In a recent Game Design Challenge, you were tasked with renaming Katamari Damacy, a whimsical game with a unique game mechanic that turned out to be a sleeper success when it was first released.
Is it even possible to come up with a better name for such a game? Three readers said no. One even claimed it was a trick question. Having made a very convincing argument about name recognition and securing sales from the niche audience of Westerners who follow Japanese games, those three readers will share third place in this challenge.
In second place, we have a name that actually captured the gameplay in English. What it lacks in whimsy, it makes up for in a clear description of what they player will do in the game.
And in first place a very clever Matt Roberts, a prospective student of The Guildhall at SMU, came up with a title that preserved part of the original title's eccentricity while adding a few English words for verve.
Also, check out the box art designs that were submitted (see page 2)! I'm very impressed with this group's ability to move between disciplines like art and game design. It helps to know a little bit about everything!
Best Entries
Matt Roberts, prospective SMU Guildhall student
Sticky: The Katamari Quest
Katamari Damacy is a game that appeals to a broad audience and tends to sell itself, once word of mouth informs the consumer what it's about. To localize the game for the action-title-driven twitch-heavy American games market, it is best to choose a title that, while appropriate, is simple and most importantly evocative: Sticky: The Katamari Quest. The point is to make the consumer curious enough to remember the title and look into its content -- getting the consumers to look at the back of the box is enough to make them realize that their spouses, boy or girlfriends, and children would enjoy it as well. Additionally, the subtitle's alliteration helps to make the game "stick" (haha) in people's minds.
In addition to making the art department's job easier, what the title "Sticky" does is make gamers ask themselves, "What do they mean by ‘sticky?' That's an unusual premise for a game." The resulting curiosity will get someone who would otherwise ignore what they see as some wacky foreign game to at least look into what is meant by such a simple and unique title, which is all that Katamari needs to sell itself.
Tony Hsieh, USC Computer Science with specialization in game development
Roll 'Em Up: The Big Solution
It's a simple game, so it deserves a simple title. "Roll 'Em Up" perfectly describes the core mechanic of the game. Upon seeing the title, gamers will immediately have a picture of how the game will be played. However, it is still vague enough so that they subconsciously imagines up their own ideal game-play experience. Its subtitle, The Big Solution, not only describes the objective for both the game and the game's characters, it also hints at the premise and story of the game.
As a whole, the title Roll 'Em Up: The Big Solution describes not only the game's core mechanic and objective, it also serves as a nice introduction into the game's dramatic element.
Don't Rename Katamari Damacy
Matthew Pederson, hiking guide and survival instructor
To Namco 塊魂 Management Team:
Utilizing our marketing department and third party market research consulting firms, we recommend that the North American release of 塊魂 be named Katamari Damacy. This title is not designed to appease any departments or individuals within our organization, but rather our customers. The researchers find that the title, Katamari Damacy satisfies the image we want our organization to portray and fits the style of 塊魂 very well with consideration to the demographic in the North American market.
Dylan "ExoByte" Mayo, digital game design manager at Wizards of the Coast
Reallly? A trick question, the answer is obvious.
Katamari Damacy's charm comes from the complete package, which includes the premise, characters, and the music. Since all of that plays off the name so much, any attempt to localize this name would be ultimately counterproductive and accomplish nothing. This game has zero appeal to the Halo generation, so calling it "Super Ball Adventure" isn't going to generate a single sale. Why destroy our unique google-whack attention-grabbing name when games at Namco that need way more work on localization are in the wings (hello Culdacept)?
Nikhil Murthy
After consideration and a lot of crossed out possible names, I have come to the conclusion that the best possible name for the game would be to remain Katamari Damacy.
To demonstrate why, I shall go over what exactly is expected from a game title, and how the original name satisfies these goals.
Firstly, and most importantly, the game must be identifiable by those who have already heard about it and wish to buy it. Otherwise, the game would lose the only sales it is assured of. The name Katamari Damacy ensures that people who know the game recognize it and thus will buy it.
Secondly, the name must attract new people to the game. Here, we must be honest and say that this is a strange game. People coming into it expecting a regular action or puzzle game will be very surprised. People who buy it over other games will probably be looking for something original, and so the name should reflect its originality. The original name satisfies this condition to an extent, but may be confused for an RPG. However, the uniqueness of the name should prompt people to at least look at the box, which should convince them of the originality of the game (and its non-RPGness).
Thirdly, the name must resonate with the expected audience. Here, at first, it seems that the original name would not work. If people cannot even understand the name, how can they resonate with it? Once again, it is worth pointing out that much of the game's appeal comes from its originality, and thus, reflecting its Japanese background may help. Also, consider such games as Ninja Gaiden, Okami [editor's note: Okami was not yet released in 2004 when this challenge theoretically takes place, but the point is taken] and especially, as this is Namco, Tekken, all of which had Japanese names. I think that it less important that the player understands the name, and more important to find the name vaguely cool, which Katamari Damacy achieves.
Fourthly, the name ensures that there will need to be little additional work for the cover, except possibly exaggerating the Japanese aspect of the game.
To conclude, it is worth saying that untranslated Japanese names have worked well before, and in a game like this, I think it fits better than any English name could.
