Greetings CoGizens! So even though my HG game and CoG contest entry (I don’t like to brag, but my final placement in the contest was “Participant”. Don’t worry, I’m not letting such lofty success go to my head) is nearly complete, I am seriously second-guessing the name Nuclear Powered Toaster. So before publishing renders it immutable, I want to turn it over to the masses for some opinions, and more importantly some options.
I will add the link to the game for those unfamiliar, but if you prefer not to get sucked into my own brand of off-putting shenanigans, the short summation is that it’s a snarky, tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek soft sci-fi tale with two fixed MCs, a male smuggler named Alexi and a female super powered government agent named Fiorella. Each one completes their particular academy’s program the same day only to get wrapped up in a terrorist plot. Apparently it reminds many people of Tales from the Borderlands? We’re hoping that’s a positive.
Bringing us to the reason for this thread: I want to maximize my story’s chance of success, and several readers have mentioned that the title may be a trifle too goofy, even for a story that contains spaceship staring contests and poop jokes. So let’s go back to the drawing board. Any suggestion or suggestions you have, throw them out there. The best ones will get included on a poll, and the winner will (probably) be selected as the new game title. Unless I like another one better. This is a cheerocracy, after all. But rest assured your opinions will be given a great deal of weight in the final decision.
Whatever one I pick will grudgingly pry $10 from my PayPal account and receive a special “Title By” credit. Which makes me a bit predisposed to pick my own suggestion, since I’m pretty cheap, but if yours is good enough I won’t have any choice.
Sure, an Atari game beat me to this gimmick, and they offered 1,000 times more money. But you see where that got them, eh?
Let me break down why the current title is already good.
Nuclear Powered
Of the bat, you know it's gonna be sci-fi-ish (lol, sci-fish). Readers will know exactly what kind of genre they're getting into. With a title like that, there's no misconceptions possible unless your reading comprehension is that of a toaster---SPEAKING OF TOASTERS.
Toaster
Whimsical.
Off-beat.
Mundane, but when paired with Nuclear Powered it just becomes this delightful thing!
Plus, it reminds me of that Treehouse of Horror episode of the Simpsons (you know the one):
There’s definitely an art when it comes to making a good title. There really is only one requirement and one bonus when it comes to making them.
Requirement: It says what it is. (Samurai of Hyuga = good, Fatehaven = not so good)
Bonus: It’s ironic. (Slumdog Millionaire, Back to the Future)
Nuclear Powered Toaster would be perfect if you were making a Brave Little Toaster spinoff in a post-apocalpytic world. (Dang that’s a good idea.) Anyhow, I say just think up a short and ironic description of your game.
@MultipleChoice I agree that the title doesn’t say much about what it is. I am just struggling to find one that does while remaining short and hopefully catchy. @Eric_Moser has been great with suggestions (being another who is firmly in the camp of ditching NPT), and I think be’s Got a valid point that I also need to be thinking of searchable words in the title. It has a smuggler and a superpowered agent as the two MCs, so there should be a good title somewhere in there to drive up search results for the title (especially helpful on Apple since we won’t be getting foot traffic trough the top lists anymore, frowny face).
As far as suggestions in this thread, we have Atomic Squee and Toaster Powered Nuclear (I am going to give a pretty hard pass to that latter one, I think) thus far. And add to that a couple of others like Graduation Day, or Smugglers and Super-Agents, that have been kicked around previously. But hopefully there are some others people will include as well. I still feel there may be a title with more universal appeal out there, and it feels tantalizingly close.
The comedic space adventure!!! Lol jk
Maybe something like the atomic spaceship?? Idk
Or the powered toaster?? Or smugglers and spaceships!! I will probably think of some better ones
Some more: the flying tin can?! Tale of two???(jk don’t count that XD) smuggling powers? Smuggled powers?? Superpowered smugglers?? Tale of two clowns
Nuclear powered toaster is pretty catchy and memorable. I guess it’s a trade off between telling exactly what the game is, and “Wait? What’s a nuclear powered toaster? I need to check that out and see.”
Well, if you’re really so eager to ditch the title, then let me offer you some suggestions:
Space Junket
Astro Bash
Peri-Hellions
Astronoids
ok, this one’s not really serious, i just think words ending in -oid are hilarious)
Cosmic Dust or Bust
Eccentricity
(referring both to the astronomical term of orbital variation, and also to the the story itself )
And let me also suggest, for your listening pleasure, my major inspirations while coming up with these possible titles: Raymond Scott.
He composed some of the most memorable pieces of your childhood (like Powerhouse) and in my opinion, perfectly encapsulates the feel you seem to be going for (or at least are fond of): whimsical, imaginative, jaunty adventures.
A good tittle is a catchy one which none of those are. Nuclear powered toaster: Spaces(?) Smugglers or for shorter NPT: Space Smugglers, use a subtitle.
I get where you’re going with Graduation Day, but the school part is such a tiny sliver of the game, I think people might get the wrong idea with that name. To me, the essential elements of your story are: 1) humor and 2) teamwork, 3) in a dystopian setting. The ship is not that big of an presence in the story, only really doing anything on the bookends.
Maybe you could stress the humor more if the title itself made a funny acronym…I think that’s a way to add “funny” to the vibe while still using descriptive words in the title.
it kinda implies right off the bat that it’s a sci fi comedy story.
jk
)
