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Game Company names man.....we are STUCK

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Kelde, Aug 24, 2013.

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  1. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Hello!

    Me and my dev in crime has decided we quit our dayjobs now after years of beeing tortured by the fact that we would much rather sit at home working on what we love, games.

    Our goal was PC, but after some research we decided we want to develop for android, later ios. Now...to do this...we need a company, and that in itself is another challenge ill have to deal with.

    I live in Norway and the company will be funded here, the programmer lives in France, and he is fine with this. Part reason is we have some indiegame funding organizations here now that i have been in touch with that seems to be willing to back us up for up to 2-3 years while we work on our games. In france we couldnt find any that were easy to get to, but we ar eboth fine with this decision.

    So,with all the things that running a company requires, we have met a ROCKSOLID wall we cant cross.....company name.

    We have been through it all basicly by now....but we would like a name that reflects our games, wich all share 2 simularities;

    They are all carefully handpainted to try to stand out on the market (wich is vector dominated it seems)
    They are all very hard and offer some very precision based gameplay,timing and reaction.

    If any....ANY of u please could come up with some cool names for us, id be seriously happy...we are now several days into deciding this,and i just wanna get it out of my head and start painting graphics.


    Heres how the graphics will look in all our games (the quality).
    http://artbyelde.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/grapplemage-worldmap-wip/

    and if u were to lazy to click a link, heres a ingame image:
    $grapplemage-forest-mock.png

    If u are wondering anyting about us or something else that might help us determine the name, please ask me!

    thanks u for hopfully saving our skins so we can sleep better at night!
     
    URPian likes this.
  2. dxcam1

    dxcam1

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    Just avoid use of the word studios and you should be fine.
     
  3. Acumen

    Acumen

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    man, I'm in tears that someone with your UBERskillset is outsourcing something sooo important and exciting as a company name to a bunch of strangers on the internet.
    pleeeeease take it back or at least post your own 2-3 favorite names that YOU guys came up with, so it's more of a poll instead of totally out of the blue suggestions that can be nothing but unpersonal, cheesy or non-fitting in general.
    I don't wanna see this awesome project being branded by us, but only cheered and supporte by !
     
  4. Woodlauncher

    Woodlauncher

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    There is your name, already uppercase and everything.

    Rocksolid.
     
    marshallblom likes this.
  5. Demigiant

    Demigiant

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    What Acumen said :) Also, you might want to ignore the way you do games, to find your company's name. What if in the future you change your mind and want to do pixelart strategy games?

    That said, when someone asks for names I can't resist giving them, even if I think that it should be your choice and that the subject is wrong :D So here is a few, based on what you asked (or on a some metaphor/inversion), even if they will be all wrong because I don't really know you or your games:
    Focusbit
    Hardcanvas
    Deelit
    Critical Drop
    Nogames
     
  6. Kelde

    Kelde

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    lol Acumen im SORRY but yes...it has come down to this! we are 2 people and everything i think was cool, he hated,and vice versa!:p

    I liked some names that combines our games as hard and beautiful as someone pointed to me,like

    the beauty/hard ones

    RockFlower
    PointyLeafs
    SteelCloud
    RageFlower
    RageBloom

    theres more but u get the picture

    then we have some other ones that describes our lifes while doing this aswell as our speed(we are very fast at doing our jobs)

    ZeroEffort
    NoSleep
    RushMode
    CTRL-S (unity froze alot so we lost progress OFTEN)
    ScrewBit
    1HPLeft

    and then the stupid ones like:
    ParrotCat (we both had these 2 pets)
    HamsterFish (i just wanted to paint a retarded logo...)
    CodeCloud
    HammerCake

    bah dont wanna do this anymore!:D

    so yeah there u go, not even my close ones who know he has any ideas, as im the only guy in this region of norway doing this...i like some up there, but imstill waiting for that one "YES THERE IT IS!!!" one,so i can sleep better!
     
  7. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Hehe well yeah, but ill stick to handpainted, since im no pixelart guy and i suck at it! this post is more of a shot in the dark, u never know. Sure we can make good looking games, but names....we are both very bad at them. And i swear...if someone comes up with one we both dig....ur name is going in the games somewhere, this is promise...!

    HardCanvas is not bad man, and Focusbit has a nice ring to it...and they both describe enough. Listen, look at other studio names...Capybara?? its a giant rodent they just didnt think was the worst name, but also not the best. so this is what can happen, they settle for something they didnt want to win, but also isnt the worst:p and i totally understand them, because u are making ur baby here with more ppl, so something has to stick eventually.

    Im not proud of doing this, but right now after 2 evenings of trying to find one using thesaurus.com and wikis...i need to let someone else try!
     
  8. chelnok

    chelnok

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    Yeah.. Rocksolid Games? Rocksolid Flower, Rocksolid Bloom, Rocksolid Cake ..i like Woodlaunchers Rocksolid Idea :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2013
  9. Kelde

    Kelde

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    sounds so cool it has to be taken....
     
  10. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    It's a great idea to google if your company name exists or not. In the case of rock solid, it does.

    What you need to realise is the name is not important. Bungee is a crap name. It really is. If they made match 3 games you honestly wouldn't think it was cool. But they didn't. They made Halo. They made Destiny. They're cool.

    You could call yourselves TurdStick and if you made the next amazing mmo then everyone would think TS was great. So your name needs to be something that energises you, the founder. Something meaningful to you. The rest will happen or not happen.

    Oh yeah, avoid Studios.
     
  11. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Rocksolid is taken by tons of companies just by a quick googler...so if it sounds aweosme, its taken, most likely.

    maybe i should make a poll with Adrien, narrow it down to 3 or soemthing...because we have both been through hundreds, like most starting companies. Kotaku has alot of articles and interviews with developers having SERIOUS troubles finding names,some fun reads for sure!
     
  12. Pelajesh

    Pelajesh

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    lol too late to say that rocksolid was taken
     
  13. Kelde

    Kelde

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    hahaha thanks, yeah that shed some light on this situation for sure, good points.

    And yes, Studios avoided.

    are "games" and "creations" still ok tho? or is it better to use one word and avoid them all togheter. We have Behemoth doing this, wish is a GIANT chicken....and they made Castle Crashers...god knows how they came up with that!
     
  14. Demigiant

    Demigiant

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    I personally vote against additional nouns like games/studios/creations/whatever (even if I actually used "games" for mine, but that's because I already had a company and wanted to separate the gamedev part by adding "games" - a thing I regret and am slowly erasing from history). Also, I agree with hippo, but only on the basis that a name doesn't have to really "mean" something, but just have a good/cool sound. I don't agree that ANY name could be used instead, because it actually could be a negative.

    Since we're talking about games, I think the most important thing is the overall sound of it, and if it would look cool on a T-Shirt :p

    P.S. throwing some completely nonsensical ones (didnt google for eventual existence):
    - Foochan
    - Upwhere
    - Novimax
    - Shoo (I like this one :D)
    - Red Teeth Industry
    - Chaingums
    - Revengeless
    - Pet Therapy
    - Nopie
     
  15. chelnok

    chelnok

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    Stein Solid Games or Steined Games :cool: ..also check out latin words, and try to combine them to one word with eng words.. unique words with "meaning" ..
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2013
  16. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Yeah i agree, i think us devs make it harder than it really is. U want something to sound meaningful, but it the end its just a matter of the games u make that determines if that name becomes cool. I like ur list there, gonna write all these down and find the one that soumds best, im starting to lean very towards just a short name with a nice and easy sound, but i also like funny names. Damn this is hard, im just the painter!!:p
     
  17. Norton084

    Norton084

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    Well if your a painter you should of have a huge imagination ;D
    I would say take your time to think about it, Its always nice to come up with a name with a team than using a suggested one ;-| At least thats how I feel.
     
  18. cCoding

    cCoding

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    I recommend looking into the business laws for where you live. For massachusetts, if I use a fictitious name like "Nuclear Development" then I'm required to pay 100$ year to have that name. If I use my given name "William Bakunis" , I don't need to pay that 100$ and I become a "Sole Proprietor". There is many other things you need to keep an eye out for but thats not part of this topic.

    General business laws site *USA* -

    http://www.sba.gov/category/navigat...s/starting-business/understand-business-law-r
     
  19. Woodlauncher

    Woodlauncher

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    One thing is that what you present as a name to your consumers doesn't have to be the name of your company, not sure what the rules are about this but DICE (the makers of the Battlefield games) company name is EA Digital Illusions CE AB (AB is a business entity). But it only says DICE on their games. So if you find out what the rules are about this, you could perhaps just set up a company and call it whatever for now and then later come up with a name that you will use when selling your games.
     
  20. Meltdown

    Meltdown

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    Since everything you do as you say is hand-painted, a nice simple name for your company is HAND-PAINTED

    It's not fancy or anything, but with that simple name and a nice simple logo it could work.
     
  21. Noisecrime

    Noisecrime

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    Out of interest why do you regret it?

    I can certainly see using 'games' as potentially being millstone around the company neck as its very specific, but why not studio's? Studio is pretty generic assuming as a company you would remain in the creative industry. I guess I quite like the wor d'studio' so i'm interested in why its viewed as a negative for a company name.
     
  22. BuildABurgerBurg

    BuildABurgerBurg

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    UniSoft Games
     
    Jules408 likes this.
  23. CG-DJ

    CG-DJ

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    http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/

    Yeah, I think its been taken. But whoever said Rocksolid Cake, that was funny! (the cake is a lie)
     
  24. TylerPerry

    TylerPerry

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    Painterly
     
  25. Demigiant

    Demigiant

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    I think that the "games" word (even more than "studios") transforms any name in a generically bland one, and evokes images of unoriginal publishers of other's games. Plus it doesn't help at all, since people don't need to read "games" in your company logo to know you make games. Also, an even more subjective reason is that my company's name (Holoville) sounds ok for the jobs I did before (mostly touchscreens for museums but also websites), but is not a good name for a game company, and the "games" addition just widens the injury :D
     
  26. Kelde

    Kelde

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    awesome input guys, thanks alot. yes i have a good imagination, but thats for paintings!!:p Im tempted to just use some thing that sounds funny and could enable me to paint a fun logo to go along, like Raging Melon, i can already see the stupid logo.

    Im also leaning towards skipping games,studios and all that togheter, but i like "creations" since it sounds more "indie", right?
     
  27. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Yeha id love to try to implement this in some way, as im 200% sure ill never do another style ever while im breathing:p
     
  28. Demigiant

    Demigiant

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    Ahahah I actually wanted to suggest something with "melon", but it reminded me too much of the Blind Melons band. That said, since you said Melon:

    - Shower Melons
    - Splash Melons
    - Peach Melons
    - Ink Melons
    - Spoiled Melons
    - Melons of Glory
    - Melon Sized
    - Melonberries
    - Watermelons (this also reminds watercolors, so it's a plus :D)
    - Lemon Melons (after all, you can use lemon juice for some painting effects :p)
     
  29. Games-Foundry

    Games-Foundry

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    Bloomin' Good (Games)
    Eat My Pixel
    Pixel Squared - P[SUP]2[/SUP] as the logo, sounds like there are 2 founders, probably better for a retro games company though
    Pixels In Bloom
    Pixel Bloom

    But as others have said, it doesn't matter much. From the look of your games they'd appeal more to casual rather than hardcore gamers, and casual gamers are less inclined to remember studio names, only game names. If you have a hit game, market the next game as 'from the makers of [game].' And even then, the customer email database you built from the previous game is far more valuable than any company brand equity.
     
  30. Forge Vault

    Forge Vault

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    There's so many indie developers with registered corporate names that any way you slice it you'll end up not using your first choice.
     
  31. eskimojoe

    eskimojoe

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    You could just stay with what it is now.


    PayPal allows you to accept money using your names, there is nothing ashamed with accepting money under your personal names.
     
    JamesArndt likes this.
  32. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    Unlikely they would be a sole-proprietor, cause they are making the mistake of starting their company with 2 people.

    ---

    Years ago, I was playing Oblivion on PS3 with my kids when we created a new character named, Gigiwoo. That's when, one of them said, "That'd be a great name for a game company!" Years later, it became Gigi Games. And like you, I wanted to start my company with a friend, who lives across country. I was a bit nervous and felt a partner would really help me. Plus, we were both experienced devs and long-time friends.

    My wife was hesitant though... 'Be patient. start the company yourself, and involve your friend as much as you like on a project-by-project basis." was her advice. And now, 2.5 years later, knowing just how HARD this is, I realize she was right. There were SOOO many obstacles in my path, and I have given 1000s of hours of my life to this endeavor. My company would have failed as a partnership, and I would have given up long ago. Plus, it would have ruined my friendship.

    Now, I still have my company, I still have my friend, and I have the freedom to take my projects and my time any which way I desire.

    PS - As Hippo suggested, the name of the company is less relevant than the fact the two of them can't come up with a name together! STRONG evidence you'll fail, given both are young, quit their jobs, and live in different countries. Everything points to DISASTER!

    "Fail-Fast and Often" refers to PRODUCTS, not companies and friendships. You may think it's too late to stop now ... and you'd be wrong.

    Gigi.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2013
  33. cCoding

    cCoding

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    EDIT: I didn't read your post correctly. I assumed you were directing this towards me. Yea I understand it would be better to have a name that both or all co-workers would like. This is why I work alone so I don't need to worry about others somewhat dragging me down. Sorry to be rude but thats how I feel about working with others. I just can't stand it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2013
  34. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Ask yourself why.. why use a given name. What does it mean, invoke, imply. How does it feel. What does it sound like. What are the immediate connotations or meanings or popular definitions that come to mind? Is it unique? Is it easy to read and pronounce and type and use? Might it be memorable? Is it consistent in theme or personality to the types of games you want to brand yourself as making. Are you more artsy as a company, more imaginative, or more concrete? etc. You need to ask questions to have some filters so you can narrow down what does or doesn't fit. If you have no idea who you are you will just pick something completely irrelevant.
     
  35. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    Dude, this is a necro thread.
     
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  36. Meltdown

    Meltdown

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