Trying to come up with a good name for my shmup

[J_C]

Hi everyone!

I'm making a space themed shmup for a little while now, and I'm trying to come up with something which sounds good. But it is hard as hell. I came up with a few ideas, and I'd like to get some feedback about them. I made a poll, would you take a minute and vote to the one which you like the most. If you thing they are terrible, feel free to tell me here, I welcome any criticism.

As for the game, it is a horizontal space shoot 'em up, where you are piloting a special spaceship, which is able to turn to a mech. You are fighting against the forces of the colonies, which attacked and destroyed most of the Earth forces.

Oh, feel free to discuss new ideas about the name if you'd like it.

As for the poll:
http://www.strawpoll.me/15063965

[M.Knight]

Hello!

Coming up with a name is hard; facing myself that same conundrum, I can only agree.

Anyway, my favorite names among your list are "Nemesis Wing" and "Exile Squadron".
The first one is a pretty cool mix of words and wouldn't be out of place for a space-themed shmup. "Nemesis" is already the name of a few Gradius games, so that may be why the association seems natural to me. Make sure there isn't already a game with that name, I wouldn't be surprised if it already taken.

Exile Squadron reflects the idea of a ship/plane, but its strength depends a bit more on the game's plot, notably due to the "exile" idea. If there isn't an actual squadron that was exiled (but may have had to come back to save the Earth forces against the colony?), it may not be as good a match.

Zander ZX can work IMO and seems rather unique but for some reason I think it would match the game better if it was very conventional in its themes and universe, with alien bad guys in it and a pretty straightforward plot. Here, the conflict seems to only oppose humans so there is more political complexity to the depicted battle than what Zander ZX suggests to me.

As for how I feel about the others : Nexus Gear reminds me too much of the Nexus phones, M-Omega is not evocative enough as Omega is generic and it is not obvious what the M stands for, Myrmidon on its own does not make me think of futuristic spaceships and would be better with another word or two, Echo Guardian would feel more at home as an RPG name, Panzer Suit sounds better as the name of some in-universe technology rather than the whole game's name, and Spirus is not a bad spin on the -(i)us naming but it lacks some coolness factor.

Anyway, those were my impressions!
Oh, and if you have screenshots or videos of the game, feel free to post them as they can also help us see if the names match the game's atmosphere.

[J_C]

Hello!

Coming up with a name is hard; facing myself that same conundrum, I can only agree.

Anyway, my favorite names among your list are "Nemesis Wing" and "Exile Squadron".
The first one is a pretty cool mix of words and wouldn't be out of place for a space-themed shmup. "Nemesis" is already the name of a few Gradius games, so that may be why the association seems natural to me. Make sure there isn't already a game with that name, I wouldn't be surprised if it already taken.

Exile Squadron reflects the idea of a ship/plane, but its strength depends a bit more on the game's plot, notably due to the "exile" idea. If there isn't an actual squadron that was exiled (but may have had to come back to save the Earth forces against the colony?), it may not be as good a match.

Zander ZX can work IMO and seems rather unique but for some reason I think it would match the game better if it was very conventional in its themes and universe, with alien bad guys in it and a pretty straightforward plot. Here, the conflict seems to only oppose humans so there is more political complexity to the depicted battle than what Zander ZX suggests to me.

As for how I feel about the others : Nexus Gear reminds me too much of the Nexus phones, M-Omega is not evocative enough as Omega is generic and it is not obvious what the M stands for, Myrmidon on its own does not make me think of futuristic spaceships and would be better with another word or two, Echo Guardian would feel more at home as an RPG name, Panzer Suit sounds better as the name of some in-universe technology rather than the whole game's name, and Spirus is not a bad spin on the -(i)us naming but it lacks some coolness factor.

Anyway, those were my impressions!
Oh, and if you have screenshots or videos of the game, feel free to post them as they can also help us see if the names match the game's atmosphere.

Thank you for the feedback. One of my favourite is Exile Squadron, because it would fit the story quitte well. You basicly described the base plot about an exiled squadron coming back to fight for Earth.

And I will definitely open a separate thread where I can show stuff about the game, when I reach a state when it will be comfortable to show something. Not too far hopefully.

[mystran]

As for the game, it is a horizontal space shoot 'em up, where you are piloting a special spaceship, which is able to turn to a mech. You are fighting against the forces of the colonies, which attacked and destroyed most of the Earth forces.

Coming up with names is always hard, but you have a story here, right? Rather than try to come up with a generic meaningless shmup name, why not try to come up with a name for the story and use that?

Among the names you suggest, "Exile Squadron" probably gets closest to fitting the story, but is there a squadron in the game or just a lonely ship? If it's a lonely ship, then you could try to emphasise that in the name and for me "exile" kinda suggests (especially without any further qualification) that your hero has given up on earth and is looking for a better life elsewhere.

If you say "base plot about an exiled squadron coming back to fight for Earth" then (with some dramatic emphasis) you could try something like "The Last Stand of the Exile Squadron" (note the dramatic impact over just "Exile Squadron") or maybe "Earth Liberation Force Zeta" (with "zeta" chosen from here with the description "Ζ (Zeta), by shape, describes the power of thunderbolt that is charging earth and according to Dr Simaioforos’ Code, Ζ is Life and Heat-Warmth.") ... or just "Exile Squadron Zeta" would probably work better as well, again with the idea that there is some hidden meaning in the extra code letter... and then you would probably want to put the same "magic letter" into the code name of the mech-ship with rest of the name building some super-obscure association with something else (eg. ZetaX-24B might work, since X-24B apparently was a successful re-entry/landing experiment and honestly kinda looks like a typical shmup ship too).

I mean... I don't know if you ideas here are any good, but get creative. Think about the story, think about what can you encode into the name, either directly or through mythical associations. Think about whether you can put something in the name that you can then use to support the story itself. If the name itself suggests a story that's interesting or raises questions about it's full meaning then I would imagine it would gather more interest than a name that suggests "a generic shmup." If you can't get anywhere, expand the story itself until something starts falling out of it.

[Xyga]

Shmuppy McShmupface.


I am really sorry

[J_C]

As for the game, it is a horizontal space shoot 'em up, where you are piloting a special spaceship, which is able to turn to a mech. You are fighting against the forces of the colonies, which attacked and destroyed most of the Earth forces.

Coming up with names is always hard, but you have a story here, right? Rather than try to come up with a generic meaningless shmup name, why not try to come up with a name for the story and use that?

Among the names you suggest, "Exile Squadron" probably gets closest to fitting the story, but is there a squadron in the game or just a lonely ship? If it's a lonely ship, then you could try to emphasise that in the name and for me "exile" kinda suggests (especially without any further qualification) that your hero has given up on earth and is looking for a better life elsewhere.

If you say "base plot about an exiled squadron coming back to fight for Earth" then (with some dramatic emphasis) you could try something like "The Last Stand of the Exile Squadron" (note the dramatic impact over just "Exile Squadron") or maybe "Earth Liberation Force Zeta" (with "zeta" chosen from here with the description "Ζ (Zeta), by shape, describes the power of thunderbolt that is charging earth and according to Dr Simaioforos’ Code, Ζ is Life and Heat-Warmth.") ... or just "Exile Squadron Zeta" would probably work better as well, again with the idea that there is some hidden meaning in the extra code letter... and then you would probably want to put the same "magic letter" into the code name of the mech-ship with rest of the name building some super-obscure association with something else (eg. ZetaX-24B might work, since X-24B apparently was a successful re-entry/landing experiment and honestly kinda looks like a typical shmup ship too).

I mean... I don't know if you ideas here are any good, but get creative. Think about the story, think about what can you encode into the name, either directly or through mythical associations. Think about whether you can put something in the name that you can then use to support the story itself. If the name itself suggests a story that's interesting or raises questions about it's full meaning then I would imagine it would gather more interest than a name that suggests "a generic shmup." If you can't get anywhere, expand the story itself until something starts falling out of it.

Thanks, I will definitely spend some time on improving the name.