I was tempted to make Halloween Bonus

but I didn't :-( Current game has taken far too long and Xmas Bonus 2 is going to have to be done el rapido with lots of late nights. Maybe next year...

Hey I need some name help (in more ways than one of course, but for now I'm talking about computer games). A certain large company has accepted Xmas Bonus and Easter Bonus, but they want me to give them non-religous names. I thought Xmas *was* non-religious compared to the full Christmas, but anyway, that'll be called "Holiday Bonus" predictably, but what can I call Easter Bonus? I suggested Spring Bonus and Spring Break and they said it was too boring (of course), and said maybe something with rabbits in (but there is only one rabbit on the level complete screen), hmmm. Thing is, here's the title page:



and here's an in game shot (notice there are eggs, hotcross buns, chicks, snow drops, also candles on another level and a basket of eggs (maybe egg match haha):



Any ideas? Not easy is it...

btw, if you feel like buying this, DON'T. At least not until I have it on my own website (soon) as currently it's on Reflexive and I get peanuts per sale (and that's assuming I can get the publisher to pay up before the world ends ;-)), cheerz. But by all means play the demo. This is a Bltiz Plus game btw (old skool all the way)

Thanks...

How much money are you making, then?

Call it "Happy Fun Egg Time Not Easter Cause It is Too Religious But Apparently Atheists and Jews will Play with Eggs as Long as it Doesn't Say Easter"

Or call it "Not-Easter Bonus"

orrr...

"OMG they killed Jesus, you bastards!"


orrrr...

"Eggs 'n Birds 'n Sh!t"

orr..

"Non-demoninational Bonus"

orr..

"Senseless Political Correctness Bonus"

or.

"Magical Colored Egg-splosion!"

Xmas bonus 2007, published by EA! ;) <--- Notice winky poos! :)

Dabz

Egg Hunt Bonus.

( Egg Hunt would be fine, but it's far too obvious, there are bound to be loads of games with that name already. You can't copyright a name, but that's beside the point. You don't want your game confused with other people's. )

You can also tell em to shove it. Take it as it is, or leave it. If they really must have a different name, then let em come up with something themselves.

Besides that, what the hell do easter or christmas have to do with religion these days anyways? It's all commercial bull. None of these holidays serve any other purpose but to squeeze every last hard earned penny out the avarage Joe with propagandist lies and hypocritical nonsense.

As an atheist/agnostic I really can't imagine why anyone would get their knickers in a twist over this; however, I thought chickenberry bonus might just work.

However to follow some sort of logic;

Christmas is traditionally PCd into a rather rubbish but widely accepted "Winter Festival" just add bonus I guess, and since that is already widely accepted, then Spring Festival Bonus really should tick all the right boxes including keeping it looking like a series.

Personally I'm with Jim T and reckon you should give the damn morons the ultimatum they so richly deserve. But then if money has you as tightly gripped as it seems may be the case (I don't know and I'm certainly not judging or anything; you likely put in a lot of time and you'd like to get paid, and that's got to be reasonable), you may have to use something like the above suggestion. I'm not sure I could bring myself to trust an outfit that said stuff like this, because with that mindset I bet they could come up with more than a dozen plausible sounding reasaons why they were not going to pay you what they might owe you too.

If you can sell it yourself, then why not? You could make a point of how you are standing up the big publisher, and spin it out to a news radio station for some reasonable bonus coverage, obviously you need your local BBC radio station in each case and then make sure the story happens a week or three before each festival! They never got enough to say on those religious shows and they got loads of people happy to spend in a good cause, so why not make it yours?

A couple of points that are at least worth considering.

Does the Church have copyright on the words easter or christmas? If so are they generally letigous? Just don't let them gouge you into a donation to square things if they have and are. I'd bury the thing forever if things ever got to that stage.

Before you laugh that off (and dog knows we might all be tempted to laugh at that) think about the Red Cross, they threatened and quite possibly sued over their logo not that long ago. (ridiculous but lucrative of course) It's always the do-gooders you got to watch, as they all too often have to hide their agendas. They still got them though, hidden or not.

I think halloween bonus would be a good idea! I also think you need to make an Eastern Bonus with Asian themed tiles!

There is no such thing as non-religious names. It simply a matter of chosing which religion, and hopeing everyone else is ignorant to the fact.

By the way neither Christmas or Easter are Christian traditions. The former is Germanic, the later Anglo-Saxon.

It amazes me the amount of crap you talk sometimes.

[edit] After further investigation it appears that Mr. Flamey is correct. Although a lot of ancient nations had some sort of celebration during the winter times or the changing of the seasons.

Well.. he is right... Christmas is based on the pagan Ule. and Easter is based on Passover. (with a healthy dose of pagan in there also)

That mgiht be acceptable though.. Call it "Lamb Bonus" or "Sheep Bonus" or "Worship the Goddess of New Life"

...except in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas is in the middle of summer. "Winter Festival" indeed!

DampeS8N: lol at inventive names. Actually "Magical Colored Egg-splosion!" has got potential ;-) WEll something with egg in should be OK.

Is Egg Hunting a US/UK thing or do other countries in Europe do it?

So don't forget the Xmas one is sorted, as it'll be Holiday Bonus.

I don't really want to tell them to shove it over the Easter one because, yes although I will sell it myself, they can get it on some Major portals (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Real etc) and thus make me a good bit of money, hopefully.

I don't really 100% like changing the names, but if that's what it takes...

The "go on radio denouncing crazy political corretness" over religious names is quite a funny idea. But I mustn't make enemies of my future business partners/contacts in the industry.

Having now had some time sleeping on it, I think the best thing you can try to do is turn this into a positive situation for all concerned.

You could appear to tough it out with the publishers and tell them you really appreciate their concerns, so much so that the only obvious choice left is to stick with the names as they are, and additionaly offer to do specific versions that address the assorted religions they are so very desperate to protect via the proposed name changes. They only need to give you a list of which groups they would like to see serviced with such an approach.

This has the added bonus that you get more titles on the shelf for minimal extra effort. To assist in gaining some sort of moral high ground (which might be a useful thing to have in this situation), toss in that if it's worth taking seriously at all then it's definitely worth making sure those whom it might have otherwise caused to express a concern over the existing titles, get a special version of their own as they really are that special, and it really matters, or at least that's the message you are getting from them as publishers.

Obviously don't actually volunteer this next bit, but it matters not a jot if you feel that way about it all or not, however this approach can address it all in a positive manner. You can potentially get more work (cosmetic gfx changes after some modest research) and quite possibly more cash out of it as a result.

Since that would also benefit the publishers in broadly the same way then it's hard to see how they could argue against it either. You could both spin it into a news thing by saying you are among the very few that are not shying away from other people's beliefs where commerciality is concenred. I've heard lesser issues being news worthy.

It's about the best outcome I can see being obtainable. It's a great shame that what seemed like a good idea at the time has now been overtaken by circumstance not of your making.

I bet you'd not choose to write anything like this again, unless you especially enjoy such a stiff challenge. ;O)

It really is a miserable situation. Make a fist of it and come out ahead of the stupid game. (not the game you wrote, the one the pubs and presumed others are playing)

Honestly i had sympathy with your first Bonus game but with another Bonus here and another Bonus there you exactly turn it into what i personally don't want from Indie games and what's the bad side with a lot of commercial games: stereotype remakes.

They aren't worried about offending religions. They are worried about the reported 50% of the world that is either atheist, closet atheist, or agnostic.

I mean, personally, I don't play X-mas or Easter games... Although.. I'm not going to play a Holiday game with only Xmas things in it and a red and green theme. Nor will I play a Spring game with pastel colors, colored eggs, doves, and other Easter Items.

The fact that they want you to change the name but not the graphics is absolutely retarded. More than that... It is disrespectful to the one religion that they should be respectful towards. The christianity that these games are themed on.

Now. If they wanted you to stick in Jewish, Chinese and New Year themed things into the Xmas bonus and change the name.

Or add in a Sadar Plate, Doors with blood, Lambs and other symbols from other traditions into the Easter bonus..

Or better yet, remove all the x-mas and easter symbology and replace with winter and spring themes. (which affords you 2 more seasons to plunder) This would make some sense.

@Polygoon: ?!

:-O haha. I've only made two, Xmas and Easter, and all I'm trying to do is relaunch them this year to make more revenue so help fund some new games, that's just business. I have admittedly got Xmas Bonus 2 in the pipeline, but that's just a sequal to an existing game, just much better done, what the first one should have been. I *may* do some more too haha, see how well this next one goes. To be honest I really want to make different games now, but I've got to get some revenue in from re-using the engine a couple of times. Then I can have some fun making games no one wants to buy like shooters and platform games.

DampeS8N: yeah it's weird, but anyway I don't feel like making those weird themes as it won't really make much money for the time/art/music cost. I'm better of making a new game.

Hey but beside of milking the already existing ones the thread topic said that you where thinking about another one...crossing my fingers ;O)

How can you offend someone who does not have religion by making even a tenuous passing reference to any religion?

As an atheist/agnostic I can not see why anyone would want some sort of organised religion, organised enough that it needs a name even. More than that is not going to affect me at all.

For example I'm not offended by seeing a church or even a jewellery cross (both ends of the scale catered for in that). I may have a bemused smile for a millisecond or so, but that's about all the time I'd spend on it on any given day.

I can't see how you can sell to anyone but someone who has got religion given the content. Since you probably can't make a penny from someone who would not buy it at all, then I felt it best to concentrate on people who might be prospective customers.

The issue at it's broadest seemed to be that of trying not to offend anyone in the process. Is that clearer perhaps?

Just to be the cleareest I can be, I don't know if there is any sort of god, I've no idea if there is any evidence either way that would really stand up in a way that I can recognise. I am unconvinced, but also feel that probability suggests I may be right in being unconvinced. I'd not fancy the genre of game you have written, as I like sims and tech related stuff exclusively.

The only thing I know is that if you changed it superficially in anyway (title, whatever) and that lead me to then buy it then I'd regret it and be unlikely to be happy with you for misleading me into that situation. I'd quite possibly seek to take it further too. But that's completely theoretical anyway.

Having given you some idea of where my perspectives lay, then if I can offer any specific help by telling you what I see from those perspectives then I'll be happy to in the name of helping out of course.

I can only do that, and offer some potential ideas of how you might make it as sellable/appealing as possible to those that do have religion, and still find a positive outcome for you. That's more of a brainstorming function I guess.

More than that I can't do.

I've talked about more religion here than quite possibly any other time in my life, I'm not any wilder about it now than I ever was before! You only got to mention it and all this sort of thing kicks off. Nothing actual in this world is worth all that, never mind something that may turn out to be merely perceptual at most.

It was just an excuse to make a Haloween thread so that it could get derailed because the other ones got locked - there I've said it now :-)

Polygoon: Yeah I could "religi"-up the game and go for that market cept the distributer won't take it. Actually lots of non-religious people but the game. You don't have to be religious to enjoy match-3 games or a Christmas theme, some people (esp. parents) just feel "seasonal" at Christmas and like the material, so do kids of course. Same for Easter Bonus.

Grey Alien:

"Yeah I could "religi"-up the game and go for that market cept the distributer won't take it."

I say those guys are a few par2 files short of a full .rar

You really can't need the hassle.

Has to be time to re-evaluate the existing strategy.

Anyway, glad you got where I was coming form now. Something good came out of it.

Well I wanted to play it before I tried to come up with a few names. But the installer is broken from relfexive. I redownloaded it 3 times. Each time the installer didn't have an icon and when i clicked it it just opened a dos looking box for about 1 sec then closed out. /shrug

Not gonna make many sales with that type of garbage going on. =(

What a load of PC b/s. I'd tell them your not changing the name of your game. I'm sick of this... Work places told they can't have christmas stuff in their office, incase it offends racial minorites. You need to tell them either take the game, with the name the way it is, or shove off!

Don't you dare change the name man. Stand up and be counted!

Ross.... its about making more sales. That is the bottom line.

I mean... these people could care less about being offencive.. that is really the joke.

Eh, the jews celebrated easter (the jews walk out of from Egypt) years and years before the first ever anglo-saxon saw the sun.

DampeS8N, i know that. But Grey decides what happens to the game. Just nice to see someone turn round and say i'm taking this somewhere else. I'm just sick to the teeth of this. You hear it in the news all the time. And people generally just accept it.

@Grey
This is really an improvement of democratic civilisations: That people are allowed to say what they want without using fables isn't it?! ;O)

Chroma: That's disappointing (and crap), it certainly used to work cos I made loads of sales. I'll be selling it soon myself and I'll post a link on the forums when that's ready.

[EDIT] I just downloaded both installers from Reflexive and they certainly run up to the point where I need to click Next, where I then exited. So regretably it must be incompatible with your PC.

Bunny Bonus?

thanks, yep could do, althought there's not really bunnies in it (only on the level complete screen). Perhaps I could paste a big one on the title screen...

So far the only sensible ones I got are:

Spring Bonus (rejected by distributer)
Egg Hunt Bonus
Bunny Bonus
Spring Loaded (pun, as there are no springs in the game...)

I downloaded 2 other Reflexive games and they installed without a hitch. The bad thing is if I'm having a problem with the Easter Bonus installer then I bet there's others that are too. Just tipping you off, maybe there's nothing that can be done. It's sad tho because I did want to try it out. :(

Can you give me a vague number of how many Easter Bonus units have sold or maybe how much you've made off it? I don't need specific numbers but maybe like greater than 10k dollars or greater than 500 units etc etc. I'll have a game out soon and I'm getting quite excited about it. :)

I am agreeing with Bunny Bonus!!! That sounds fun!!!

Yeah Bunny Bonus sounds good and fits. Everyone loves bunnies!!

See the other thread.

So Bunny Bonus, cool!

Nope, we have decided in another thread that there should be a 'Bonus' game with sexual content - doesn't have to be pornograhic as such - but must be sexual.

Right, that's that sorted.

Hot Cross Bunny Bonus.

it's got buns so must be bunny.

@Grey,

You could change the chick to a pig and call it "Ham 'n Eggs" (rotfl).

"Bunny Bonus" sounds cool, perhaps a little young though?

@Puki Then it would have to be "Bunny Girl Bonus" lol.


IPete2.

IPete2: good ideas. As I'm vegetarian though it will be called "Tofu and Eggs" and feature a grey colourless cube instead of the chick haha. As fo Bunny Bonus, well main audience is kids and moms, so maybe OK. I like Bunny Girl Bonus a lot. Maybe as you make matches you reveal the picture underneath? Hmm giving too many ideas away here ;-)

Looks like they've decided on Spring Loaded. Perversely they said that we need to clearly market it as an easter game so no one thinks it's an action game! haha.

ok so puki Bonus might have a limited appeal... no need to go in to details... ;) I am ONLY teasing puki...

I can see it... Red Light Bonus? Hootchie Girl Bonus?

I still like my Far East Bonus idea, and I am unanimous in that!

I'd make a Zombie Bonus, that'd be cool.

> After further investigation it
> appears that Mr. Flamey is correct.

In reality, if you search back into any religion. The ways and methods in which these behavioural patterns have been adopted over the years, it's enough to make anyone giggle.
A baby's birth celebrated by a fat man from Coca Cola delivering presents to 'good' children.
A man's death celebrated by a rabbit delivering chocolate eggs to children.
It's a mystery to me why we still even have religion.

Eggs are symbolic of new life, although a hen would probably be more appropriate than a rabbit.
Because we need an excuse to 'bomb each other back to the stone age'. But let's not get political here.

Yeeah, stone age bonus, everyone loves a caveman. Like Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja or Prehistorik.

The Quest for Tires/Eggs Bonus...

I like it! kinda chuck rock-esque. See I can just keep on reskinning and selling making all Indie developers groan and moan (especially Germans) while I become the match-3 King ;-)

If that's how you want to spend your life... :O)

McBonus and Bonus King?

no not really, it's just a means to an end: become the Match-3 King then use the knowledge, money and skilled contacts to make some epic new games and also some brilliant retro-revival games. I'm aiming to be a game producer soon, instead of a developer, and then I'll pay people to use my framework to make wicked games.

You have missed the part where you will rule the world/universe and no one can stop you... ;O)

Steady on, he's not puki you know! ;O)

puki has enought media to rule his own little world.

Actually I don't want to rule the world, otherwise I'd have said "Muhahaha!".

There are 3 compulsorily requirements for world domination:

1) Explain in detail how you will rule the world before actually doing it.

2) Own a white furry cat.

3) End your explanation with Muhahaha!