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[Bennett]

"Robot"

As a name, this suffers from the same overabundance problem as 'Robot'. You may as well call it 'Robot Adventure' (but don't).

The nice thing about 'Robot' though is that it's a word which can be mangled without losing its meaning. So for example, 'fembot', 'manbot', and 'duckbot' are all obviously robots. You can also play with the first half in some ways - 'robosexual', 'robomania', 'roboectomy'.

I think this is the direction you should go in, but I would need to know more about your game. All I know is your name needs to conjure up over-the-top party fun. For example, depending on your design, it could be called:

"Killbot Decathlon"

"RoboNinja Melee"

"Warbot Catastrophe"

[fish]

damn, how did i miss the 8 page thread?

im a total name nazi.
i can spend MONTHS trying to find the perfect name.
what's in a name? a whole fucking lot.

a lot of games have such absolutely terrible names.
my rule of thumb is: if there's a colon or a subtitle ion there, its hot garbage in the sun. if you cant convey the essence of your game in just a few words, you suck at naming things and you shouldnt be allowed to.

Fez: The Fezening
Fez: Return To Castle Deathkill
Fez: The Rise and Fall Of Lord McMurder 2: Murder Me Tender

Kokoromi's first game was named GLEE. it was a simple little game about saving these happy little guys from these bad bad deathskull things. you had no weapons and all you could do was rescue, not kill. so we called it GLEE.
when tetsuya mizuguchi played it at gamma01, and we asked him what he though of hit, he simply replied "happy emotion!" and we were all FUCK YEAH. EXACTLY.

then i made a game about collecting funny little hats and and i called it Fez.

we're also working on a series of small experimental music games. think bit generations but all about music, and with innovative user interfaces (none of that DDR/Guitar hero hit-the-notes-as-they-fall-down crap) and we're calling the series DISCOGRAPHY.

i also want to make a game about a chicken in a dungeon called CHICKEN OF MANA.

i think im awesome at naming things.

[team_q]

"Robot"

"Killbot Decathlon"

"RoboNinja Melee"

"Warbot Catastrophe"

I would go with
"Relentless Automatons"

[fish]

lyrics from daft punk's Robot Rock, live version

human.
robot.
human.
robot.
human.
robot.
human.
robot.
human.
robot.
human.
robot.
human.
robot.

[Bennett]

i think im awesome at naming things.

I agree. 'Fez' is a great name, and so is 'Glee'. I wouldn't have capitalized it though. I have a problem with "DICOGRAPHY", but if you meant to type "DISCOGRAPHY", then you're excused.

Names are amazingly important. Maybe it's hard to say why without sounding pretentious, but it's true nevertheless. Maybe this quote from 'Anansi boys' would help.

Fat Charlie ... was not fat. Truth to tell, he was not really even chubby, simply slightly soft-looking around the edges. But the name Fat Charlie clung to him, like chewing gum to the sole of a tennis shoe. He would introduce himself as Charles or, in his early twenties, Chaz, or, in writing, as C. Nancy, but it was no use: the name would creep in, infiltrating the new part of his life just as cockroaches invade the cracks and the world behind the fridge in a new kitchen, and like it or not - and he didn't - he would be Fat Charlie again.

It was, he knew, irrationally, because his father had given him the nickname, and when his father gave things names, they stuck.

There was a dog who had lived in the house across the way, in the Florida street on which Fat Charlie had grown up. It was a chestnut-colored boxer, long-legged and pointy-eared with a face that looked like the beast had, as a puppy, run face-first into a wall. Its head was raised, its tail nub erect. It was, unmistakably, an aristocrat amongst canines. It had entered dog shows. It had rosettes for Best of Breed and for Best in Class and even one rosette marked Best in Show. This dog rejoiced in the name of Campbell's Macinrory Arbuthnot the Sevent, and its owners, when they were feeling familiar, called it Kai. This lasted until the day that Fat Charlie's father, sitting out on their dilapidated porch swing, sipping his beer, noticed the dog as it ambled back and forth across the neighbor's yard, on a leash that ran from a palm tree to a fence post.

"Hell of a goofy dog," said Fat Charlie's father. "Like that friend of Donald Duck's. Hey Goofy."

And what had once been Best in Show suddenly slipped and shifted. For Fat Charlie, it was as if he saw the dog through his father's eyes, and darned if he wasn't a pretty goofy dog, all things considered. Almost rubbery.

It didn't take long for the name to spread up and down the street. Campbell's Macinrory Arbuthnot the Seventh's owners struggled with it, but they might as well have stood their ground and argued with a hurricane. Total strangers would pat the once proud boxer's head, and say, "Hello, Goofy. How's a boy?" The dog's owners stopped entering him in dog shows soon after that. They didn't have the heart. "Goofy-looking dog," said the judges.

[fish]

yup, i meant DISCOGRAPHY.

[Bennett]

yup, i meant DISCOGRAPHY.

Let's just hope "DICOGRAPHY" doesn't stick.

[fish]

DICKOGRAPHY

[teknogames]

ok, Ive had some ideas on changing "Robot".

• Automaton
• Robopposition
• Robodread (I'm liking this one)

It looks like this at the moment:

[Radnom]

Along the lines of Tekno's 'robot' issue, I had the name idea of a game a while back,
'Encyclopedia Robottica'
it's like a pun 

[fish]

i love automaton.

AUTOMATON.

badass.

[team_q]

i love automaton.

AUTOMATON.

badass.

*HighFive*
Automaton is the most badass name for robots, way better then androids.

[György Straub]

you gotta love this topic. it's the best non-sexual sort of fun I've ever had.

ok, what about this name?
Hyder (or "Hyder_colon_ Heli Hell" for long)

in this you play an ugly little guy (that's Hyder) with a heli backpack, busy saving miners trapped in a mine shaft. the miners help him digging down the depths of the planet, where - shh! - a human (sort of) princess is kept captive. (actually, Hyder isn't ugly, he's just another species -- think a frog, which, come to think of it comboes nice with the princess.)
there'll be a story (for an excuse really), with twists, even, but the game will play really retro & simple (i.e. 100% hot action, no RPG or adventure elements).

[Farmergnome]

ZOMPOCALYPSE!

Can a smalltown cop survive a onslaught of undead, can he survive... the ZoMPoCaLyPsE?!?!

Cheesy I know  :D Its basicly a zombie side-scrolling shooter, i posted a image awhile back me thinks, its as it sounds, about the zombie apocalypse, and thats as far as I thought story wise.

It features kickable zombie babies- please advise naming master benzido.

[team_q]

ZOMPOCALYPSE!

Can a smalltown cop survive a onslaught of undead, can he survive... the ZoMPoCaLyPsE?!?!

Cheesy I know  :D Its basicly a zombie side-scrolling shooter, i posted a image awhile back me thinks, its as it sounds, about the zombie apocalypse, and thats as far as I thought story wise.

It features kickable zombie babies- please advise naming master benzido.

Hrm, a side scroller filled with mindless zombies eh?
I think...
"Relentless Automatons"

seriously though, Zompocolipse won't win any name of the year awards, Try "Festering Hordes" or "Necro-Smasher"

[Bennett]

• Automaton

Yeah, go with Automaton.

Hyder (or "Hyder_colon_ Heli Hell" for long)

What is rule number one? No frigging colons.
There is also a rule against using names that are unrecognizable and unsymbolic - names which essentially add nothing to the value of the name. You can make a game called 'Hyder', mind you. But it is not a game about a jetcoptering frog, it's a game about a ninja who disappears into the shadows.

Based on your description, I would support calling the game:

"Heli Hell"

This name has a certain amount of retroesque cheese to it, like 'Manic Miner'. I want to be taken somewhat seriously as a game namer, so I can't recommend to you my secret preference for this game, which is:

"Whizz Down the Shaft"

ZOMPOCALYPSE!

I'm not against the use of cheesy portmanteaus for naming cheerful, cheesy games. Zompocalypse gets points for being short, descriptive, and unique. But it loses some points because it doesn't sound very cool to my ear.

TeamQuiggan's suggestion of "Festering Hordes" is pretty good, but I'd like something a bit more out of left field:

"Save Our Brains"

or

"To Sever and Protect"

[György Straub]

Benzido, Bokorin is not the only thing you pwn.=)

Whizz Down the Shaft, it ROFL'd me in a good way. sadly, I'd need more XXX rated content to name my game that. but, "Down the Shaft"... hmm I actually happen to be liking it. then, on the other hand, the game will happen to be both retro and cheesy.=)

(seriously, I'm getting the point why shouldn't a game that doesn't come in a box, or anything that tells about it that it's in fact a game, called - sticking to the example - Hyder ("wait, the ninja one was N, wasn't it?").)

cheers for the hint.

[Stij]

No frigging colons.

The Legend of Zelda series would like to have a word with you.

[Bennett]

The Legend of Zelda series would like to have a word with you.

Well, like I said earlier, I'm willing to give up Zelda if it means we can also get rid of all franchise games.

[Stij]

What I was trying to say was that LoZ uses colons in virtually every title and yet it's really successful.

But yeah, you're right.