As you (probably) know, Frank and I have been working for a while on a certain game-development project. And, as you also (most likely) know, the name of that project is Where Shadows Slumber. For as long as any of you have known about it, that’s what we’ve called it, so it might seem strange to think of calling it something else at this point. But the name wasn’t always Where Shadows Slumber – for quite a long time, our game didn’t even have a name. How did we get from there to here?

When I first came up with the idea for the game and we started on the proof-of-concept, we didn’t have any particular name in mind. We weren’t thinking about it at all, and we didn’t even have an idea of what kind of name we might want. That apathy followed us through the early phases of the game, up to the point where we started going to smaller events, showing it off to people, and getting feedback. We discussed different naming options, but we never considered it a huge priority, and didn’t dedicate much time to it. Before too much longer, we came to the realization – we need a name for this thing!

Why Do You Need a Name?

We were just getting started with a new, unknown game, and, against all odds, it was actually going well! People seemed to really enjoy playing our game. They seemed interested in our process as a small team. We had been perfecting our ‘pitch’ at every event we went to, and we know exactly what to say to people when we showed them our early prototypes. That’s when we realized the mistake we had made.

People liked the game, and they wanted to know more about it. They wanted to hear about updates, they wanted to know when it came out. The problem was, the game didn’t have a name – how can someone keep up with it if there’s no name to search by? That was when we stopped messing around. Making a game is hard, and making a successful game involves making the correct decision at every point in the process. This was a place where we had screwed up, but we resolved to fix that mistake immediately, and I think that our fast action was an excellent decision that did a lot to move us toward success. The decision we made was to meet up in person the following week. We would sit down and figure out a name, and neither of us would be allowed to leave until we had decided on one.

What’s In A Name?

Now, choosing a name is a surprisingly difficult thing to do. The biggest hurdle for us, I think, was the dedication that it implied – once you pick a name, once people start using it, you can’t really go back. What if we chose wrong?

MS Paint forever!

While this was a scary proposition, it was also one of the things you want most out of your name. You want people to remember it and recognize it – you want it to last, and you don’t want to go back. Which just means you have to be that much more careful about choosing it. So lets look at all the things you want from your chosen name.

Recognition – The most important part of your name is that people associate it with your game. For us, when people think of the words Where Shadows Slumber, we want them to think of our game, and only our game. This is associated with having ownership over the name – nothing else is named in a way that’s too similar to Where Shadows Slumber. Take my name for example – Jackson Kelly. Go ahead, give it an image search, I’ll wait.
Do you get a bunch of pictures of my beautiful face smiling back at you, or a bunch of guitars? That’s right, the name Jackson Kelly is already ‘owned’, to some extent, by a guitar company. If I were choosing a name for a company or product, I definitely wouldn’t choose Jackson Kelly, because people (and Google) already associate it with something else.

“Pre-loading” Information – When people sit down and play your game, they won’t always know what to expect. There are some people who aren’t part of your target audience, and they might not like your game. Some games require the right mood or mindset. These are all good examples of how your game’s name can “set the mood”. If your game sounds like a puzzle game, then puzzle gamers will know that it will be good for them. If your game sounds like an endless runner, people will know what to expect. This leads, perhaps even subconsciously, to people more often playing your game when they’re interested in the style of the game, and when they’re in the mood for it. This also applies to people following your progress and keeping up with your development.

Telling a Story – Every game has a narrative of some sort – not necessarily a story in the conventional sense, but something you want your players to experience, outside of the mechanics themselves, when they play your game. For a game like Where Shadows Slumber, this is a literal story – something is happening in the world of the game, and the player gets to watch it happen. Other narratives aren’t so straightforward; take Candy Crush, for example. I’ve never played it, but I assume there isn’t really a huge storyline. Rather, what you want the user to experience are the rules of the candy world, and why the player should be connecting the candies.

Whatever the narrative, everything about your game should speak to it, should play a part in making it happen. The name, as the first part of your game users will interact with, is a vital piece. It’s where the journey begins, and you want to make sure that it helps tell your story.

Representing Your Game – Every part of your game should be great, but the most important part of your game is the beginning – can you get a user “hooked”? The name of your game is the first part of your game a potential user will experience, so it should, arguably, be the best part of your game. If you clearly didn’t put a lot of thought into the name, how can people trust that you put any effort into the game itself? [Editor’s note: see “Mr. Game!” for reference] The name is part of the game, and it should be treated as such.

How We Came Up With the Name

As I mentioned earlier, the way we came up with the name was to have a few rough ideas in our heads, and then to sit down and get it all done in one session, cagematch-style. Perhaps this wasn’t the most efficient way to get this done, but it stopped us from dragging our feet, which had been the biggest problem. So, we met up at 10 am on a Saturday, and got into it!

A spattering of words and concepts we considered using.

The first thing we did was to brainstorm – not for names, but for emotions. People buy most of their entertainment products based on emotion, and games are no different. What emotions do we think players will feel while playing, and what do we want them to feel? What kinds of emotions will motivate them to buy it and to keep playing it? By answering these questions, we started to figure out the tone our name should have. The emotions we decided to shoot for, to various degrees, were mystery, fear, suspense, and hope.

Once we had some emotions, we started to focus on the actual content of the name. Our name should be indicative of the things in the game, and, in particular, of the story players will find within. What are our main mechanics and story points? What words can we find for those things that fit within the emotions we chose? Again, we’re not thinking about actual names yet (for the most part), but just building up a collection of words. We ended up with quite a few, but some of the major ones were umbra, nimbus, slumber, wraith, and plenty of others.

After that, we finally got started on actually choosing a name. We tried to combine the words we had come up with into sensible, interesting names. We came up with quite a few, decided on our top four favorites, and made a little bracket. We discussed each of the names at length – what will people think, will it help us connect with players, are there other games with similar names – and eventually narrowed the search down to Where Shadows Slumber!

The final four!

This whole process took upwards of eight hours. It was an exhausting day, but I think we ended up with a pretty good name at the end of it all.

Aftermath

When we first decided on the name Where Shadows Slumber, I was pretty apprehensive, and I think Frank was too. We didn’t want to commit to a name that might not have been 100% perfect. That said, we knew we had to make a decision, so we did.

In the end, I’m really glad we settled on Where Shadows Slumber. I think the name does a lot to describe what our game will be like, we have good ownership over the name, and it really just seems to fit. It was a heck of a process, but I think we made the right choice at the end of the day!

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If you want to know more about our naming process, feel free to contact us! You can always find out more about our game at WhereShadowsSlumber.com, find us on Twitter (@GameRevenant), Facebook, itch.io, or Twitch, and feel free to email us directly with any questions or feedback at contact@GameRevenant.com.

Jack Kelly is the head developer and designer for Where Shadows Slumber.