names! names! what's my name again?

[papillon]

So. Name brainstorming. Looking for titles for the mystery-adventure game I'm sort of working with at the moment (though I may be forced to give it up). Having a good name helps keep you focused.

To be a good name, it should -

1. Not return a lot of hits in a search engine. If this becomes my game's name, I want people searching to find the game easily. If there are tons of hits and websites by that name and so on, it won't work.

2. Not be hard to spell. Artistically misspelled words mean that the user who's just heard about the game will get it wrong and be unable to find it. Really tricky words, well, some users are stupid and will again be unable to find it.

3. Be slightly odd - since this is an anime audience, a title that sounds like it was invented by an Engrish-speaker is a good thing. But not TOO odd.

4. Have a spooky atmosphere. This is an occult mystery story after all. Happy Sparkly Angel Flowers not appropriate.

So far I've been running paragraphs through babelfish trying to get it to come up with something weird. The titles I have so far are:

Wolves of Operation
Vampire Fifteen
Parasite of Savage
Attendant Midnight

None are terrible but none really grab me either.

(Standard disclaimer - please be aware that suggestions made MAY or MAY NOT be used as the title of a commercial product. Credit will be given, cash will not be. )

[ozurr]

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

Here's a link to some Lovecraft stories. If They don't provide inspiration for a title, they'll definately be a good read for those who haven't read them.

[Quin]

4. Have a spooky atmosphere. This is an occult mystery story after all. Happy Sparkly Angel Flowers not appropriate.

In that case, how about Somber Rusty Devil Weeds? ^_^

[PyTom]

I'd suggest that it's a little hard to think of a name without knowing what sort of occult is in it. I mean, there is a lot of room when it comes to the occult.

There are vampires ("Her First Taste of Blood"), werewolves ( "Sara Needs a Shave"), zombies ("Love Never Dies"), witches ( "Summoner Schoolgirls" ), and so on. Without knowing what sort of occult you're going fore, you're stuck with fairly generic dark sounding names ( "In Eternal Eclipse" ).

Even if we do know, some of us are going to have trouble giving only serious names.

[ozurr]

Mists of ShadowFang Forrest
Shadows Over Crimson Castle
A Darkness at Wolf Haven
The Legions of West Crag
The Tower of Zhurion
The Temple at Severin Lake
The Mystery of Butter Mansion.
The Fellowship of the Cresent Roll.
The Lurking Evil of Dunns Keep.
Quest for the Soul Keeper
...
I haven't checked these against google, just made them up.

[papillon]

That's okay, I *like* silly. And completely silly stuff could spark an idea in my mind.

At this exact moment my favorite is 'Attend Midnight' (dropping the 'ant' to be easier for people to type) but my mind worries that this could be considered too close to fate/stay night. And, well, it doesn't really mean anything.

As for 'what kind of occult' - ALL OF IT! Well, no zombies. I don't find zombies very sexy. Semi-seriously, though, I haven't finished writing the entire plot, and what I do know of it I don't want to reveal beforehand, since some people would be less interested in the game if told up front "It's about meeting a boy who turns out to be the SON OF SATAN. With the cutest little horns." instead of being able to uncover the mystery themselves.

Dreams, destiny, evil magic, teenage drug gangs, shameful lesbian incest... it could all be there somewhere.


ozurr - Those sound more like D&D modules than Engrish titles.

[monele]

"Sara Needs a Shave"

XD. Now that's an interesting title ! It better be the parody kind though

[rioka]

How about throwing Phantom in there somewhere? Or better yet, go look at some Castlevania images and I'm sure something will pop up. (Dawn of Souls is the new Castlevania title - sounds pretty neat)

[papillon]

Hrm.... Not too many SE hits for 'Eclipse Phantom'....

[musical74]

I agree that *phantom* works well since it's an occult-based game....ummmm....but....Eclipse Phantom? ummmm....Would that mean she'd be able to fly thru walls and chase people who insist on calling themselves real men?

*Phantom of the Dawn*
*Summer of Blood* - maybe this one's too creepy a title?

[rioka]

-Reign of the Phantom or Phantom's Reign
-Tears of Blood
-Blood Mourn
-Tales of the Damned
-Soul of the Damned
-Cursed Dawn
-Raging Styx

.... Hmmm, anything jumping at you?

[mikey]

I'll try the "Engrish" approach...

-Melody Of Crimson
-Moon Moon Spirit
-To Dark

Or the German... anything with
-nacht, -mond, -finster, -duester, -liebe, - and the like. It's also very possible to have a German version of "Engrish", the titles Elfen Lied or Weiss Kreuz come to mind.

Anyway, when all else fails - here's the all time favorite... Legend of Darkness ^_^

[Taleweaver]

Beyond Eternity
Crimson Midnight
Fading Dawn

Just a few ideas.

[monele]

Let's try with a bit of french...

Soul Ténébreuse
Sanguine Illusion
Pétale de Lune
Shivers d'autrefois

[papillon]

I love French, but it requires too much spelling skill for some of my typical customers.

Just to show how MY crazy mind works, I took "Somber Rusty Devil Weeds" and thought "Hmm... Rust... Rust is good, it's full of decay and red blood colors and stuff..." and then ran 'rust' into the japanese-english dictionary server to get 'sabi', then ran THAT as a syllable to see what other words in Japanese would sound similar... leading me to 'sabishii'... all of which gives us a potential title of:


Solitary Rust
~ sabishii ~


Which at least sounds like it could be an OVA title, doesn't it? Don't know if I'll keep it, but it's got an interesting flavor.