Is this game title bad?

[PrimeDerektive]

"Derelict."

 

I've been working on a game for a while now, its a sci-fi/horror-lite game on an abandoned science vessel, the premise being you're part of a salvage crew sent to dismantle it.

 

Unfortunately, when I mention the title to friends and family, almost no one is familiar with the definition of the word derelict in this context, they immediately think "bum" or "you can derelict my balls, capitan."

 

I made a logo yesterday too, which I'm pretty happy with,

 

[Spenny]

Good name as far as I'm concerned, and I'm practically a professional game namer.

[Salacious Snake]

It seems fitting to me! 

[mikemariano]

  On 11/13/2014 at 4:03 PM, PrimeDerektive said:

Unfortunately, when I mention the title to friends and family, almost no one is familiar with the definition of the word derelict in this context, they immediately think "bum" or "you can derelict my balls, capitan."

 

I have Zoolander quotes stuck in my head all day every day so, yes, I immediately thought of this line.

 

But I got over it because it really is a perfect title.

[PrimeDerektive]

Awesome! Thanks guys, the naysayers can derelict my balls.

 

Thoughts on the logo? I know the sun-flare-behind-nonsensical-eclipse is overused at this point, but I thought a flat, one color version would be somewhat unique.

[Problem Machine]

It's not a bad title, though if you come up with a sweet name for the ship itself then you might want to go with that instead.

At one point, for one of the tigsource game comp/jam things, I briefly worked on a game called Monstrous Derelict, based on this fragment of a story idea from HP Lovecraft's notes:

  Quote

202 A monstrous derelict—found and boarded by a castaway or shipwreck survivor.

The idea there being to tell a story both about a badass haunted Titanic-esque ship and the monstrous incompetence of the player character that brought him there (I think maybe the idea was he was the captain responsible for it sinking, but that would be a big reveal). Unfortunately the team totally fucking flaked because internet people and it never went anywhere, which is a shame because I thought it had a lot of potential.

[clyde]

I'm not sure if this would bother you, but Moby Games has a few entries for "Derelict".

http://www.mobygames.com/game/derelict/screenshots

[PrimeDerektive]

  On 11/13/2014 at 6:29 PM, clyde said:

I'm not sure if this would bother you, but Moby Games has a few entries for "Derelict".

http://www.mobygames.com/game/derelict/screenshots

 

Damn, you'd think I would have searched that first, huh? My crackpot infringment research amounted to a search on Steam, lol.

 

That doesn't really bother me, but would it bother them? That game is free, looks pretty under the radar; do you think they trademarked the title?

[clyde]

You could leverage nostalgia for Derelict by calling it Derelict 2: Abandon All Hope

Name the ship "All Hope". It's got a nice literary sense to it. Main character's name could be "Ye".

[Problem Machine]

  On 11/13/2014 at 7:33 PM, clyde said:

You could leverage nostalgia for Derelict by calling it Derelict 2: Abandon All Hope

Name the ship "All Hope". It's got a nice literary sense to it. Main character's name could be "Ye".

Grandson of disgraced senator Leland Yee. He changed his name to escape the shame, but only very very slightly.

[Patrick R]

I mostly associate this word with mid-era Beck songs. Are The Dust Brothers involved in this?

 

 

EDIT: I should probably not be an asshole and say that I like this title.

[PrimeDerektive]

  On 11/13/2014 at 8:08 PM, Problem Machine said:

Grandson of disgraced senator Leland Yee. He changed his name to escape the shame, but only very very slightly.

 

I like this. The big reveal could be that unbeknownst to you the vessel was actually trafficking unlicensed weapons from the Philippines. Out of despair, you seppuku out of an airlock.

[Apelsin]

One thing that's come up on the podcast (I think, could be one of the others I listen to) is that one-word titles sometimes can be hard to find with a google search. 

Other than that I think it seems like a fitting title.

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 11/13/2014 at 8:52 PM, Logman said:

One thing that's come up on the podcast (I think, could be one of the others I listen to) is that one-word titles sometimes can be hard to find with a google search. 

Other than that I think it seems like a fitting title.

 

This is true, better add a rising or an origins on the end.

 

 

Actually though I do like the name. It read for the right feel to me, so much so I'm surprised it's unused. I would recommend the logo reflecting the horror more though, it seems too clean and undamaged given the name and horror element.

[PrimeDerektive]

  On 11/13/2014 at 10:18 PM, SuperBiasedMan said:

Actually though I do like the name. It read for the right feel to me, so much so I'm surprised it's unused. I would recommend the logo reflecting the horror more though, it seems too clean and undamaged given the name and horror element.

 

 

Ah, that's a good point, I like that. This better?

 

[elmuerte]

I think the name is rather generic, it would not stand out when searching for it. Even "derelict game" has a lot of noise already.

Maybe "Derelikt, with a k", or "D3r3lict"

 

 

 

 

BTW, the logo is awesome.

[Twig]

I think there's a webcomic called Derelict.

 

Ah yep. http://derelictcomic.com/

 

Not that I think there'd be anything wrong with using the name anyway.

 

Also I think one of the projects at DigiPen while I was there was called Derelict, but, well, that's a student project, soooo.

 

Hey whatever!

[PrimeDerektive]

Thanks guys.

 

Here's a preview of sweet crate hiding action, if that's your thing.

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/r8brbWC6v

 

That badass piece of whitebox tech is to be a motion tracker.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Yeah, I liked the logo change! Just helps sell the concept of it with the title more.

[iax]

One of Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight entries was named Derelict and it had superficially similar premise (I don't think it was meant to be a horror game).

 

 

It wasn't chosen for AF and I doubt they're working on it though.

[PrimeDerektive]

 

Yay functional motion tracker! Can you tell I liked Alien Isolation a lot?

[sergiocornaga]

Be warned, I'm about to be a bad person in two ways by bumping a 100+ day old thread with some negative feedback.

 

I'm friends with Erik Hogan, developer of the 2008 Derelict. When I first saw the 2014 Amnesia Fortnight project, which had the same title and setting, I found myself with really negative feelings towards the pitch, thinking it was highly derivative and that essentially the same game had already been made, regardless of any actual differences. Seeing the opening post of this thread filled me with deja vu, though thankfully I was too bemused and self-aware to immediately dislike your own project.

 

So, to me, subjectively and coloured by own personal experience to an extreme degree, this is proven to be one of the worst titles a game can possibly have. I can honestly think of no other time a game title has turned me off so completely, a distant second would be when the extremely compelling Good People Die became the overly confusing Virtue's Last Reward. I'm just one abnormally opinionated person, though, so don't let yourself be too influenced by me. Your logo is awfully nice, after all.