Caltrops - Gamerasutra - Game Design Tip #1:

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by flied lice 02/11/2003, 11:51pm PST

1. Assume your game will have a sequel.

I just read about Deus Ex: Invisible War. When they market the sequel, what are they going to call the original? Deus Ex 1?

This is not as simple matter as it seems. What does it truly matter? As Shakespeare once said, "a [video game title] by any other name would smell as sweet." And to this I wholeheartedly agree. The aptly-named Battlecruiser 3000 A.D. was impressively titled, but arrived a wee bit unplayable. Half-Life, a title generally regarded as the greatest game of all time, is titularly unplayable. Only with the addition of the Counter-Strike mod did the game achieve both tremendous success and a titularly symmetrical name (note the dashes): Half-Life: Counter-Strike. You still don't believe?

Let's look at this problem simplified as an exercise in file-naming conventions, specifically .iso's in a share folder:

Deus Ex.iso
Deus Ex2.iso

Or, in the more bandwidth-friendly rar format (in 8.3 format for compatibility purposes):

deusex.rar
deusex2.rar

You see? Warren Spector, design genius, is a titular game design moron. I could compromise, naming one "deusex1.rar" and the other "deusex2.rar", though the bitterness of compromise fouls my soul, or I could invent my own subtitle for the first Deus Ex, such as Deus Ex: Don't Drop the Soap. Even the infamous John Romero has weighed in on the subject of lame game sequel names in his .plan (look below the .plan entry pimping Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 - a commendably titled but otherwise awful game)

John Romero wrote:

Heretic II. Uh, thanks guys.

Heretic, Hexen and Hecatomb would have been the artistically "right" way to preserve the scope and story of the Trilogy of the Serpent Riders. After i left, Hecatomb became Hexen II and series integrity went out the window.

<sigh>

[ed: I felt this next bit was necessary so included it]

The sentence that was originally here was rewritten about 10 times because i'm trying to be Politically Correct in stating my feelings for how the whole series lost its focus and instead is just using its established brandname to sell copies.

All this from the man who created and published DOOM ((C) 1993), Daikatana ((C) 2000), and Marvin comics! ((C) 2002)

What John Romero said five years ago stands the test of time: For the third game in the Heretic universe, use a unique (if crappy) name, not some run-of-the-mill, market-proven sequel title!

Coming soon from Romero: Dexatomb?
--
foolio

Warren Spector interview linked from Slashdot

Game Design Tip #1: by flied lice 02/11/2003, 11:51pm PST NEW