Creative projects you intend to sell are interesting things. It’s something you love, but it needs to “work” in the target market or it won’t exist long enough for you enjoy your investment. Perhaps some creators just want to keep moving on to the next thing, but I’ve always just wanted an IP — something I could create and work on for 5 or 10 years.
How Important is a Name, Really?
While it is certainly debatable how important a name is to a product’s success, I personally feel it is essential, and I think most marketers would agree with me. Ed Catmull calls a movie in development an “ugly baby”, and while I don’t think the ugly part is always accurate, a creation of any kind is somewhat like a baby. It’s a part of us that exists separate from us. How does one rename a baby after already falling in love? How does one even know if your current name is bad? While I’m not a marketer, I’ll take you on my own journey renaming my game.
What’s the Current Status?
The project started two years ago and I named it Super Maps & Legends for a few reasons.
- No one in the TTRPG world was using the name and it had the word “legend” which I loved
- It had an 80s feel to it and reminded me of Super Mario Bros, which fit with an online TTRPG movement called the OSR or “Old-School Renaissance”
- I liked saying it
- Maps & Legends is an 80s R.E.M. song which brought back nostalgic memories of playing D&D as a 10-year-old while listening to my older brother’s music in the room next door
- The game was about creating a custom world map from scratch and populating it with characters destined to be legends
In general, I thought the name worked for the game I was making, and its shorter diminutive, SuperMNL, had a nice ring as well.
So why change the name?
It’s a lot of work to find a new name. If it can be avoided, it probably should. But here are the reasons I thought it was necessary.
- The game is now a card game and no longer focuses on maps directly; in short, it’s a different game
- The game targets a broader audience now, as I’d like to “find the sweet spot” between TTRPG geek and their board-game-only friends
- Super Maps & Legends was always long and I needed something more board-gamey feeling that doesn’t require an acronym to say. Something TTRPG players convincing their friend to play could use and it would help not hinder the persuasion.
- Improve branding and marketability
- The game is in flux and I need something that can hopefully stick with the product as it develops and changes in ways I can’t predict.
How to Rename Your Product – SPAM IT!
Spam is the secret. Spam spam spam spam spam. Just write down everything you think of. Stop stopping to think. Just go go go go go go. Once you can’t go no more, you’ll have progressed.
Over the course of about a month, I made these lists in many different sessions:
Baking Takes Time
It will likely take some time. Perhaps some people can see all the parameters of a name at once, but in my experience a good name needs battle-tested. Good stuff will stick around and be naturally picked up. Here are the criteria I use when deciding whether a name is good. Please note that this blog post is the first time I have actually written down a criteria list. I just kind of wing it in the moment but these things are all going through my head.
Naming Criteria
I think it can be simplified to three basics.
Basic Criteria
- Would I ask my friend to play this game with me?
- Is it short? (ie, 1-2 syllables)
- Does it work for the target market and for the content of the game?
Advanced Criteria
- Is it easy to say and read and hard to mispronounce?
- Is it legible when small?
- Is it unique?
- Does it avoid stupid misspellings such as “Dungyns & Dragyns”? (personal pet peeve)
- Is there anything confusing and/or innuendo or any other major concerns with the name?
- Do I like saying it?
- If I am a professional artist/writer/designer/etc, would I feel cool and/or proud to tell my friends I am working on this game?
- Is the .com url available for less than $50/year?
- Does it work for series/expansions and sound good for sequel? ie, “Game Name: Expansion Name” or “Game Name 2”
- Would it look good on t-shirts, etc for devoted fans?
- Is it different from other games recently published in this space or currently dominating this space?
- Is there a reasonable chance I won’t have to rename the game after announcing it publicly due to the game changing dramatically, copyright issues, or anything else?
Game-Specific Criteria
- Does it feel like fantasy?
- Does it feel like adventure?
- Does it feel a bit like home-life such as Stardew Valley or Farmville? (a major feature of my game)
- Does it feel magical?
- Does it feel a little mysterious or intriguing?
- Does it strike a World of Warcraft/Overwatch feel for the visual art style? (Clean stylized aesthetic with cartooned proportions)
A Breakdown of My Mental Journey
Of Hearth & Highway
After it was clear that Super Maps & Legends wouldn’t work, I first liked Of Hearth & Highway. But that was still long and didn’t even have a good acronym to shorten it to. OH&H? What the heck is that? I loved the story feel of it but it didn’t have a fantasy feel. I needed something more epic.
Trying to Keep “Legends” but Exploring New Options
I really loved the Legends from the original name and I desperately tried to keep it around, or something like it. My first short list was:
- Ley Legend
- Song & Sorrow
- Of Hearth & Highway
- Hearth & Hinterland
- Stewards of the Veil
- Stewards
- Super Maps & Legends
- Fantasy Factioneer
- Hinterland
- Progeni+
- Embersong
- Glimmerbreak
- Songs of Lore
- Lays of Yore
- Lays of Legend
Exploring Other Ideas
Here I was exploring kingly names as I just liked the feel and I knew in my heart I’d have to let go of the original name. Some of them are just random fantasy names I liked.
- Bladelord
- Fellcross Fen
- Fencross Fell
- Bannermark
- Kingmark
- Winterward
- Westmark
- Dragonmark
- Hinterlord
Here I went with other fantasy ideas. Still hanging on to the Legends concept. I really like the idea of relating a story game to songs and music. Perhaps I’ll still end up with something like that.
- Wistwarden
- Flags of Fell Deed
- Gryftblade
- Callsong
- Briarblade
- Before Song
- Ere Legend
- Songworthy
- Ere the Dragon Wakes
- Ere Legend
- Song & Sorrow
Got stuck so I looked on Google Maps for Inspiration
All these names come from the country of Turkey. I really like their names. I could see some expansion packs or something with some of these.
- Seri
- Sivas
- Alanya
- Akören
- Tol
- Anamur
- Üzümören
- Palanlı
What about some random fantasy words? That works for some people.
- Monterra
- Mystia
- Mystiel
- Sibil
- Domellen
- Dōm
I ended up with a shortlist of stuff I felt worked best.
After several weeks of occasional naming sessions I ended up with this shortlist.
- Dōm
- Wistblade
- Bannersong
- Questbreak
- Lorebox
This is the list that I kept coming back to. Ultimately, Dōm was too much like Dominion, Bannersong too much like Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, Questbreak too kidsy and gimmicky, and Lorebox too board gamey. Wistblade was the only one that kept coming back to because I just couldn’t find any major issues with it.
How I Confirmed the New Marriage
It took a few weeks, but I think we’re going with Wistblade. These important steps had to happen:
- Had to try to break the name with research. “Wist” checked out in that its old english but no one seems to agree on all of its meanings. Some say it means “to know” and that’s most widely used definition. But others sources include “being quiet”. Also “Whist” is an old school card game from the 1700s-1800s, and I liked the “Wistful” allusion. Blade of course is easy. All other research checked out.
- Sent name to friends. No major issues yet. Some even liked or loved it!
- Tried the name on some kids, sort of worked. First response was “Whiskblade?” which made me groan, but given the names positive points and the fact the kid wasn’t reading it but hearing it, I think I can live with this one. I’ve done enough branding to know that few names are perfect.
- Had to try to find better stuff and fail. I still thought up another couple hundred names after Wistblade and can’t seem to find anything better that fits my most important criteria.
Final Concerns
It’s still possible the name is not yet good enough. Some concerns I’ve had.
- Wist is too close to “wiz”
- Wist is too close to “whisk” and blade + whiskers makes people think of shaving
- Wistblade is a name too focused on the adventuring side of the game or violence rather than a balance of adventure and base-building/managing.
- Wist is a little hard to say
That’s it for this week. See you next time with a playtest and design update!