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I'm getting my first game pretty close to being at a point to start locking down features on it, and one of those features is its name. Currently, I am designing it under the name "Rust", but I am painfully aware that this is doubtless already out there in some form or another, and I am considering whether I would be better to pick a less monosyllabic title which is less likely to be in existence already, like "The Rust Wastes" or something. That said, I do like the idea of it simply being called "Rust", and I can't find another board game currently under that title.

What naming conventions do you all use for your games? do you go down the "Astra Copywritum" route of GW, or do you just go for what suits the game best?

Although I still like the name I gave my latest release - Zero Dark, if you weren't paying attention - I do kind of wish I'd gone with something more SEOable.

But you don't have to go "full GW" to get good names. The trick is to get a unique (or at least unusual) combination of words. "Horizon Wars" does pretty well on a search engine. So does "Infinity the Game".

Rust 2145 (for a scifi game)
Rust 1807 (for a historical game)
Rust Warfare
Rust Warriors
Lords of Rust

Etc.

 precinctomega wrote:
Although I still like the name I gave my latest release - Zero Dark, if you weren't paying attention - I do kind of wish I'd gone with something more SEOable.

But you don't have to go "full GW" to get good names. The trick is to get a unique (or at least unusual) combination of words. "Horizon Wars" does pretty well on a search engine. So does "Infinity the Game".

Rust 2145 (for a scifi game)
Rust 1807 (for a historical game)
Rust Warfare
Rust Warriors
Lords of Rust

Etc.

That's good advice - just "Rust" will not head up any search engines. I will have to consider the plot behind it (which is still very loose) to decide on the final name, methinks.

Thanks!

 precinctomega wrote:

Rust Warfare

This one will no doubt get you sued by Paolo Parente with the similarly named Dust Warfare

Yeah, you really need to make it more than one syllable.

On the other hand, I called my game Men of Bronze, and there was all ready a book about the same topic with that title, and a movie about the Harlem Hellfighters with that name.

That said, it hasn't really impacted it too much.

That's a good question...mine have both been of rather silly origin. One is 19 years old and was something dumb I came up with in college ---- but now I've decided to keep it in honor of the time it took me to build the game. My other one was a silly "temporary" project name that stuck...

If I had to design a serious name, that's definitely an entirely different conversation!

Came up with another board game bidea, and was contemplating calling it "It's Alive!", only to find that such a game (predictably) exists. Sounds like a completely different game, though, so I'm still going to flesh out my idea!

I may also buy "It's Alive!", as it sounds like a fun game!