I’m at that point again where I need to come up with a name for my next game project.
For some reason I always have a lot of trouble coming up with the perfect name and I agonize over it for days lol.
I’mI was wondering what techniques other people use to name their games. Looking up random words in other languages? Pulling from mythology? Making up random words and names completley unrelated to anything?
It depends on the genre of your game, but personally I am always trying to avoid most common titles and try to come up with something specific for my game
It depends on what kind of game it is. You should come up with a title for the game that sort of gives it’s own personality and reflects what it is an originality. Personally I actually do the first two things: Random words in Japanese and look up Mythology in ways that might reflect my MC (main character). If I can’t find anything I try to implicitly describe what the game is about or its main objective in the title and have fun with it.
I’m a big fan of “Doug.”
I like the idea of finding mythological characters that have aspects in common with your main character.
I enjoy taking the 5-year-old approach with naming my games: ‘What is it?’
My current project is about a Hero, who is on a journey. Thus, the game is The Hero’s Journey. Simple.
If I’m ever stuck, I turn to pseudorandom algorithms like this one to help inspire me:
And I thought you were just a huge Joseph Campbell fan…
Don’t get me wrong, he’s got some strong work out there…but, nah, I don’t (deliberately) name works after literary patterns.
Yeah that’s basically how I ended up handling my first 2 games. Thus I get names like “The Wandering Wizard” lol. I feel like with less generic names though you get a bit more of a unique IP thing going on which makes you more visible in searches and what not.
At the same time a generic name might be easier to remember than some hard to spell made up word.
The name of a project can make all the difference. I like ‘the wandering wizard’ as a name, it says a lot. It gives information. ‘The hero’s journey’ is another that says something. There are different approaches. Words are ‘meaning bearers’ and often are underestimated. New single or dual words can say a lot. I just created a program called ‘The Metagrid’ . It’s a term I completely invented yet it conveys a lot of meaning. Another useful thing about creating your own words is that the .com domain name is usually available.
Yes the likely uniqueness of made up words is a huge advantage. For example when I picked The Wandering Wizard it was pretty good because no other games had the same name but a Google search revealed a book, some random blog, and a few other random things. If I had gone with something crazy like Gremgor the Mage (just off the top of my head) there would probably be less conflicting results.
I spend more time thinking about what to name my variables than actually doing anything. Dont get me started on naming AN ENTIRE GAME.
I try to avoid putting too much effort in it. Works for me atleast 
I’ve kept myself satisfied with that approach and I usually end up with better names then when I’ve been trying to brainstorm any awesome names.
Else I’ld recommend Writing down a whole bunch of Words that come to your mind when you Think of your game and see if any of those Words are possible to use or combine somehow, but I suppose that’s a quite common method.
(Sorry for random large letters, for some reason this Quick-reply window decided to add them and I got tired of rewriting over and over again…)
I named my smuggler in SWTOR ‘Kruhnch’, because the first title you get as a smuggler is Captain. C wut I did thur? 
I honestly don’t worry about; the name usually comes to you down the road.
What about this here? 
The Video Game Name Generator
@The SniperFan, Ingenious but most of the names just seem irrelevant, like… ‘Adventures of the Nudist Invasion’. 
Here are the first 100 most used words in the English Language…
the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, I, at, be, this, have, from, or, one, had, by, word, but, not, what, all, were, we, when, your, can, said, there, use, an, each, which, she, do, how, their, if, will, up, there, about, out, many, then, them, these, so, some, her, would, make, like, him, into, time, has, look, two, more, write, go, see, number, no, way, could, people, my, than, first, water, been, call, who, oil, its, now, find, long, down, day, did, get, come, made, may, part.
i just go nuts on thesaurus.com, using the basic premisses of my game. Characters, enviroments, mechanics, u will find great stuff.
Look at the qualities of the game, what it’s about, and the main aspect or the feel your aiming for. Then come up with something witty or just something that plainly describes your game in up to 3 letters.