Reward for a game name
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 10:58
I'm hunting for the right name for my first Flare game. Coming up with a great name is harder than it seems!
- Avoid fantasy-trope names
- Avoid names with trademark issues if possible
- Ideally, available as a top-level domain name
The game's most likely thematic elements: fire vs ice, wu xing, isolation, exploring dangerous wilderness, ruined or falling civilization, zombie/undead apocalypse, magic outlawed, corrupt theocracy.
Please post name ideas here!
Reward!
If I choose your suggestion (or a derivative of your suggestion), I will give you a $50 USD art commmission of your choosing through OGA.
If you do not personally need art commissioned, I will donate $50 in your name to a charity of your choosing.
I try to come up with something better soon
The only good one that came to mind. I think it would help if you told us what the main theme of the game was. You listed several (zombies, magic banned, corrupt theocricy). You don't want to name the game as if it was a zombie apocolypse if that's just another part of the game and not the main focus. What drives the characters? What are they fighting against?
I'm certainly not a Latin expert. You should consult with someone who is so you can make sure that's proper grammar. Of course if you don't mind a pseudo-Latin name, there's a lot of better sounding variations.
One advantage to using Latin is that the domains are nearly all open. One disadvantage is that it may be harder for people to remember.
Mort Flesh
I'm just going to dig into my roots and suggest:
Legend of the Five Elements (五行传奇)
Well, my Chinese isn't what I would call spectacular so I'm not entirely sure whether the Chinese words are entirely correct.
The Whispering Eye
The Godless Ruins : The Shadow and the Light
Title screen
1.) fuþark
2.) þa tala in geardagum
3.) tao
* Forsaken
* Fervor
* Wrath of the the Wicked
* Dementia
* Rise of the Order
* Alterworld
* The Uprising
* The Militia's call to arms
*The Retribution
* Heresy In Death
HTML5 Canvas Old School RPG
The devil's indulgence
Paradise lost (yes I know that is also a famous poem)
The last patriarch
--
http://freegamedev.net
To help spur ideas, here is a collection of ideas for the plot for my game. I might not actually use all of these. This is just brainstorming.
---
ACT I
The game world is dangerous but at a relative equilibrium/peace. Only the military/guard are allowed to have weapons. The peace is broken when a call-to-arms is issued. An invasion is rumored in a remote area of the civilized kingdom. Knights are forced to abandon many remote villages, leaving them to fend for themselves. The hero can choose to volunteer for the military, or choose to stay and help nearby villages.
It's not an isolated invasion. The hero will discover many areas are already razed. A plague is sweeping the countryside; the peasants have few ways to fight the undead and many are killed or in hiding. If the hero decides to go to the capitol for help, it is already prepared for siege and only the ruling class and military is allowed to stay.
ACT II
A radical faction arises in the capitol that declares all magic is necromancy, and is to blame for the plague and invasion. The hero, who comes from a lineage of people with the spark for magic, becomes a political enemy and wanted person. High-profile mages are hunted by military raiding parties. Bands of mages hide in the wilderness and try to preserve the mystic knowledge before it is all lost.
With trade routes all but shut down, food supplies dwindling, and lack of defenses, the hero is forced to explore the deadly underworld -- ancient crypts, dungeons, cave systems. The hero learns forgotten truths and histories from his exploration, and pieces together that such a plague/unrest has happened before.
ACT III
A secretive cult/organization infiltrated the radical faction of the military. The banning of weapons and magic is part of their long-term plan. The undead "plague" is a result of their soul collection, an offering to their leader. The powerful archmage is binding souls to build his phylactery and is preparing for lich-hood.
Five elemental guardians stand between the archmage and immortal power. The knowledge of these guardians was lost to time. The guardians can be awakened, if the are not already slain or corrupted.
ACT IV
The hero helps uncover the cult agents in the capitol. With the true enemy revealed, the knights gather for an offensive agains the archmage's fortress deep in the underworld.
Ambras (also the name of the capital).
The Book of Untold Stories
or
The Book of Changes (I Ching):
Act 1 Hexagram 3 is named 屯 (zhūn), "Sprouting".
Act 2 Hexagram 4 is named 蒙 (méng), "Enveloping"
Act 3 Hexagram 5 is named 需 (xū), "Attending"
Act 4 Hexagram 6 is named 訟 (sòng), "Arguing"
Act 5 Hexagram 7 is named 師 (shī), "Leading".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hexagrams_of_the_I_Ching
The rise of Gou
Gou is a north lands wolf-dog daemon, a soul eater.
The archmage obsessed with death and the possibility of escaping it, has to provide gou with a constant stream of human souls(thus the undead plaque) for the promise of immortality.
Gou of course only interested into the archmage as long as he is a valueable source of souls.
The archmage sees/identifies himself as a son of gou.
A dog could also be the secret symbol of the cult.
A quick Gou sketch: http://imgup.com/image-B20F_4DEA3621.jpg
actus reus - guilty act (the crime that is committed)
ignotus - unknown
lex rex - 'the law [is] king'
lex tempus - 'time is the law'
meliora - 'better things'
I'm just grabbing things from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_%28full%29
http://forum.freegamedev.net/
Dungeonscape
Dammit forgot to login
Not quite right but might inspire someone: Seasons Turn? Seasons Dawn? Seasons Wane?
verbalshadow: I like your "Book of Changes" idea quite a lot. I similarly want to take inspiration from Wu Xing. Only thing I'm afraid of is being so unfamiliar with the culture that I'll get it all wrong.
1. Fugitive: The Lost Hope (Or, alternatively, Fugitive: Elements of Destruction)
2. CryptWalker (Or, alternatively, CryptDweller)
3. 'Til Death Do Us Part
4. RuinScape
5. Cadaver Chronicles
That's about all I can think of right now. The Fugitive ones would kind of spoil a plot twist, though. However, I still think "The Lost Hope" and "Elements of Destruction" would still be good, even if attached to another name. Ultimately, it's your choice. I'll admit, I've thought of better. Maybe I'll think of some as I go to sleep tonight. That seems like that's when the best ideas hit you.
Wu Xing means there are 5 elements, but seems there are no such features in flare whilst playing it. Maybe adding features in allowing player to e.g. create a wall (earth) to stop evil chasing the game player, a firewall (fire), etc. would make flare more suitable to be called Wu Xing.
Just wanted to elaborate with my original idea:
Legend of the Five Elements
Note: I had this story floating around in my head for a while, but I'm re-adapting it to fit the WuXing theme.
There are five cities representing an element, each of them with a guardian. While there is no war going on at the moment, tensions are high between the cities. You can choose which city you come from. The first level would involve the city whose element is most vulnerable to yours, and the last involves the least vulnerable.
Chapter 1
One of the guardian becomes corrupted, turning all the population into zombies, and creating monsters of his own element. The remaining cities prepare for assault, but squabbles between them lead to delays. You along with a band of adventurers decide to sneak into the city and kill the guardian. After fighting through the streets, the crpyts and dungeons under the temple, you finally defeat the guardian. However, you realise there is a powerful magician behind this.
Chapter 2
As you leave the city, the guardian for the other city turns corrupted as well. War breaks out between the remaining cities. You head there and after a long battle, kill the guardian. You learn more about the identity of the magician, but with war going on, it is unsafe to travel the midlands anymore.
Chapter 3
The city that you were from offers to provide sancturary. However, once inside, you realise that they want your knowledge about the corruption so that they can use it on the remaining cities. Before you can do anything, the guardian of your city turns corrupted as well. You kill the guardian there as well. You then realise the five elements power a barrier against the underworld. It is now a race against this magician from destroying the remaining two cities, none of which trust you.
Chapter 4
You trail the magician to one of the remaining two cities, and fight your way in a race to reach the guardian. Unfortunately, when you reach the guardian, you arrive only in time to see the magician corrupt the guardian. You fight the magician and defeat him. You learn that you can fully restore the power for the barrier by activating a relic found in the temple of each city. However, as you leave, you find out that the high preists of the remaining city now has gained immense power by tapping into the energy coming out of the weakened barrier.
Chapter 5
One by one, you activate the relics while being chased by stronger, empowered enemies. Finally, after fighting your way through the final city you activate the last relic. With the link to the underworld severed, the high priests are consumed in their own power and die. Peace is restored to the lands.
What came into my mind was the connection between awakening the Dead and awakening long forgotten secrets as you wrote above brainstorming. So playing around with that a bit:
Seasons of Awakening with the chapters
Of course this style can be adapted when the content significantly diverges from the ideas given. I also tried to fit rattling in there instead of clash and judgment instead of reckoning so that all four of the attributes had the same amount of syllables (in my opinion that also is important when designing proper names).
Given the overall seasons topic, five acts would make a worse fit than four which might discard this idea.
(The) Last Candle.
Chronicles of Necropolis
Unknown Hero
Lost in Dungeons
Rise of Dark Mage
Astral Invasion
Dark Invaders
Fantasy Core ;)
"How to become a necromancer, from a simple magician in five chapters" :P