With all the effort, time, money, and dedication that goes into creating a video game, having to sum it all up in a few words can feel unfair. That’s why, and due to the frequent shifts in industry direction, many projects use a working title during development and only switch to the final name at the last moment.
It’s not an easy task because not just any name will do—it must meet a long list of conditions:
- Not too generic. Otherwise, anyone searching for it online might end up sifting through a sea of unrelated results before finding it.
- Easy to pronounce. Word of mouth is powerful advertising, but it can be hindered if the name is a tongue-twister. You should say it out loud and make sure you can pronounce it comfortably without stumbling.
- Easy to remember. Word of mouth and advertising investment won’t pay off if the name is like a complex math formula that’s hard to recall. Try telling potential names to people close to you and see if they remember them the next day.
- Short. This condition sums up the previous ones. The shorter and simpler the name, the better.
- Appealing. It should inspire positive feelings and emotions. Except in the horror genre, no one wants to buy a game to suffer—your name should evoke emotions that represent an improvement over everyday life for your potential players. This means tapping into the psychology of your target audience.
- In line with the game’s tone. If your name suggests a different tone than the game itself, you might attract the wrong audience. You don’t want that audience to feel misled and leave negative reviews.
- Should hint at the game’s most distinctive features. For example, if your game stands out for its cooperative mechanics, the name should reflect that (“It Takes Two,” “Don’t Starve Together”).
- Original. There shouldn’t be another game with the same name. If there is, in the worst case, you could face a lawsuit, and in the best case, your promotion might end up sending people to the other game.
- No negative translations. You need to consider from the start where you want to sell the game and make sure that translating the name doesn’t result in something ambiguous or offensive. Otherwise, you might face issues like Mitsubishi did with its Pajero (which had to be sold as Montero in Spain), or Mazda with its Laputa. There are many more examples—don’t add your game to the list.
It’s quite common to use abstract or invented names because they easily meet many of the above requirements. Video game history is full of successful cases with such names, like Half-Life or Fortnite. However, keep in mind that the trade-off with these names is that you’ll need to invest more in marketing to explain what the game is about, since the name itself doesn’t convey it.
In any case, these conditions aren’t set in stone. They’re suggestions to help you start your name search, but remember that genius rarely follows conventions. There are many examples of great games whose names don’t meet one or more of the above conditions. In the end, it’s about being practical—these conditions can help you filter out the wildest ideas, but when you finally find the name, you’ll know it because it sticks with you, like love at first sight.
If even after all this you’re still not inspired, you can use Gemini, Grok, or any other AI to suggest names as a starting point. For example, you can give them a prompt describing your game and ask for twenty name suggestions. With a few tweaks, one of them might work. I know that using AI tools isn’t very popular in the development community, but they’re just another tool. The goal is to be practical and finish the game to launch it. Better that than getting stuck.
