I've been working on a project off and on for a while now and it's getting close to a point where I could release a demo, but then realized something important. It's still lacking a title. I tossed ideas around for a couple days but couldn't come up with anything that really fits or sounds interesting, so I figured I'd take the next logical step; Ask strangers on the internet.

How do you all go about deciding on titles?
When do you normally come up with one for your project?
What do you think makes a good title in the first place?
Also, simply out of curiousity, if you've already released a complete RM game, how many alternate title ideas did you have for it?

How do you all go about deciding on titles?
Usually the title is related to something in the game for me. Auralithe Saga => Auralithes are a focus of the story.

When do you normally come up with one for your project?
After working on the initial plot and feature list.

What do you think makes a good title in the first place?
Good? I don't know. But just don't make it sound stupid and it should really be fine. Honestly, I don't think game titles are all that important as long as they don't detract from the game itself (which seems like a challenge in of itself).

Also, simply out of curiousity, if you've already released a complete RM game, how many alternate title ideas did you have for it?
The Seven Sages didn't have any alternate titles (well, maybe at one point we used "The Legend of" as a prefix) but Starlite Worlds had a few. Codename was Mario XP before we thought of a title, and we went through several word-play and puns before deciding on Starlite Worlds.

My game is called Fire Emblem: Shattered Phoenix. It's going to be a three part series called the Phoenix Saga, every game in the series will have Phoenix in its name, and each has its own theme.

Shattered Phoenix
Forbidden Phoenix
Dark Phoenix (No X-Men jokes please )

In Shattered Phoenix, the game revolves around the theme of rebirth, change in people, racism, and many other interesting topics. The main "villain" of the game himself is neither entirely evil, nor entirely good. I will make it up to the player to decide in the endgame, even after they kill him, if he was truly a bad man. In total, he changes his personality, his physical features, his attitude, and his outlook on life a total of 5 times.

In Forbidden Phoenix, the man from SP has an apprentice who learns of a cursed form of dark magic that allows one to time travel. (Hence the Forbidden) In a Terminator esque kind of way, he goes back in time to kill the main protagonists parents and then slaughter the children. Time travel is a fascinating mechanic, and I have many ways of using it. I will likely end up using a flexible format, where some things are set in stone, but other things are not.

In Dark Phoenix, due to certain events taking place in the second game, we now shift back to the future, where a dark cloud of malice has shadowed the land. After the main villain of Shattered Phoenix is killed, and his apprentice goes back in time, we shift to real time after the apprentice has traveled, and we see James and Jessica as being much older, maybe in their late 20's, and they are alive somehow, but due to the use of such a forbidden magic, something evil has clouded the future.

Game three is the one I've focused on the least, but in any case, it'll all make sense in the long run. Perhaps now you understand how I make game titles? Plus, honestly, I just think Phoenix is a cool word.

PM me a little bit of your game details and I'll help you out with a title if you need it.

I don't know quite how to tell you to come up with a title, because frankly I just wait until a title pops into my head that sounds right. If nothing sounds right quite yet, don't make one up just to have a title. There's no shame in your game not having a title while it's still in development. If more than one person is working on your game it may be nice to have a working title, but don't stick to anything you're not happy with. If you don't like the working title you have, change it once every two weeks and see how the new title makes you feel about the project. My VX game had a title I was COMPLETELY satisfied with within a month, but a book I wrote a while back didn't have a title until it was 3/4ths done.

As for what makes titles good, in my opinion it needs to be short, catchy, and needs to summarize what the conflict is about. The best title of all time is "Legally Blonde". Not the best movie ever, just the best title. What's so great about it is that it is:
1. Short
2. Catchy. Admit it. You don't have to say you like the movie, but the title is fun to say.
3. Sets up the conflict: How can someone be a lawyer AND a stupid blonde? You don't know how that's possible and as such become inclined to watch the movie and find out.

Here are some great game titles that fit the three guidelines I go by above (just the titles. I'm not necessarily in love with all of the games)
Fable, Portal, Halo, Black and White, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean, Fallout, and Overlord are some examples. Note that most of them are one word, but I think that's just my personal preference.

You could also go the route of naming the title after an object unique to your game (Mass Effect, Fire Emblem, Dragonball, etc), but I think it's more intriguing when a title can be related to without pre-existing knowledge of the game. "Halo" managed to fit into both categories.

Lastly (wow, I write long posts. I guess it's because of how pretentious I am) there's only really two things I would make sure to avoid when coming up with a title.
1) The title being too long: The Arkhimuria Chronicles: A Song of Death and Redemption. If I have to work my ass off to read your title, I'm not going to play the game.
2) The title not making sense: Infinite Undiscovery. Yeah, it sounds cool, but... what?

Ultimately though, the title isn't going to affect the overall quality of your game. Halo is a better title than Bioshock (They should have called it Rapture!), but Bioshock is still WAY better.

(BTW, my RMVX project isn't complete, but it's called "After", and it's the only title I've needed. I fell in love with it instantly because it sets up the conflict so well: "After" what?)

How do you all go about deciding on titles?
Usually I find a plot, and my plots are usually based from other literary work, or other Epics.
I also based my story on problems that are happening in the world today. Then I look at the plot of the story and find a name that has a deeper meaning within itself and tie them together.

For example if I make a story based off of the wars in the Middle-East, and America's involvement with it. I would call it something like,
"God Complex"
"Contact East"
"Obsidian Blood" or eventually "Obsidian" (Oil is black and others with Black Hearts fight for it)
"Onyx Springs"



When do you normally come up with one for your project?

It just hit me at many points

What do you think makes a good title in the first place?

Usually things that have a deep meaning where they have two different things tying into the story with a deep meaning.

Also, simply out of curiousity, if you've already released a complete RM game, how many alternate title ideas did you have for it?

I can answer this when I finish a game, lol.

Before I start working on the actual prep part of the game, I want to come up with the title of the project before I do anything else, considering a title could be the difference maker in if somebody is going to play your game or not. I usually try and come up with something catchy, easy to pronounce, and has something to do with the game as a whole.

For example, 'Sugar' is related to the main character, sounds catchy and easy to pronounce for a puzzle game, and the entire game has the player catching Sugar Cubes and different cooking ingredients, so it sounded fine.

I think it's a good idea to come up with the title before you do anything, but some people wait until a certain point, usually I can't do that, but oh well.