As mentioned as part of the news from the GAMA Trade Show, the advice from all retailers, publishers, and distributors is to change the name of the game to something more iconic and indicative of the world's fiction than Dárdünah. Though Dárdünah is indeed the name of the world (just as Arrakis was the name of the world in the fiction of Frank Herbert), it's a bit of a mouthful, being hard to pronounce for people who are new to the scene and trying to remember the name of the game either for ordering it, or selling it (a very important consideration). The co-creator and owner of the I.P., Aaron de Orive, and I, long ago discussed this possible eventuality, and considered what iconic names might be suitable considering Dárdünah’s fiction and cultural importance of things such as crystals (an often-used phrase on Dárdünah is "May your crystal never shatter"),..and one of the few words that we seemed to keep returning to was "SHARD"... Like Frank Herbert's use of "DUNE",..shard seemed iconic enough, and recognizable enough, to do the trick. We assumed then,..that if we ever felt really pressured to change the name, "SHARD" would be it...
At the trade show,..retailers were trying to suggest names that hearkened to the animals as player characters with words like "FERAL" and even "PRIMAL",..and there was a discussion of combining words together, such as "FERAL SHARD" or "PRIMAL SHARD", etc...though several thought that this might harm the simplicity that many want to see in a name. So far, though,..nothing seems to "sing" to me as much as "SHARD",..though I'm willing to entertain other suggestions...
With this in mind,..I open this up as a topic of discussion. I'm well aware there will be many opinions concerning this potential change,..so please know that while I'd like to see lots of different ideas, the final decision will rest between myself and Aaron, so don't get too disappointed if ideas get discarded. In the end,..(like the Highlander)..there can be only one!
Scottie
note: The image below shows the current design for the name. I am currently working on a version that has a slightly different design for the "S" and the "D" letters, to see what happens if I use a capital "D" instead (which causes me to change the balanced design of the "S" as well).. I'll update this image or add another image to compare as I get them made...
At the trade show,..retailers were trying to suggest names that hearkened to the animals as player characters with words like "FERAL" and even "PRIMAL",..and there was a discussion of combining words together, such as "FERAL SHARD" or "PRIMAL SHARD", etc...though several thought that this might harm the simplicity that many want to see in a name. So far, though,..nothing seems to "sing" to me as much as "SHARD",..though I'm willing to entertain other suggestions...
With this in mind,..I open this up as a topic of discussion. I'm well aware there will be many opinions concerning this potential change,..so please know that while I'd like to see lots of different ideas, the final decision will rest between myself and Aaron, so don't get too disappointed if ideas get discarded. In the end,..(like the Highlander)..there can be only one!
Scottie
note: The image below shows the current design for the name. I am currently working on a version that has a slightly different design for the "S" and the "D" letters, to see what happens if I use a capital "D" instead (which causes me to change the balanced design of the "S" as well).. I'll update this image or add another image to compare as I get them made...