Dare to Play!

Game titles, animal names, building names, character names...

This weeks seems to be all about naming things. And boy is it HARD! You might think that we find a book to base the game on and then name it the same thing, but often times, the book hardly has anything to do with the game! So then what do we do?

Just make up a name and use it!

Well, it's not quite that easy... Here are a couple of things we need to think about when we name a game:

1) Does the title have elements of the game in it? For instance, "Secret of the Old Clock" - you expect to see clocks in the game, really old clocks at that!

2) Is the title 30 characters? We only have so much space on the box and any more than that is really a mouthful! Can you imagine "Mystery of the Flying Shoe at Beardshine Mansion" as a title???

3) Does the title reflect the atmosphere of the game? "Clues" and "Cases" and "Capers" tend to be more lighthearted myteries, but watch out for "curses" and "danger" - those tend to be a little scarier. "The Crystal Skull Caper" is a horrible title for "Legend of the Crystal Skull."

4) Is there alliteration in the title? That means we like to repeat the same sound or letter multiple times so it kind of rolls off your tongue. "Message ... Mansion", "Danger... Deception/Design" and "Creature... Cave" are all good examples.

5) Is it understandable to our audience? This means we can't use complicated SAT words, obscure references, or languages no one would understand. "Enigma of the iellato Aranceri" - good luck trying to figure that one out...

6) Have we used these words before? "Secret of the XXX" is getting kind of boring personally.

7) And finally, does the title sound like a good Nancy Drew mystery? "Case of the Crowded Classroom" - isn't a very interesting subject. Now, "The Phantom of Venice" - that sounds exciting!