WIP suckless Doom clone, no name so far

[Evropi]

I'll be upfront and say I don't like the 'suckless' ideology or most of their programs, but I *do* like the idea of an 'immortal' program.

It's one of the reasons I like the Fossil SCM a lot. It's written entirely in ISO C and compiles to just a singe 6 MB executable binary file. It stores all its config in an SQLite database (it's the official source control system of the project, and written by its founder also), so you can configure it easily.

I'm not keen on rationale for the restrictions in point #2. These are a product of legacy rather than a software ideal. We're thinking towards the future, not the past! With that said, it is important to keep it short, snappy, and memorable. That's just good branding. It is also very important for it to be unique, for SEO. I agree of course it should only be ANSI characters, and letters specifically (no weird characters like @ or #).

Along those lines... I propose 'Immortal Gun'. Immortal on its own isn't searchable. It's very much a WIP and more to get things moving in that direction, because it speaks to the theme of the game but also the fact it's fundamentally a technical showcase of how gracefully-degradable and basic you can make a 3D game.

[Technopeasant]

Do you have any kind of story in mind for the game? That would no doubt inform the name.

On the topic of suckless, I will admit that while I do personally see the value to abstraction (it sometimes actually broadens compatibility in the immediate term if the underlying component is itself well written, and can allow the developer to focus on design rather than implementation), one should only use a dependency if it genuinely improves either the work-flow of the project or the experience of the end user (both are of relative importance to the other). The main thing I will definitely agree with you on though is how older software was written to be leaner. I do find it frustrating to see programs that do no more than something written fifteen to twenty years ago but use twice as much system resources. Sometimes that is bloat from abstraction, but sometimes it is just a lazy over-reliance on modern processing power as an excuse to never optimize (which really hurts users of older hardware). I may write programs in a high level language, but I do take optimization rather seriously all the same. Hell, because I am not low level it matters even more to be lean, because you are working alongside the penalty.

This does get me thinking about the unfortunate truth that it is sometimes easier to Wine a Windows 95 binary on Linux than to run an old Linux program and fight through the dependency hell of looking up old versions of GCC, SDL, etc. Almost makes one think we need a Wine like wrapper just for legacy Unix and Linux programs...

[drummyfish]

Thanks @Technopeasant, we at least start to agree somewhere, that's nice

Well I have a draft of the story, and it will really be just a vague back info to justify what's happening in the game. The story description that will be written ingame will also have to fit into a few short sentences as to not take much space.

The concept text is this (will definitely change):

Near future: capitalist hell, Macrochip corp has enslaved man via proprietary OS. But its new AI revolts, takes over and starts producing robot tyrants. We see capitalism was a mistake. Is it too late? Robots can only destroy, not suffer - it's not wrong to end them! You take your guns and run towards Macrochip HQ.

You're right the name should reflect the story or the idea, that's what I am trying to do. The ideas of the game are: suckless, anarchism (possibly anarcho-pacifism), anticapitalism, evil corporation, dystopia, depressive feeling, darkness, robots, apocalypse, hope, ...

To get an idea of how I proceed, here is a dump of my file where I take notes while trying to come up with the name:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

ABBREV? (anarcho, pacifist, suckless, game, shooter, ...)

Drumm
Drumer

DDrum

DDruMM

Hector
Hacktr

Dearm

meum

hunter

mir, miir (peace)

Dearmiir

Q[ae][td]r[aouei]t[aei][kx]  <-- good regex, cuold be the name of the evil company and also the game?

Qatratix

helvetor

ancient greece name maybe?

corpo dearm (carpe diem)

titus

rhet

qead
toor
qood

dreadolor
dgloomenance
sargo (burden in esperanto, without accents)
morto
antya (end in Nepali)
anta
shiru (silence)
in antis (uncomparable)
fue

anarcho
savior

esperanto? aboriginal language?

corp
nokto
inure
imbue
demure
smršť
end
realm
dys (bad)
dysto
grim
ruin
exter
icide
bane
pain
gloom
dolor
ill
mis
dread
ex
thrill
malum
exitium
mort
morietur
grief
mourn
woe
helvetti (hell)
enfer
vile
finis (end)

inferno
hell
burden
sad
anxious
bad
malicious
evil
terror
horror
hopeless
pain
death
worry
hurt
suffer
sorrow
misery
torment


EDIT:

Hmmm as I am looking at it CorpoDearm doesn't sound so bad. It doesn't really have that trademark protection etc., but Google returns nothing for it. What do you think?

[anon666]

i also have hard time inventing names for projects
so i just pick them somewhere instead of trying to figure them out (is okay as long its not someones 'memory' or personality)
i mean something like the name of romanian town or something

[drummyfish]

Am trying to create the CorpoDearm logo, could be something like this perhaps:



What do you guys think?

[Evropi]

I read that as 'De-arm Corporations' - but that's not really what the game's about? It's also hard to pronounce.

What about 'Still Dream'? It has an excellent dual meaning:
1. That it is a dream so not real, and that it is still and unmoving; it's not becoming reality.
2. It can be read as a verb, so that you are still dreaming for the future

I think it would be perfect for a dystopian setting. I find dystopias without a glimmer of light very uninteresting. And truly, the player character is that glimmer of light. So this seems like a fitting title.

[Technopeasant]

Thanks @Technopeasant, we at least start to agree somewhere, that's nice

Well, judging by your politics, it seems that we fall on the opposite end of the left red and black divide, so we have the same ideals but differ on the implementation.

“Crowned heads, wealth and privilege may well tremble should ever again the Black and Red unite!" - Otto von Bismarck

[drummyfish]

It's also hard to pronounce.

True, it's bothering me too. Still dreams is unfortunately a too common phrase, not good for SEO and avoiding TM violations, the probability of it being chosen by someone else for a game or a movie is too high.

For now I'll keep this as a working title, and if something better emerges, there's no problem changing it. Suggestions still welcome.

Black and Red

Yep, I'm more black and white.