Tuesday 13 May 2014

The Naming of Things

I am terrible at naming projects. I obsess over trying to find the right label, with all the right layers of reference, tone, implication and irony, while still being something that is short enough to fit on my webpage sidebar, unique enough that entering it into a search engine has a chance of bringing people to my game, sufficiently easy to spell that the average person CAN enter it into a search engine...

So at the moment I'm just tumbling over lists and phrases trying to find SOMETHING that fits.

Some of the phrases that have gone past me so far:


The Lily Marker
Buried Lilies
Drifting From Reason
Moonlight Visitation
Interlocking Spirits
A Delicacy of Spirit
These Pale Shadows
Memory's Refuge


All of them have some possibilities but...

(And no, I'm intentionally not saying just WHAT implications I'm trying to send with these titles. I want to see what images they evoke for you on their own!)

Please feel free to share your thoughts - what do these phrases make you think of? (Different ones bringing different thoughts is perfectly sensible) Which if any of them sound enticing and make you want to know what I'm on about?

7 comments:

Beznogi.Tancerz said...

I like Burried Lilies, but it's kinda grim, a lilies represent pure feelings.

I will just write couple of my own then x)

Moonpale
Moonray Lilies
Phantom Lily

furiouspuppet said...

I like Buried Lilies the best from that list. Both for a horror/mystery vibe from the two words together and also that Lilies can be associated with lesbianism since the Yuri/Lily connection.

So it makes me think it's a mystery or horror VN that involves lesbians or at least a close sisterhood.

Ren said...

Keeping in mind I'm not a native English speaker:

The Lily Marker: nothing much - it almost seems to me like a farming simulator thing where you put a marker for your lilies plot.

Buried Lilies: kind of interesting, but not quite there. I'd like some other synonym that sounded more anachronistic, but I can't find any.

Drifting From Reason: This one makes me think of some interesting point and click adventure. Perhaps something to do with a woman who's a medium against her own will? She'd find herself involved with ghosts and gradually decide to help them, or not, depending on what you decide as a player.

Moonlight Visitation: I'd like this one to have one hell of a swirly logo with golden bits on the front, with a small illustration of the moon inside. Perhaps someone who meets a different spirit each night, when the moon is shining in the sky. And at the end of the moon cycle, something happens. Not sure what.
Interlocking Spirits: Puzzle game of some sort. You progress with the story and then have to solve some sort of cat cradle puzzle that's somehow related to the previous bit of the story. And then there's a whole overarching plot that puts all of your puzzles together somewhat and makes them fit all in a bigger, complicated picture.

A Delicacy of Spirit: I always think of food when the world "delicacy" appears, but I doubt it's what was intended there. :/ Cooking game, with potions and fairies. Half rhythm game half puzzle, the puzzle goes crescendo as you get nearer to the solution and when you find it you adopt a new familiar that helps you in your magical boutique. 'cause I liked Magical Boutique. So I'd like some exploration, ingredients gathering and stuff.

These Pale Shadows: Story-heavy. A story about a family that lived in a mansion you're inheriting or bought or something. You collect letters, memories (if you played Fragile Dreams, memories like that, I liked those - they were stories that spawned when you collected a particular object, rather than letters or something) and pieces of a bigger, overarching story. At the end you should feel like crying a bit, but also happy, because it's a melancholy, bitter-sweet story.

Memory's Refuge: Probably the one that's haziest in my mind. It would be kind of interesting if instead of collecting memories in a game you were purportedly getting rid of them. I'd expect there would be a place (the refuge?) where you can trap or crystallise memories after particular criteria is met. Of course, you would find out why the protagonist is getting rid of these memories (after having been misled during the game, with a few hints that, looking back, make you go "Aaah, that all makes sense, now!") only at the end of the game, only if you find the right ending. The other endings should still be interesting, like Date Warp, but they shouldn't give you the whole picture.

The ones that I'm most interested in are:

Memory's Refuge
These Pale Shadows
Drifting From Reason
Moonlight Visitation
A Delicacy of Spirit

in that order, from most interested to least interested. The other ones I'm not so keen on.

Unknown said...

Pale Shadows sounds nice, without 'these part.

Angela Fontana said...

lesbian ghosts. kind of a 'when marnie was there' or 'carmilla' thing

Unknown said...

Drifting From Reason
Moonlight Visitation
These Pale Shadows
Memory's Refuge

These are the 4 that speak to me the most - something about the way the words flow off the tongue feels more poetic than the other 4.

Drifting from reason evokes a combination of reckless love and madness - like falling in love with someone you REALLY shouldn't.

Moonlight Visitation makes me think of meeting someone in a secluded, plant-filled, moonlit (duh) grove in the dead of night.

These Pale Shadows - this one is the most powerful for me. Having the word "these" at the beginning gives it a sort of... force? Something like that. The imagery is striking - it's impossible to take literally since shadows can't be pale, so I can't help but have all my interpretations of it be in metaphor. It makes me think of shadows and smoke, and thin, flickering outlines in the dark. There's something sinister about it.

Memory's refuge has a desperate, "last stand" sort of sad feeling for me, like an Alzheimer's patient, or a last bastion at the end of the world that holds humanity's memories as we fade from the universe.

Volkai | Alex said...

At a glance, based solely on which titles grab my interest:

I recommend against-
The Lily Marker
A Delicacy of Spirit
These Pale Shadows

I recommend in favor of-
Drifting From Reason
Memory's Refuge