How Game Titles Work A talk by Leonard Richardson (he/him, www.crummy.com) How Game Titles Work A talk by Leonard Richardson (he/him, www.crummy.com) How Game Titles Work A talk by Leonard Richardson (he/him, www.crummy.com) Form Warning

● There’s a lot of text on these slides. ● I won’t read it all -- you don’t have to, either. ● It’s mostly game names: examples of whatever rule I’m talking about. ● I’ll be publishing these slides so you can come back later. ● Oh, and I’m only covering the English names of games.

How I Got Into This "Mallory" (2008): Six fictional games

● Mutant’s Revenge ● Renegade (OOPS, THIS WAS A REAL GAME TITLE) ● Folded Time ● Folded Space ● Bad Town Misfits ● Glaivar

How I Got Into This Constellation Games (2011): Thirty-three fictional games! ● Brilhantes Poneis ● Lost Empires: Inca ● Fondant Fury ● Caveman Chaos ● Proty's Big Escape ● Micro Mike ● City, in Darkness ● Bit Boy (became a real game while ● Squirtd! ● Dragon's Dice I was writing) ● Outsourced Tech Support ● Blizzard Lizard ● Quexx ● Mestre Bolo ● Starfarer ● Temple Sphere ● Big Time Mechanic ● Weapon Eternal ● Sun/Voice 2 ● Big Time Zookeeper ● Mutant's Revenge ● Recoil ● Anasazi ● Smarty Pets: Pony ● Give 'em Hell ● Tangent Go Thru Stable Extra ● Limited Nuclear ● Dana Light Is: ● Exchange Frosting Frenzy Unauthorized ● Dress Shop ● Super Slide Dance ● Constellation: Disputed ● Challenge Knitja Space How I Got Into This Constellation Games (2011): Thirty-five fictional games made by space aliens!

● Gatekeeper ● A Tower of Sand ● Handle the Real Style ● Grow ● Sayable Spice ● The Long Way Around ● Dangerously Unbalanced Boat ● * ● Kryrtur ● The Rest at the End of a Long Journey ● Solox ● Not Everything Is Real ● Enjoyable Reactor ● Your Quiescent Achievement ● Prophecy From Space ● The Big Map That's Easy To Understand ● Sea Level ● Enjoyable Craft ● Bad Things in the Water ● What-The-F*** Creek ● Legend of the Bystander ● The Amulet of Manufactured Memory ● Double Attack ● Smelter Losers ● Recapture that Remarkable Taste ● To Cover The Forest Forever ● G'go Investigation: When You Gotta Die ● City Defense ● Ev luie Aka's Ultimate DIY Lift-Off ● Occluded Occlusion ● Gourmand's Delight ● (Untitled) ● Gewnoy Multislam ● G'go Station: Beseiged in Space ● Rolling Weight: Failure To Protect The Innocent What work do game titles do?

Communicate the experience of playing the game Stand in for Advertise/sell the game as the game a whole

Reflect the culture that created the game

Real games Fictional games What work do game titles do?

Communicate the experience of playing the game Stand in for Advertise/sell the game as the game a whole

Reflect the culture that created the game

Real games Fictional games The Easy Period (1950s-)

● Noughts and Crosses (1952) ● Draughts (1952) ● Tennis for Two/Computer Tennis (1958) ● (1971) ● (1972): Table Tennis, Ski, Simon Says, Tennis, Hockey, Football, Haunted House, Submarine, Roulette, Baseball, Volleyball, Soccer, Handball, Shooting Gallery, Basketball ● Watergate Caper (1973) ● (1976): Hockey, Tennis, Tic-Tac-Toe, Video Blackjack, Drag Race, Maze, Backgammon, Baseball, Pinball Challenge, Hangman, Checkers, Bowling, Slot Machine, Pro Football, Casino Poker

A problem swiftly reveals itself

● Baseball (1971, PDP-10)

● Baseball (1972, Odyssey)

● Baseball (1977, RCA Studio II)

● Baseball (1977, Fairchild Channel F)

● Baseball! (1978, Odyssey²)

● Atari Baseball (1979, Arcade)

● Baseball (1980, )

● Computer Baseball (1983, 8-bit PC)

● Baseball (1983, NES) The Art/Commerce Dichotomy (-present) Computer games are works of art, so they should be named like works of art.

"Pac-Mondrian" (2002, Prize Budget For Boys) The Art/Commerce Dichotomy (1980s-present) Computer games are sold the way laundry detergent is sold, so they should be named like laundry detergents.

Credit: The Caldor Rainbow The "what it’s like" Strategy Describe the inside of the feedback loop

Feedback loop Display

You, the player

Game state The "what it’s like" Strategy Describe the inside of the feedback loop

Feedback loop Display

You, the player

Second person Game state

Present tense Synecdoche

● Home Run (1978) ● MLB Pennant Race (1996) ● Ball Park (1979) ● All-Star Baseball (1997) ● World Series Baseball ● Mike Piazza's Strike Zone (1983) (1998) ● Hardball! (1985) ● Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Slugfest (1999) ● RBI Baseball (1988) ● Out of the Park Baseball (1999) ● Bases Loaded (1988) ● ● Extra Innings (1991) Season Ticket Baseball (2001) ● ● Super Batter Up (1992) Home Run King (2002) ● Relief Pitcher (1994) ● Big League Slugger Baseball ● Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run (2003) (1996) ● MLB Dugout Heroes (2009) ● Triple Play 97 (1996) (Around 2009, franchises take over entirely.) Games named like 19th-century novels "This is the story of..." "In this game, you are..." ● Jane Eyre ● Duke Nukem ● Barchester Towers ● Ms. Pac-Man ● Jude the Obscure ● Commander Keen ● Dracula ● Mega Man ● The Mayor of Casterbridge ● Max Payne ● Frankenstein ● ● Nicholas Nickleby ● ● The Three Musketeers ● ● Emma ● Noby Noby Boy ● Alan Wake ● Games named after your in-game job

● Paperboy ● ● Sokoban ● ● ● Tapper Pirates! ● ● NARC Street Fighter ● Zoo Keeper ● Ice Climber ● ● Wing Commander ● Wrecking Crew ● Firewatch ● Missile Command ● Moon Patrol ● Earth Defense Force ● ● Karateka ● Prison Architect "Tech demo" names

● Platform ( Sports, Super Mario 64) ● Hardware (Super Glove Ball, Sonic CD) ● Software (Virtual Fighter, Wolfenstein 3D) ● Game mechanic (Portal, World of Goo, Crayon Physics)

Make it trademarkable

● Alliteration (, Candy Crush, Boom Blox, Final Fight) ● Portmanteau (Castlevania, BioShock, Minecraft, Octodad, Gravitar) ● Variants (Spelunky, Terraria, Populous, Tetris) ● Misspellings (Mortal Kombat, Petz, Toobin’) ● Scrabble high score (, Q*Bert, , Zzyzzyxx)

The "set the mood" Strategy Describe the attitude of the piece as a whole

Display

You, the player

Game state Genre games named like genre novels

● Oubliette (1977) ● The Bard’s Tale (1985) ● Dunjonquest: The Datestones of ● (1986) Ryn (1979) ● Book I & II ● Temple of Apshai (1979) ● (1994) ● : Proving Grounds of the ● (2007) Mad Overlord (1981) ● Dungeons of Daggorath (1982) ● Dragon’s Lair (1983) ● The Tower of Druaga (1984) ● Pool of Radiance (1988) ● Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990)

Games named after something other than "you" ● Antagonist − Metroid, Centipede, Diablo, Donkey Kong

● Weapon/Tool/Worldbuilding − , Ocarina of Time, Pokémon, Soul Calibur, Metal Gear, Metal Slug, Mass Effect, Death Stranding

● Setting − Super Mario Galaxy, Sunless Sea, Kentucky Route Zero, The Oregon Trail, Silent Hill, Angband, Tropico, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Darkest Dungeon, Thimbleweed Park, Celeste

Games named after your in-game job...... but the job is unusual ...or it’s not really a "job"

● Rogue ● ● Parappa the Rapper ● The Witness ● Hunt the Wumpus ● Don’t Starve ● Noita ● Infidel ● Slay the Spire ● Flappy Bird ● Hypnospace Outlaw ● Moonlighter ● You Have To Burn The ● Escape Goat Rope ● You Are Jeff Bezos ● Destroy All Humans! The final taboo: Breaking "second person, present tense"

● This War of Mine ● Gone Home ● Emily Is Away ● Thomas Was Alone ● What Remains of Edith ● She Remembered Caterpillars Finch ● We Were Here ● I Wanna Be The Guy ● Don’t Starve ● Papers, Please ● They Are Billions ● No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! People are creative and don’t follow rules! But you might regret breaking the rules M.U.L.E. (Bunton, 1983) Sim Earth (Wright, 1990) Spacewar! (Russell et al., 1962)

Credit: Joi Ito Spacewar!!

Leonard: "Why does Spacewar! have an exclamation mark in its name?"

Steve Russell: "Once I got it working, I thought it deserved an exclamation point!"

Leonard: "Did you consider any other names for the game?"

Steve Russell: "Nope." Leisure Suit Larry (Lowe, 1987) Baba Is You (Teikari, 2019) Present tense

Second person

Am I Overthinking This?

"The original title, when I was pitching it, was Deeds of the Dead. The Last Siesta was one [working title]. Dirt Nap I think was in there somewhere..." "And then I finally came up with the name and was like, 'I'm so smart! This is the best name ever!' I remember I ran out of my office and I told someone... [a]nd they were like 'That's terrible. You'll never sell a game called Grim Fandango. What does that even mean?'" -- Tim Schafer in 2015 This seems like a reasonable amount of work to put into naming a thing you worked on for years

Silly, almost punny title, "The original title, when I was pitching it, was like a TV show episode Deeds of the Dead. The Last Siesta was one [working title]. Dirt Nap I think was in there somewhere..." Sardonic titles, "And then I finally came up with the name and was like, 'I'm so smart! This is the best based on noir name ever!' I remember I ran out of my cliches office and I told someone... [a]nd they were Grim connotes sadness and like 'That's terrible. You'll never sell a game death ("Grim Reaper") called Grim Fandango. What does that even mean?'" Fandango connotes joy and liveliness

Joining them creates a frisson that captures the mood of the game, without referring to any specific game element. Thank you for your time!

My website: www.crummy.com

Mastodon: botsin.space/@leonardr

My thanks to the MobyGames API for lists of titles, and to game designers and developers everywhere.