How to name your indie game

[@tim-ruswick]

Post your game's name! Let's see how you did.

[@densva]

Hey Tim, I found your channel and I find it very interesting. My thing is not indie games but rather IOS and Android games. I like this video and I think you didn’t mention about acronyms. The name of my game is not that long but I created an acronym for it and I strongly believe it could work. What is your opinion on Acronyms? Thanks for any feed back on a very interesting and important topic.

[@tojeka2325]

Its the name of the main character as well but the title is - Render. Think itll only pass the pub test half the time. Guess if you like, i'll respond.

[@bobmarl6722]

Dennis Silva An indie game has nothing to do with the platform. An indie game is a game that is made without a publisher. Do you have a publisher? If not, you make indie games.

[@sebastianwardana1527]

CED, Controlled Entity Destruction

[@densva]

Bob Marl thanks for the info Bob. Yeah I might do that. Thanks again!

[@RagePeanut]

"Fighter is a verb" ~ Tim Ruswick, 2018

[@tim-ruswick]

I know. I saw that after. Thats what I get for adding things in last second. Thank god im not an english teacher.

[@troyd9212]

Haha I was looking for this comment lol worst part was it hit me towards the end of the video that fighter wasnt a verb

[@ThePC007]

I'm pretty sure that "angry" isn't a verb either. :o

[@MrCyanGaming]

Yeah, fighter and angry are adjectives, but It still works in the same way :P

[@Spiderboydk]

Fighter is a noun, and angry is an adjective. There were more minor errors than these two, but I don't feel like nitpicking. :-)

[@snowconesolid]

Naming your indie game is easier than you think. You know, you should take this online naming your game course on Udemy...

[@devincory9695]

Ouch.

[@snowconesolid]

:'-(

[@plushylychee]

Jaksida A youtube advertisement

[@deepfryer6709]

It probably cost money though.

[@SHINBAXTER]

Samer Khatib LOOOL. & U HAV THE PERFECT AVATAR ICON FOR IT XD =)

[@noahjames9457]

Tetris actually stems from tetromino, which is a geometric shape composed of 4 squares

[@JojonathanOliveira]

"Magic Star werewolf" sounds like a good title

[@Fjuron]

Very helpful! I've always been very passionate about finding a good name. For one of my game concepts I have been changing the name over and over and now you have given me some nice tools to find the perfect one!

[@AlexanderTHaselton]

I love how you've been evolving your content making it better and better. Great videos!

[@Extrone]

I was think a name for my new game right now and saw the notification for this video. What a timing Tim 👏

[@InfernoKaygaming]

same

[@troyd9212]

That has happened to me before.

[@gdomjan83]

Wow, you really stepped up the quality of these videos Tim. Good job! I'm also hesitating a lot about naming my next game. I have a strong idea about it, but I'm still undecided.

[@igorthelight]

Tell us what you game is about and we (KZbin community) will spam you with funny (stupid) names! :-)

[@DickTator6969]

I think That "Undicided" can be a good name for a dialouge choice based games ...

[@stevenisonline]

LOVE the new quality and polish! So much real content here, stuff I really needed help with. Thank you and I can't wait to see more!!!

[@Ratstail91]

Candy Raid: The Factory FUCK YEAH

[@MasterofGalaxies4628]

I couldn't think up a name for a game I've been working on, so I decided to call it "Working Title". Considering I'm doing this particular project mostly as a technical demo and personal learning experience, I think it's actually reasonably appropriate.

[@Kobrar44]

I think the intro speed is spot on now. And you made a damn nice job of maintaining talking speed. I feel the music throughout the video is not necessary, but it's not awful either.

[@android272]

Someone has probably already pointed this out but Tetris is the combination of the words Tetra meaning 4 since there are 4 blocks in each shape you use in Tetris and Tennis for the creators favorite game.

[@delta-176]

Hey I know I'm kinda late to be posting this comment, but I just wanna say, This video made me come up with 4 game names (they are pretty cool and unique ideas too). Though I don't want to spill them, I want to say thanks for the support. It will definitely be good for my gaming industry for Unity.

[@tojeka2325]

Thank you, this is a thing I think about a lot but never get anywhere because I just couldnt figure out how to approach it.

[@thenosirin2815]

I see games named battle ninja city 3d police racing on play store that have over a million downloads

[@EngiNetion]

new york city spiderman crime open world fighting game 2020 free

[@kverkagambo]

That was a cool transition at 7:50! My game is Comrades and Barons: Solitaire of Bloody 1919. It's subtitle tells you that it is a solitaire and that it is set in the year 1919. (And first part has aliteration in Latvian but not in English).

[@sirmount6654]

Hey Tim, I just love how you made this video, with the motivational music in the background (Which reminds me of the #finishit video). It feels really inspirational and just wants me to get working on my game! Please make more of these kind of videos! It has really helped me and taught me a lot about gamedev. Have a nice day!

[@joshcyr88]

awesome video with a lot of good information! editing is great also I like that little camera trick you did when you pulled it out of the video to talk real quick, good stuff.

[@subnatural5341]

This is how you do subtitles: "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress"

[@byte_wise]

Loving the new opening Tim! And the transitions!

[@timbednarchuk3004]

My game is called Ecotone and it is a 3D side scroller where you fight your way through dungeons but the theme and environment gradually changes every time, Ecotone literally means the intergration between two different eco systems

[@berat8924]

It feels like it has a dark theme. Not as a genre just the colors. Vibrant colors on dark theme

[@TsetTsyung]

Dude, with every video I'm loving your channel more. I humbly feel that I'm still a little far from making money from my games, but this advice is excellent. Many thanks for it.

[@trevorgustavgreen8148]

I noticed that *almost* all puzzle genre games uses custom names, to name a few: Tetris, Puyo Puyo, Lumines, Gunpey, Klax, Luxor, and Meteos. The only game that I know that doesn't follow this supposed naming conventions are: Super Puzzle Fighters, Professor Layton and Dr. Mario

[@UltimatePerfection]

I'm calling my 3d platformer Computer Virus Simulator and you cannot disuade me from that, it's set in stone.

[@troyd9212]

One edit you can make in the title art: Computer Virus "Simulator"

[@BdR76]

It's too generic and definitely not good discoverability and text-searches

[@bobmarl6722]

It's fine for a hobby project, but I wouldn't call a serious project that. It lacks personality and "simulator" is something that is so overused that it's starting to be associated with crappy games (like goat simulator).

[@troyd9212]

Goat simulator is one of my favorite crappy games

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

Bob Marl He’s joking, he’s saying he would give people viruses

[@jessicalee333]

It's not just the number of syllables, it's also how the syllables are stressed (the poetic metre) that determines how it will sound and flow (alternating stress, like STEphen KING, or TOny STARK, your examples, works pretty well). There's a whole field of study of poetry and prosody, about how words work together, but anyone could at least read up on metre to get an overview (or metrical feet, or prosody, or however you want to look it up).

[@miahp1984]

Samus and Link... I don't hate you for that, I love that you make me smile with the little things. great video

[@stephenschuster3555]

Tetris kinda is a number. Tetra means four, which is the number of squares in each tetrimino

[@marscaleb]

Side note: Try to remember that puns are not always jokes. Any play on words can count as a pun. Don't shy away from such wordplay thinking it is "just for jokes." Wordplay is a good way to invoke intrigue or convey an idea. Double meanings work great.

[@adriano.santana]

This was so interesting I've even had to write it planning on studying it later. Thanks a lot.

[@CGandalf90]

Wow, really appreciate the advicing, you actually have helped me a lot to rethink about my game's title, most likely going to start picking a new one, making something interesting.

[@levilockherd-gt5kk]

I always wanted to create a horror game called the Glow and it takes place in a closed up laboratory and you are a security guard watching the place

[@Renikee]

Does "Life OverShadow" sound good?

[@MrCyanGaming]

I mean yeah, "Tetris" is a made up name. but the pieces are called "Tetrominoes"

[@0ia]

That's because Tetra means four.

[@HandleDeleted]

7:33 you just blew my mind!

[@Deretythe]

"Can you tell the genre from looking at the title of the game?" Chrono Trigger's a pretty good fps. "Naming your game after your character can be pretty powerful, just make sure they're not going to die or something's going to happen to them." \*cough*

[@calebmarshall5739]

WolfieMario you do get the chance to revive him even though it's optional

[@erfrid]

Awesome tips! Also make sure the name is not already taken, by googling it and searching a trademark register like uspto.

[@borington4317]

Strange. I was reading some articles about this just yesterday. Anyways, I've grown to despise single-noun titles. I love the new production quality, keep it up!

[@TorQueMoD]

Literally, no one would have noticed the color and lighting change between the cards because you used them to transition in and out and made us forget what everything looked like. You could have changed clothes and maybe 2% of people would have noticed.

[@airlinetransportationtycoo5252]

Here is the reason why we named our game Airline Transportation Tycoon. 1: It's about running an airline business. 2: Your goal is to be transporting pax, cargo or both from point A - Point B. 3: The main goal is about money and that's why we used tycoon as part of the name.

[@imnoonetv5091]

really good editing. well done btw you helped me chose my game name

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

Street (noun) fighter (noun) Angry (adjective) Birds (noun) The Streetfighter one is me being a smart ass. The other is on you, lol

[@LittleBlender]

INDUSTRIA - Steampunk shooter in Scandinavia!

[@troyd9212]

Is this a game you are making? Steampunk is an interesting theme

[@LittleBlender]

Yeah man, were deep in development, release is in about 8 months! Were completely in love with this theme:D Check out website here if your interested! www.bleakmill.com

[@ThrottleKitty]

I ended up deciding on the name "Stranger Eon" for my game! It has a lot of slight variants, like Stranger Eons, Stranger Aeon, etc, so I can change it a bit to avoid copyright if I have to. I think it generally passes all the tests you put up here! I want to call it "Stranger Æon", since it fits better, but I worry an Ash might break searches!

[@hlw2499]

Problem is, if you change the name so slightly to avoid copyright issues, players when searching will certainly mess up if they ear about your game without knowing exactly how to type it, and find the other (copyrighted) game. It won't happen if other copyrighted names aren't games, as they will certainly, if they only find movies or stuff, add "game" or "mmorpg" to the search bar.

[@DustyMusician]

Even though Gnome Man’s Land doesn’t roll off the tongue, No Man’s Land’s historical significance in WWI still makes it impactful as a game title.

[@andynelson323]

Thanks for making this video! It really helped!

[@substract5096]

I want to call my game plaque. It's a weird dark fps. The word has most letters of quake, which is kinda the role model for my game. Some people said it feels dirty and fits the game, but doing a google picture search, well I don't recommend that

[@troyd9212]

Plaque is a GREAT name for a dark and gritty fps

[@ruslansayfullin6194]

Checked my game's name with your sort of check list, thank you for the video.

[@andrewcampbell3554]

"Emergent Hilarity Fantasy Name Generator" - procedural punny character name maker for ProcJam; "Cargotastrophe" - game jam entry about hauling dangerous alien cargo in space; "Ad Aqua Per Astra!" - game jam shoot-em-up played on and above a water planet, it means "To water, through the stars".

[@seanerer]

The video quality has really improved... Your old videos seemed like you might be in the bathroom shooting a quick video while you... lol Keep up the good work.

[@BoogeyMan-fu5yn]

love your videos! When i was going to go sub i noticed how many subs you have and i was surprised! you deserve much more! i named my game stygian (means very dark in latin) because my game is about exploring a land that once was colorful but has fallen to darkess

[@godmode3611]

Fighter or Angry are not verbs, but adjectives in this case. Still, good video! Thanks!

[@danj.haynes7411]

Your videos are getting goooooooooood!!!! Thank you

[@jkingjay9545]

"Final Outcome" 😂

[@Fjuron]

Fuck! Just found out the name "Shifting Realms" has been taken by a kickstarter board game. Guess I'll have to find a new name for my game now... Good thing I just saw this video. :D

[@one_bored_dude1798]

Great video! Appreciate your work here. :)

[@Lugmillord]

Naming is so hard. I have issues naming anything in my game, let alone the game itself. Maybe I'm setting the bar too high. Wanting to give every major character a name that is short, sounds cool, has meaning and isn't used by something else already. Having all four is a big blockade. Well, basically I want to combine all these points you mention at the beginning but hardly anything fits perfectly.

[@franklin2286]

My game is called SCI-EYE. It’s a sci fi action and rpg game.

[@123ox00]

we made a poll and let people choose, the name with more votes was "Cow vs The Pig Empire"

[@Hari-takte]

I was thinking When gods fall... but it doesn't make sense until the second installment. so I'm trying to think of a new name.

[@Kuptain]

I called the game I am developing right now "Blackmarked Desert: Adventure of a Merchant", while the second part could also be removed. What kind of game does it sound like to you? Recently uploaded an early version to Itch.

[@tobschni8818]

It Sounds Like a Game where you trade goods and travel throught a desert to selle them, Button you need to be aware of guards. Gamemechanic: it could be about resouce Management ans how you improve the effectivity of the trade

[@Kuptain]

comes close to the intention I had of making the game. Right now, it is a platformer where you as a merchant have to travel between different ancient cities and find relics and stuff while wandering the desert and exploring ruins. Need to emphasize the whole trading aspect a bit more though.

[@tobschni8818]

KingDanius Sound Like an intresting Game : D

[@Kuptain]

I already have an alpha version uploaded if you want to test it... ^^ kingdanius.itch.io/blackmarked-desert-advantures-of-a-merchant

[@tobschni8818]

KingDanius cool im Happy to give it a try ^^ I tryed it and it is intresting : D I like that there are multiple solutions, wouldn't it make more sence why to enable the end afther every Quest is solved? Ithink a more emotional winn screen could be better

[@devnyorm]

Does 'Yester-Year' work? (It's a post civilization survival game where you have to keep as many party members alive as possible)

[@forild_gaming2157]

Tim, is there a place where to find all the games you made? Great video as usual!

[@diseaseasker]

Does anyone have any name suggestions for a PvP / PvE shooter game with a cottagecore/mushroomcore aesthetic?

[@LeFaucheur]

let's play the guessing game. the name I'm thinking about is "we've got hostiles"

[@VirtualTurtleGames]

sick intro budd!

[@VirtualTurtleGames]

I love the new fast-cut stuff! Just gets the point across and it's all edited very well. Nice

[@HoshoLegacy]

But I love running around the world as Zelda. Then I Down-B and run around the world as Sheik.

[@magnuson909]

I had to pause the video so I can laugh at the Zelda joke, lol. You do know your audience :D

[@E_Fig05]

Almost commented about your Zelda comment, but then heard you say, "It's a joke." Lol.

[@thenosirin2815]

Does battle grids sound ok its a multiplayer shooting game on a procedurally generated tron grid

[@Karozabr]

Great vid! I played "GenerationS Lost" on Sega Mega Drive a lo-o-ong time ago. -)

[@marscaleb]

Anti-Chamber? Wouldn't that actually be a play on antechamber?

[@alianajacobs5703]

I love your channel your so helpful!

[@KnitterX]

1:00 I like how hard you focus on pronouncing the word correctly but still got it wrong. It's "pronunciation", not "pronounciation".

[@troyd9212]

I was working on an multiplayer arena game with ducks in a pond called DuckOff. Never finished it

[@BdR76]

Could have gone with "Ducks of Rage" or "Fowl Play"

[@troyd9212]

Haha Fowl Play is great

[@trumpyfaustings2025]

Tim Ruswick's The Game 3 (III): Resurgence - The Final Chapter, Part B Battle DELUXE... & Knuckles

[@simon7788]

Wow this is very inspirating and interesting video. By the way when you are going to release your game?

[@bobmarl6722]

His game is coming out in ~8 months.

[@trevorcollins435]

I almost had a heart attack when he said you play as Zelda 😂

[@angeloromellopez2078]

Great vid!!!

[@SHINBAXTER]

THE "K" IN MORTAL KOMBAT WAS ITS WHOLE APPEAL XD =)

[@matthewking2158]

You said "The final outcome" ahahahaha junk was funny.

[@MrJuba08]

I was going to use "Game of Heroes" for my roguelike deckbuilding game but I won't :)

[@Mr.Knubbles]

Let's try the bar test here. I've got a mobile game named Easy Bake Idle. What do you think it's about?

[@StephenBarr]

I named my game Neon Trials. Can you tell what it's about from the name?

[@StephenBarr]

You probably can't guess the gameplay but it does give a good idea of what to expect visually and that is probably a good thing too.

[@troyd9212]

Neon is such a good word

[@tobschni8818]

Ist Sound bright and futuristic. But also Interesting

[@Sinci1]

it sounds like some sort of neon game racing game

[@dorkyface]

The image I got was a vibrant racing game, like Trials Fusion or something :)

[@fakelaminated5353]

Wow, Among Us must have a great name.

[@devincory9695]

What do you think about putting your own name in the title? (like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Cid Meyer's Civilization, or Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy)

[@Karozabr]

That would looks like "No-one Nobody's Game". Unless u are famous person. Like at least country-size famous.

[@StygianStyle]

"john ruh"

[@NikolaVeselinovic_]

Ok so my friend is doing a game shere he has lost souls of under world fighting with a modern samurai samurai is teenager can someone say a name of it like made it

[@thenoseguy]

Soul Sealin' Samurai

[@Osarion]

Nice video. I always find it very difficult to find a name that doesn't already exist in some other form. Like a book title, music band or movie. I would like to know more about what the rules are for copyright infringement in those cases... For example: publisher "King" sued "Stoic entertainment" for using the word "Saga" in their game title "The Banner Saga". But on the other hand: The name "Lord of War" is both used in an IOS game and movie title. The name "Oblivion" is both used in a game and a movie. The only difference being that "oblivion" was used as a sub title of "Elder scrolls". The same goes for Assasins creed - Unity. Where most people know "Unity" as a game engine. I think most people want to avoid legal troubles or changing their name after releasing.

[@hlw2499]

While it is very likely to happen that you'll get sued. This is just how it is, companies with money that hire poeple to protect their mark are really likely to sue everyone for no reasons, after all, they're paying someone every month. They'll loose a lot, but they hope they'll win a few and sell you the name under license, for a price based off your incomes (i guess). When your are a music composer, you sometimes get sued even if your music has nothing in common with their's, they kinda hope you'll give up.

[@skellreeper354E]

rage - the ascending

[@TitlePending]

Great vid, really insightful. 11:15 Testing Names Thank you 👊 However, 3:41 for registered trademark purposes, it does make sense.

[@jonathancamarena3117]

hey my dude great vid. What do you use for webhosting?

[@aqua4100]

Mine is frozen cards Frozen just because I like ice Cards its a card game

[@wormius51]

I just googled that, "Let it go. Let it go..."

[@R462venom]

You look happier :)

[@MadMikeAU]

What steps should one take, if any, to protect a game's name?

[@GroundbreakGames]

Current working title "Age of Omens"

[@jayd1os400]

Currently i am calling my game Project Woods the reason that i am calling it Woods is because i want my game to be about a person who lives out in a forest very relaxed sound interesting?

[@NaudVanDalen]

3:35 Mortal Kombat

[@troyd9212]

ChromaGear. It flows alright to me