroys your opponent--sacrificing a creature at your opponent''s altar. EarthSiege was a mech pilot game where you fought against AI''s who were controlled from the Moon(IIRC). In half-life, you play a scientist who deals with extremely hazardous substances(EXTREMELY hazardous). Tachyon: the Fringe has two parts, title and subtitle. The title was based upon the "tachyon gates", which allow travel through space, and the subtitle was based on the region to which your character is exiled shortly after the game begins. Vampire: the Masquerade--Redemption is a mouthful. Vampire--you play a vampire. the Masquerade refers to the conspiracy to conceal their existance and their power over humanity. Redemption refers to the fact that your character is religiously devout, vampires are considered condemned, and his guilt over something that happened with a nun with whom he fell in love.(Vampire: the Masquerade is a roleplaying game that was licensed for the game, thus the long title) Homeworld was the objective of the game. Rune is from the really cool weapons effects(which for some reason reminded me of Heretic) that come from getting Runes. Deadlock''s premise was to resolve a dispute over a paradise world without obliterating the planet like they say normally happens in interstellar warfare. Outpost was based on interstellar colonization, where you are sent very far away to establish some kind of *cough*Outpost*cough* there. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator involved going to the core of a seven layered world in order that it is not destroyed, as well as to receive "the Gift of the Creator", which is a pretty crappy gift, IMNSHO. Freespace was so named because it was made by the same company as Descent, which takes place indoors

That''s almost my entire game library, except for the ones where the name is obvious--Caesar SimAnything, Duke Nukem, Wheel of Time, Might and Magic, Wizardry, Axis and Allies, Magic, BattleChess, etc. And some crappy names for example purposes, like Trespasser, Pax Imperia, Dark Colony, and Final Fantasy.

So, the moral of the story is: look for examples, and see what they did.

yeah... i never stopped laughing when i saw Final Fantasy 2 in big letters on a box.

I dunno, the only real underlying them to the game is "What makes us human?" And it explores a lot of theories, untill eventually narrowing itself down near the end

I liked Septerra Core. I played the demo for weeks, and checked to see if it was in the stores in my area approximately every two day I was slightly annoyed that I couldn''t transfer my character from the demo to the game because I got one of my characters up to level 27.(for those who haven''t played the demo, you typically get up to level 5 by the end of the demo)

Once I got stuck fighting undead because I didn''t know which way was out I got bored with it, and downloaded a trainer. It only worked on core energy and the demo''s three characters, but unlimited core energy makes fighting VERY easy, especially after I figured out which three cards made big bang and its opposite(can''t remember the name).

It''s a very, very long game. Akin to Final Fantasy in length, and of the three Final Fantasies I''ve played so far(VI, VII, and VIII), I have cheated on all of them.

In retrospect, it was better than Final Fantasy VIII(better in story(not saying much), combat and graphics(except the cutscenes)), but not better than VII(of course), and only slightly worse than VI.

Only when sony understands that a franchise can only be milked so much before it''s dead. Their boderline with the FF series, at least each game is different and has different characters, but the damn story is EXACTLY the same in each itteration.

So never, because sony, nintendo, and microsoft, (and formally sega) are all money grabbing companies requiring huge sums of cash to mantain daily operations. Although hopefully when FF online comes out, it''ll be the end as people stop paying for it once they get bored.

-Scott

I think we''re all getting a bit off topic.

Hey, I don''t know about you, but the name Black Mage chose, False Prophecies, was interesting, perhaps you should keep in line with that title? if that title does the game justice, and only you know that because we haev no idea of the story! are there false prophecies? it''s a very personal story obviously, so our suggestions aren''t probably going to help you much, since yuo''ll wanna be the one who decides


Purple Hamster
Helped and be helped!