Hey PixelJunk fans,
A couple of weeks ago we unveiled PixelJunk 1-4 in trailer form to the masses and had a HUGE response! I suppose we deserved it because we simultaneously launched our naming contest for the game as well. For those who missed it we decided to let you, the fans, have a go at naming our game for us. It all began to snowball as news sites picked up on the competition and our servers crashed a couple of times from the load!
In just one week we got over 100,000 visitors to http://pixeljunk.jp and 10,000 people offered up ideas for a name based on the trailer. Even though the trailer’s resolution left a lot to be desired, we got a ridiculous amount of praise… and the team’s ego has been inflated a bit, which is a good thing, because now we’ll have to work extra specially hard to live up to everyone’s expectations! :-)
Anyway, we are now proud to announce that the name of the game has been picked! It will be called PixelJunk Shooter. Andy, the artist behind the style of the game, has knocked up a stunning logo that emphasizes the liquid element really well, as you can see below!
The lucky winner, picked from a hat of about 8 other people who voted for the same name, is Mario Paquet from Canada! We chose the name because: 1) it’s simple, 2) it describes the main thing you do in the game, and 3) it makes a great logo!
The other runner-up names were:
- PixelJunk Depths – Thomas Ella
- PixelJunk Atlantis – Takuhiro Hara
- PixelJunk Caves – Chi Lo
- PixelJunk Blaster – Edward Stumpfel
- PixelJunk S.O.S! – Derrick Kross
Other people voted for these names of course, but the above runners-up were picked out of a hat for each name in turn, so congratulations! T-shirts will be winging their way to you.
The most popular name suggested by a long shot was PixelJunk Elements, but we decided that it didn’t capture the shooting side of the game well enough and at the worst people might think it was a game about the weather. “Depths” almost became the chosen name but our producer at Sony Santa Monica, Deborah Mars, sounded like she had a lisp when she said it, so we dropped that one early on. We needed to choose a name everyone can enunciate. ;-)
Thanks for the incredible response and vibe we got from everyone. We are going to make this game a smash hit! If you manage to get into E3 next week you’ll be able to play a newer demo than the one shown in the video which has a number of cool new things in it… including co-op play!
Comment #124:
I think he probably went “Oh good lord, I wasn’t even being serious… but I win – YOINK!”
#114: ROTFL!! PJ Video Games – Priceless.
Well, seems there’s a pretty massively negative reaction to the name.
Really, it’d be nice for you to reconsider the name. It really is flat and just doesn’t scream the unique and creative angle that Q.Games are famous for.
@150…I was thinking the same thing. I bet he was just spamming the contest with 100 names and he never thought that had a chance.
lol how funny. The one contest where a canadian can enter they win. lol.
This so far looks like the best PJ game so far, and really deserves a much better name.
Let us vote!
probably your best game to date. whens it out?
Sounds awesome, love the logo guys :)
Co-op will go down a treat too :D
Dunno but I really think Q games need to reconsider this name. According to their write up “..because now we’ll have to work extra specially hard to live up to everyone’s expectations!” I think it’s safe to say a vast majority of their fans totally hate the name and certainly don’t feel it lives up to expectations at all.
Hey, I know it could be a bummer for Mario Paquet but darn, he could get a special T-shirt and the game for free… hey, two Q games for free… their next game for free – ANYTHING JUST DON’T USE THAT NAME FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD IN GAMING! PLEASE!
lol, how ironic everyone was thinking of names with significant meanings and the name they choose is “Shooter” the name of the subgenre it fits in. Well my name was “Hero” and of course I think my name is the best, lol.
Let’s hope the game doesn’t suck as much as the name does.
loll nice but i thought it needed something a little deeper, i guess not
By the way Mario ‘Paquet’ is funny as hell loll
Congrats
Makes you wonder why they bothered with this contest.
I don’t care a bit that the name I suggested wasn’t picked – Depths – even though it was one of the runner-ups (yeah, the word depth is a hard one to pronounce).
Still, I DO care that the name chosen was Shooter. Come ON, any name would have been better than that. Honestly, I don’t like Blaster but I’d rather have that name over Shooter…
Lamest possible name. I can’t even see how such a name even makes sense, really.
Ouch, thats not very good, but i look forward to the game :)
Really? This is the WORST game title I’ve ever seen. Even the most obvious thing in the world (PixelJunk Caverns) would have been infinitely better.
Honestly, I’m not sure I can buy a game with such a stupid title.
Terrible name and does not suit the game at all.
I agree with #120, it reminds me of games like Gradius, R-Type, Einhander, and more recently Soldner-X – those are shooters.
My suggestions were:
PixelJunk: Primordial Ballista
PixelJunk: EbbSphere (when I thought my first suggestion might be too lengthy…)
Moral of the story: Pick a good name. Please.
I love the Pixel Junk games but this name is not good at all.
My favourite part about PSBlog is that posters are keen to reply to comments when they all say “LOL I Wish we could get married and make videogame babiez!!!!11”, but when people reply unanimously with genuine concern for lack of creativity, originality and overall effort, not a peep. No one from PJ has the balls to actually defend themselves?
I can’t say that I care for the name, but that’s not really what counts. The game looks great.
lol @ 168
yea good point. i would really like to know what is going on inside the studio RIGHT NOW!! just let use vote or something. it doesnt have to be a bracket… just poll the best 25 names and start eliminating… god pixeljunk earth wouldve been perfect. FYI i didnt submit that.
I guess it’s kind of like Mario Paint. You don’t just paint in it. You swat flies and make music and stuff, but painting is still the base.
Here, shooting is a big part of it. Shooting enemies, shooting the rocks, shooting to break barriers, shooting to combine elements, etc.
Personally I would’ve preferred they name it PixelJunk Elements or just left it PixelJunk 1-4 (nice ring to it in a way), but whatever, dudes. I’m still getting a t-shirt for PixelJunk Depths and that’s cool with me. They could’ve named it PixelJunk WORSTGAMETITLEEVER and I wouldn’t have cared.
I really just hope it doesn’t fall into the same traps as Eden and Monsters. After awhile, Monsters devolved into needing to place exact stuff in exact places at the exact times and Eden devolved into hating my life because I’d get to the top finally and miss a jump and fall to the bottom and then the time would run out. As long as Shooter avoids this kind of issue and stays fun the whole way through, I don’t care what it’s called.
I don’t know about you developer people but I think you did a mistake with the name of the title. Although that doesn’t mean the game will be lame, time has shown us that even lame named titles are hits. But making a internet social idea project for a name for your new game and come up with that name…. well you had the feedback for now and had been somewhat lame. In my opinion game looks great but name is to generic, the name doesn’t give it substance as of this moment.
I was starting to like 1-4 as well.
The name is not nearly as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Relax…
I said Odyssey, were all the ideas drawn out of a hat? SOS? Really?
Shooter?!
So far the names were right like Eden or Monsters…but Shooter?
A good name like someone said here was Gaia, now that sounds perfect!
PixelJunk GAIA
Still, no matter the name, it will be a great game. (Non-Intentional Rhyming)
I am not being funny when i say this,
I’ve been reading this blog since the ps3 started out always find the info great but never felt anything on this blog warrented a comment from me except this,
I am really angy at how you can settle for a silly name such as “Shooter” when a majority of people hate it.
Shooter mabe the core mechanic of the game but it has a lot to be desired for when i will find using the lava against water the main aspect of the game whereas shooting in the trailer just seemed to be a means to an end ramther then being what the game is all about.
I really think you guy need to wake up and call a revote or summet.
I am not just saying this but i’d take any of the runner up names over Shooter any day.
BTW I chose Fusion so it’s not because i did’nt win my personal preference is Elements……. It just makes sense
From those runner ups I thing Blaster was the better choice. But that’s my opinion.
@ 172 whatisdelicious
I agree with you on Monsters. Some levels required the player to place an exact type of tower on an exact spot at an exact time for the level to be rainbow’ed and I dare to say that that wasn’t fun.
However, I disagree with you on Eden. Most complaints about Eden were because it was either too difficult or because it had little time, but I found it to be justly challenging.
Monsters’ faults were due to programming/level design.
Eden had but one fault – it required a learning curve – and maybe that’s why many people didn’t get into the game. All you had to do was to learn the jumping distance (and in the later levels memorise the level map). Then it was up to you and your skills.
Eden stands up to be one of the most perfect games for me (even after playing MGS4, LBP, etc..).
You guys must have picked based on the dumbest name ever. Shooter? What fool picked this? The name doesnt even come out right. All of the runners ups were better names by far.
I have no clue why you would bother with a naming contest and picked such an ordinary name. I’ll still get the game but you guys arent allowed to have another naming contest.
10.000 of names and you picked up “Shooter”?? This name doesn´t even fit the main idea behind the project (at least for me the main concept was behind the elements like water), somebody said “PixelJunk Elements” and this is the best one in my opinion.
Of course this doesn´t have anything related to the quality of the game, but sorry, it was very stupid to do a contest just for this.
Horrible name. Makes the game sound like your average duel joystick shooter.
I don’t love the name, but the game still looks awesome. Can’t wait.
It’d be nice to hear a reply from Q.Games about this.
It’s obvious a lot of people are disappointed with the choice of name.
@186…yes it would be good to hear from them but i doubt that they will reply. They might be thinking what to say in regards to the negative response, just like any other business does.
@181 PrinceAshitaka
The comments about Eden for me only really started to affect the game near the end. Like the last level, in particular, is just really frustrating because I’ll be making some crazy jump and then the wind will kick in and blow me to the other side of the level at the bottom. Unless I play it super cautiously and therefore run out of time.
Or in the level with the crazy gravity.
Or in general when some enemy decides to smack you mid-jump, or you just make a simple error and fall to the bottom.
That game needed a time limit as much as echochrome did.
For me, Eden is a game that gets so much worse as it goes along. I still have a ton of fun playing the beginning levels when it was simple, but even then I wouldn’t call it “perfect.” For instance, the Spectra requirement should be a minimum, not a maximum. If I had wanted to get all the Spectra in the first level in one go, I should’ve been able to instead of being booted out and having to jump right back in and collect the one I just got.
Terrible name, maybe the might still be good. “Blaster” or “Elements” were the best two names I heard.
Elements should of been the name. Congrats to the winner though.
What a waste of time. If there was ever a way to create a backlash marketing a game, I think you managed it.
The reasoning doesn’t even make sense. Something everyone can pronounce properly? It needed to emphasize shooting? You almost chose Depths, right?
The good thing about the logo is the water and you could do that with any name. If you chose a non shooting name, you could emphasize shooting by having part of the logo exploding. Probably, too confusing and complicated to execute.
Might as well be called PixeJunk Mars in honor of Deborah Mars.
Doubt Q-Games will do this again
Well, perhaps it was a Sony PR guy – Shooter is a generic name but because of that a lot of people would look into it, more than they would if it had any title like Gaia or Chasm (which are far better btw). Just maybe Sony laid a heavy hand in choosing the name to boost sales. I know that I’d hate to be in Dylan’s shoes right now if that were the case and having all these comments aimed at me.
At the end of the day the name is not going to affect the game in any way, if you liked the look of the game before don’t let something as stupid as disliking the name put you off.
“At the end of the day the name is not going to affect the game in any way, if you liked the look of the game before don’t let something as stupid as disliking the name put you off.”
No, the name itself has no affect on the game, but the people who chose the name…it says a lot about them. If they can’t even chose a name that isn’t absurd and downright stupid, how can we expect them to make a game around it? We can’t, which is why there is backlash. PJ has no pedigree when it comes to AAA gaming, so it would stand to reason that picking the right name for the game would be among the few things they could get right…but non.
PXJ Shooter = Fail!
The logo may be nice. But shooter, really? Elements would have been much nicer!
Well when I now really look at the logo and name, it really doesn’t make any sense. I mean, when I see that logo with a the name shooter I think it’s a game like that XBLA game called Undertow or something like a underwater side scroller.
No no, this is really not cool. Don’t know what Q games will do about this if anything and I know we’ll all buy the game regardless but gosh, if they ever did a contest like this again you know they’ll be flooded with the most mundane generic names ever.
I can see it now: Pixel Junk PSN Title; Pixel Junk downloadable title etc etc
… I’m guess this didn’t go quite as well as Q games had initially thought. :X
Shooter? Seriously? Shooter? I’m getting the game on day 1, but that’s a terrible choice of name. I’m sure there were more creative names than that.. My choice was Pixel Junk Geo, like Geoscience, you know, the entire basis of the game. Shooter? That just ignores so much else in the game to me. Pixel Junk games always have such unique names. Shooter sounds generic.
Dylan Cuthbert just posted this update on his twitter account ( http://twitter.com/dylancuthbert )
“Everyone wanted to win the naming contest it seems! Once people play the game they’ll understand why it’s called PixelJunk Shooter”
Yeah…that’s why people don’t like the name
Guys…after much reflection I’ve realized…we can complain all we want. There is no way they’re changing this after they announced this guy as the winner.
Wow, I wake up to this, gee thanks guys!
Once you all get to play the game you’ll see why this is the perfect name for the game. The logo and name captures the essence of the game perfectly.
There were lots of other close calls, but in the end we can only choose one winner! Sorry to all those people who thought their name was the best, but all the names were good. The entire team spent a couple of days going through all the names, voting on them, whittling them down to the final selection I listed in my blog.
Congrats again to Mario for being one of the no. of people who submitted the name Shooter.
I am very very surprised at the poor choice of name!
Still, I have faith it will be good.