Your title is the first mechanic players touch. Before a screenshot, before a trailer, before a single line of dialogue, there's a name on a thumbnail and half a second of attention. A good one does three jobs at once: it hints at the experience, it survives being shrunk to icon size, and it stays unique enough to search.
Most titles fail the third job. "Shadow of the Forgotten Kingdom" sounds fine until you notice forty other games are wearing the same costume.
Titles That Earn the Click
The strongest names tell you something true about the game in a word or two. Here's a spread across genres — notice how each sets an expectation before you know anything else about it.
Steam, Mobile, and Game Jams Want Different Names
The same game can need a different title depending on where it lives. A name that sings on a Steam page can drown on a phone icon. Match the register to the storefront.
Room for scale and polish — but a distinct hook still beats generic-epic
- Hades
- Stray
- Cult of the Lamb
Shorter wins — it fights for a tiny icon and a truncated listing
- Monument Valley
- Alto's Odyssey
- Threes
Specific, weird, personal — a literal or self-aware title stands out
- A Short Hike
- Baba Is You
- Getting Over It
Mistakes That Sink a Title
Naming mistakes follow a game forever. The title ends up on the store page, the wishlist email, the press coverage, and the URL — and changing it after launch quietly erases the search ranking you built. Get it right before the capsule art goes up.
- Say it out loud before you commit
- Keep it short enough for an icon
- Let the name hint at the genre
- Search it everywhere first
- Reach for "Chronicles" or "Legends of"
- Copy a hit title's exact structure
- Use spellings nobody can guess aloud
- Ignore the App Store search results
Make Sure the Name Is Actually Yours
Falling for a title before you search it is how a dev cycle ends in a forced rename. Run the name through Steam, the App Store, YouTube, and a trademark database before it touches a single piece of art. A small overlap in a different category is usually survivable. A live trademark in games is not.
Releasing specifically on itch.io? The register there runs quieter and stranger — our itch.io game name generator is tuned for that crowd. And the studio behind the game is a separate job entirely; the game studio name generator handles that one.
Common Questions
How do I come up with a good game name?
Start from the core hook — the one thing your game makes a player feel or do — then shape a short, evocative title around it. Keep it to one or two words where you can, make sure it reads at thumbnail size, and say it out loud to confirm it's easy to spell and share. Then search it everywhere before you commit.
Should a game title be one word or several?
One word is the most powerful and the hardest to land — it only works when the word is distinctive (Limbo, Hades, Balatro). Two words is the reliable sweet spot, giving you room for contrast without a mouthful. Three works when the phrase is a single complete thought, like "Into the Breach." Past that, you're usually padding.
How do I check if a game name is already taken?
Search the exact title on Steam, the App Store, Google, and YouTube, then check domain availability and the USPTO trademark database for the entertainment and software categories. A tiny indie sharing your name in a different space is usually fine. An active trademark or a well-ranked game with the same name is worth dodging before you build any brand around it.
