I've been working on a project for a while now, and I'm really struggling to come up with a good name for it. Its project name, "BulletML" (after the markup language), isn't remotely appropriate for a published program, but for the life of me I can't think of something that I like. So how do you all go about naming games? I've mostly been thinking of various words that I think are evocative -- fire, bullet, wheel, spin, evade, flare, etc, and then trying to combine them in different ways. But everything I come up with is either already taken, or clunky to the point of being reminiscent of a badly-translated Japanese anime. Or just stupid; I don't think anyone will ever name a game "Inflareno". :) I'm interested in the process you all use, but if you want to make suggestions for my game, feel free by all means! Here's a screenshot to give you some idea of what the gameplay's like: In short, you control the ship at the bottom, and have to dodge an unending stream of bullets in various devious patterns.

Epilepsy.

How about something like BulletDance? Some other nice words might be evasion, dodge, geometry, pattern. You couls also use a word like flight, space, ship.

[Edited by - sunandshadow on January 29, 2009 8:20:55 PM]

Bomber ball? :P

Dance Of Death (I already suggested this on #gamedev but i want everybody to see it was my idea)

My fee will be $9001

The trick to naming a game is in making it short, memorable and relevant to your gameplay, but doesn't say what the entire game is about in one word.

Either that or something really, really cool.

Deadly Rain. Though Deathly might sound better.

It took me a long time to find an appropriate name for my game. It was not easy and i could'nt do it in one sitting. I used similar approach as you and thought of words that are relevant to the game and tried combining them in different ways. I recommend sitting down and brainstorming and writing down as many words as you can, it' important that you don't censor your self at this point, write down every silly thing that you can think of. When you are done start picking the words that you find relevant and appealing. Good luck.