Hi! My friends and I were discussing about what could be a good name for a game company we wanted to create eventually. After a couple of weeks of everybody thinking they we're always giving out names that didn't appeal to me at all or that didn't sound good for a game company in my opinion and they always told me my ideas sucked and it always seemed to be a 3 on 1 affair and then everybody "agreed" to the name Silverfox entertainment but I still don't like it. At the rate things are going with the hype they put up on the name we'll almost be offering T-Shirt and other useless merchandising stuff without having started on discussing a single :P No but seriously I think it's WAYYYYY too early to even think about a name when you don't even have a game idea going on... well we do but it's still in the design document phase but it's not really important for this thread. I wanted to know what was your opinion on the chosen name "SilverFox" but most importantly what you guys think about what kind of things we should consider and base ourselves on to create the name of a game development company. Thank you guys for your interest :)

Silverfox is good.. it suggests smarts and speed.. you might have something to work with here. In my oppinion, names are probably one of the hardest things to come up with because you're focused on totally different areas in this field.

Blizzard would be another good choice, but I heard it's taken ;)

Well you have to think of all the connotations. I think its quite a good name.

Mozilla FireFox
and
Starfox

come to mind

The name of your company should reflect your collective focus, ethic, aesthetic and culture. It shouldn't be driven by the type of games you're making, because that may change - you may find yourself in a completely different product category or market segment in a few years. Choose something existential about the group of people involved and their vision, such that even if some people leave and some others join, the ideals of the collective live on.

No, I don't think it's too early to consider naming your group. I do think, obviously, that it's too early to start merchandising. [smile]

Silverfox is an alright name. It's a little blah, but it's up to you (collectively, again) to change that. In and of itself, "id" is an unremarkable name (as is "Epic" or "Blizzard" or "Naughty Dog" or "UbiSoft Montreal"). It's the work you do under that name that completely alters its connotations within this domain.

Good luck.

I don't think it is ever too early to come up with a naem and frankly I think the only guide you should use is, can you pick up the phone every morning and say "[Silverfox Software], can I help you" without feeling stupid. The name should be easy to spell/say but other than that it doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be cool and hip because a name will take on the meaning that your company/games give it. Look at Westwood Studios. Hardly a cool name for a game company, yet their high class products make the name mean something good. Same with Valve.

The only important issue is the logo. You want people to recognise the company (that is why you want a simply, easy to spell name). You also want a clear, simple logo so that even if people can't ready the name they still recognise the brand. The Half-Life logo is great. Even without the name you know what it is. Ditto for Virgin (red V) or McDonalds (Golden Arches). Back in the games industry and on a similar line check out the Strawdog Studios logo http://www.strawdogstudios.co.uk/intro.htm. The name is clear and simply but so is the logo.

It's true that when you think about it, all the names from the biggest companies are very simple and just by themselves are not that hot but when you think about what games they made and their reputation you tend to associate the cool games to the name of the company giving it a cool sense. I do think SilverFox is the best we could come up with but we could get something better by thinking it up some more.

As for the logo, one of the guys in the team is working on it but it's really hard to come with something that matches the name and the qualities of the company especially for 4 guys with virtually no experience in gamedev... well I made a Breakout Demo using DX7 this summer and I'm the only one in the bunch that did something related to games but don't worry we're not a 4 men army working on the very next MMORPG blockbuster since we simply lack too much experience for a simple 3D demo at the moment and we don't even have the 1/10000 of the funds required to get a good working team and the necessary equipment to run the darn thing on... we're simply making basic games and gradually raising the stakes. I was thinking of making a couple of bucks out of it too but I'll need counselling for that because I don't really know how that could work out so if anyone one of you has the qualification for giving out advice, feel free to do so. I guess Obscure seems to be the kind of person i'm looking for in terms of counselling.

I'm still looking for proper guidelines that would help me suggest the team an alternative name or getting the most out of what we already have here. We still need to define what our assets are as a team as well since we have only been working together a couple of hours a week since last semester.

Once again, ANY idea or opinion on anything I just said is welcome !

Sometimes you can get cool names from the periodic table:

Lithium Entertainment
Cerium Games

keep looking...

ace

> I'll need counselling for that because I don't
> really know how that could work out

One good way is to attend IGDA meetings regularly and network with like-minded people. The Montreal chapter can be found here:

http://www.igda.org/montreal/

I come from Montreal. If you want to chat further, just drop me an email.

-cb

It's difficult coming up with a name. It's even more difficult coming up with a name whose .com domain is still up for grabs.

I spent a few hours on domain registration sites helping me choose. I settled with Thinkpiece Games, but as Oluyesi pointed out, it might lead people to assume that I only make puzzle games. Hope not ;)

- carb

it is indeed a pain to find a .com for a company name that is not already owned by other companies or simply suckers who buy domain names but never use them :P

We had to come up with www.silverfoxsoft.com because it was the shortest we could find that was a .com address.

we wanted to get www.silverfox.ca but it was also taken and it's not even in use !!!!