f13.net

Not sure if I should post this here or Gaming Development, or just Gaming, but well, I just need some feedback on this.

So we are making a physics puzzle game for iOS where you navigate these little guys to portals to move on to the next level. Game has been in development for awhile, and we are getting close to making a press release, but then we ran into a small problem.
The name we have been using in-house for these little guys was blobos, but this morning we got an email telling us we weren't allowed to use this name due to a trademark on it by these guys http://www.bloboshop.com/ (http://www.bloboshop.com/)

We are a finnish indie game company, and it just so happens that these guys are a finnish game controller company. So between both of our companies being finnish and both being in the game industry in soe fashion, we simply can't use the name anymore.

Thing is, we are so attached to calling these guys blobos we can't seem to think or a decent name to refer to them as now. Rolos? Rollies? Round-dudes? Blobies?
We're stumped, any advise/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(http://i.imgur.com/dbNbo.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/LWJCE.png)

Geldons.

Should mention the goal of the game is to save these guys. Name will end up being something like Save the Geldons. Do you really want to save Geldon?

Trobbles.  50% chance to get a letter on that, though, too.

I just thought it would be funny, use an anagram solver using the key guys initials or something?

Yeah, we thought about anagrams. Nothing has come up that we've gone AHH! about yet.

Why would there be a 50% chance of a letter on Trobbles? A quick google didn't churn up anything that looked like it would really result in one. Unless it's that Adventure Quest thing. Guessing they are some critter in the game?

I think he was referring to Tribbles.

Bollo's? Actually I think they look a lot like potential Cthullu creatures from beyond the realm of fact or reason. If I saw something like fire would be the only solution.

We have fire in the game. You are supposed to navigate them safely past it. But accidents happen...  :why_so_serious:

Geldons.

New title/tagline:

Save the Geldons!
(Accidents do Happen..)

Yea, that's the ticket. Immortalize the guy in some capacity. No. Executive veto.

Globos
Florps
Wee furry twats
Bumbles


...what?

Robbles
Spheries
Hoopajoops
Labolongs
Jibbies

Grunzels.


Or just straight up use Foozles.

I'm liking Foozles and wondering why that never occurred to me.

These guys are supposed to be an alien race that migrates around. So I was trying to come up with cutsie alien names in my head and failing horribly. We are so stuck on the name we have been using, any suggestion is almost getting shot down out of hand at the office. the best one I came up with was Rollos. Because, uh, they roll and stuff? I dunno.

And for your amusement, my boss sent me idea suggestions like Furrymals and Fluffers. He didn't have a clue what either implied.  :why_so_serious:

When I told him, he said that the English language seems to be obsessed with porn.
We had a talk earlier about the finnish word pussi, which means bag, and how it still to this day makes me giggle to ask for one at the store.

Derps

Then go for Globos. It's similar to your original name, and denotes they're globe-trotting.

Though I'm still pulling for Weefurrytwats. And Fluffers has potential, I could see getting worked up by those.

pussibags

Puffles

Blorts.

Are they filled with gas/Do they explode? Vagabombs.

I like Foozles.

Wanderlings

Jubblies

I broke down in tears of laughter when I saw MEGAPUSSIES at the supermarket.

Also, their name for an icecream cone is hillarious.

Kerfuffles!

Votes cast for:
Foozles
Derps

BONUS:
Name one of them Gropaga. Or all of them. Whatever.

In that order.

You can do what's all the craze in game names these days and call them "Round balls of fur."

There is a creature that originates in Eastern Japan folklore (iirc) called the Kesaran-pasaran.  It's a little fluffball that is supposed to bring good luck.  You might want to think of some alteration to that name and using it.  I think the symmetry that these little critters you have need all the luck they can get avoiding being burned alive in a fiery inferno would be rather neat.  These guys have no luck because their cousins keep giving it away!

*Shrug* just a thought.

Furstables
Rotnozzles
Flibitygibbits
Linticles
Splortz
Spuzzems
Waargabarlges
The Anti-Memes
Horks or Horkins
Fandanglers
Kuncranks
VOOSHies

I like those two.

Woozles.
Blints*
Poccas







*balls o' lint

Testies.
Nutts.
Bolox.
RSO's (round spherical objects).
Sacmans.
Goldbags.
Jisters.

Derps.

RBOF's...

RoBaloFs
Roblofs
Blofs

Roofles.

Snarks?

Raffles

These things answer the question "what would happen if a Critter and a Raving Rabbid got it on?"

Crabbids?

I'm a fan of derps.

Fuzzies

Snotboxen.

Wubbies.

fuzroids

I'm thinking Fluffers.  Your boss, he's a genius.  Just remember to say, in interviews, "What?  Why is everyone giggling?"

Sprites.

Pufflers

Thanks for all the feedback. Think we might have finally settled on something. Unless something comes up in the next day anyhow. I'll let you know when.

My first thought was something like Fuzzlepuffs, but thats too long.

Foozles on the other hand is brilliant. Anyone have any idea who first coined it?

Let us know what you decided. Do we get a free copy of whatever they are in if we helped make the name?

Do your own damn work!

 :grin:

Do the things make some specific noise in-game?  You could name them by sound, like "squeegees."

Winner!

And Foozles wins it. We went through some variations of it. Fuzzles, Fuzles, Fuzels. In the end just plain ol' Foozle got it.

For awhile we almost ditched a name altogether, as we were having a hard time deciding on anything at all. Kept throw different things around and no one could really agree on any one thing. Foozles won it due to the dust bunny and gaming references that go with the name. That and Puzzles and Foozles are close together, and it is a physics puzzle game afterall.

And yeah, I'm going to try and get some free codes for you guys here. This thread really helped us alot, esspecially concidering we ended up using a name directly from here. Also helped in general just in brainstorming while we were still trying to come up with a name on our own.

Edit: oh wait I am too late. Disregard this.

F13, doing people's work/research for them since 2004!

(mine as well at times : )

It's certainly a change from "Delaying people's work by distraction since 2004!"

So we have released a gameplay trailer for Foozles.

Foozles Release Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjeTfhgS2Bk&feature=channel_video_title)

Game has been submitted to Apple, and we are just awaiting approval now. Should be a week or two.

Please tell me we'll be able to whack the foozles in your game.

Also, being someone who in the past has donated to this site, I'm pretty sure you owe me royalties now.  I would like my 1 million dollars in large, slightly marked bills.

Gratz! And good luck.

It makes me chuckle that Foozles won.  :grin:

Looks good!

Just curious, did you pick that particular art direction to purposely distance yourself from cartoony games like Angry Birds?

Is Foozles the name of your game, or just the critters?

I am not a lawyer, but I'm not sure you'd be able to claim any kind of trademark on that.

Trailer made my girlfriend want to play, grats.

Apple moves fast. Got approved this morning.

You can kinda of whack them, there are platforms you can bounce them up on then hit them with like a baseball bat.
Name of the game and the critters is Foozles, not sure what issues we will run into with trademarking, but guess we shall see. Regardless, the critters are Foozles now  :grin:

We kind of picked the art direction purposefully to distance ourselves from the cartoony games. We've been told multiple times by people in the industry that we should go with an art direction like Angry Birds. Be Angry Birds, you should totally Angry Birds Angry Birds birds birds... We aren't Angry Birds.
Wasn't entirely for that reason however. We wanted a metallic and strange world for these guys to travel through that felt alien and mysterious. Think we pulled that off. Yeah it's ait of a dark world. But that was kind of the point. You will be killing lots and lots of Foozles trying to get past each level. We will even tell you how many died per level.

And that's pretty awesome to hear schild. Thanks.

Yay I like foozles. ((^_^)) That one in the back is like  :ye_gods:

Just get a good IP lawyer and get to collecting on everyone who uses foozles! Cha-ching!

The strangiest thing just happened. I can't for now say much (avoids some possible problems) , but next week I can. Google "Foozle" and limit the search to the last week or so tho.  :why_so_serious:

Oh hey.. that IS new..
http://www.foozlegame.com/


I Googled the term after you'd announced the game out of curiosity of where else it might show up.  This other game was nowhere in sight at the time.  How coincidental it's ALSO a physics-based puzzle game. Heh.

Wow. Someone needs a kneecapping.  :uhrr:

The fuck?

You guys did check for trademark filings and stuff before deciding to go with the name, right?

They have a (tm) on there, but it didn't show up in a quick search I just did. Their domain name was registered Oct. 8, 2 days after you said you'd use the name here...

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

It's not like "Foozle" is an original term.

Sure, these guys could by copying, but really it's probably like one programming use "foo" and "bar" and another doing the same.

They have a TM on the name on their site, but that doesn't mean they actually have a trademark. Just means they put TM on the name themselves.
Yes, we checked. Nothing showed up. Here is the interesting bit. We called the USPTO after they popped up on the radar and we noticed our filing wasn't yet listed either. Turns out it takes 7-10 business days for a filing to show up in their system to be searchable.

So here is what could happen, and I won't know until next week. If they registered for the name before us, we have no way of knowing until their trademark shows up in the searchable database. If it does show up, our monies are forfeit for the filing  :why_so_serious:

Kind of a silly system. You have no way of knowing if someone else has registered for the same thing you are registering for until after that 7-10 day period goes by.

It's super strange that the game just happens to be on iOS, has little furry creatures, is a puzzle game, and uses a name a single letter off from what we are using. However I don't think any grand conspiracy is in effect here. Pure coincidence. Foozle sounds like a little furry ball creature.

I don't know, sounds a little too strange to be a coincidence.  I recommend going over to the Lurker thread and giving them the whatfor.

Man, I wonder how many people lurk the games dev boards just waiting for ideas to rapidly implement in a (possibly) shitty fashion?

I won't put it outside the realm of possibility, but I dunno, just don't think it is the case. Still, very very strange. Pretty sure they haven't filed for the trademark however and just slapped it on. So we have our bases covered. We just now went live on the Nordic Region App Store. Thing that sucks at the moment is they show up if you search for us of course, but they also show up as having released two days earlier than us, so WE look like we're ripping them off. Fucking hell.

We won't release Worldwide until the 9th however, and by then the trademark should be out of the way, and we can go into talks with them about having them change their name. In a way this is a good thing for us. Controversy and something to talk about. Ain't it strange.

Well, here's hoping that you are, indeed, first.  You'll be sure to keep us posted on any fun legal drama...you know how we live for that shit.

I just realized this puts me into a bit of a spot.  Am I seriously going to have to make an actual itunes purchase?  Fuck me!

Edit:  holy shit!  At least your version looks like a real game.  Seriouslly...the other one with the "tm" looks exactly like some asshole read this thread and decided to throw something together in a half a day just to be a dick.  I think that may be exactly what happened.

Also, you are going to get my 6 kroner, because FUCK that other guy.

Wow, thanks for the support Cyrrex.

I've finished sending out review codes to most of the Nordic reviewer we plan to try to get to take a look at the game, so I have a couple promo codes left over.
Might as well give them out here, they will work Worldwide, so feel free to use one even if you are in the US. We'll get more promo codes when we update the game, but most of those will be spoken for. If I have leftovers then I'll give more out here.


Just reply here with the code you used if you use one so I can cross it out from the list/others know it is used. Let's see how many lurkers snatch a code up   :why_so_serious:

Bought a copy.  Dude...it's quite good.  Better than most physics games, and a wee bit addictive.  Looks nice too, kinda wish i had an ipad.

The music is good, but you need sound effects for everything, including cute-ish noises from the Foozles themselves.  I think that would help put it over the top.

So yeah.  I'm impressed.  Here's hoping you rake it in.

We had a problem with our sound effects, but we plan to fix that. We just didn't want to delay release any longer, we've been sitting on this about a month. We hired a Scottish guy to do our sound effects at first, but we just weren't that happy with them, then he turns around and starts talking royalty on sales after his lawyer convinces him that would be a good idea. So we fired him and ditched his sound effects. Came up with some quick solutions ourselves instead.

Music is by a little UK band called Deep Sky Divers (http://www.deepskydivers.com/). They haven't really done anything since 2005, but we liked their music, had the right sound for the environment we made for the worlds.

Yeah, it is addictive and you get that little feeling of "Yes!" when you beat a level at times which is great. I'm real happy with how it turned out.
Thanks for the feedback, when we were doing beta for it locally (I think I mentioned this earlier here) we tested it with University students and they could only say nice things about it. Felt like maybe the lecturer had told them "Be nice to to the kind ol' indie Devs, don't say anything to upset them."  :grin:

It's good to get feedback we can work with.

I agree. Some lurker/poster tried to rip you off.

Everything I could dig up listed below:

edit: NO! No this isn't a politics thread! Bad, bad Vaiti! you stop right this instant!

Arthur Parker, famed Internet Detective needs to be set on this guy.

That's not all that needs to be set on this guy.

 :oh_i_see:

Boosh. (http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:k3b7te.2.1)  :drill:  :heart:

I updated the spoilered info above.

Nice one. Hope everything works out.

So anyone got access to the server logs for this board that might be able to spot the IP this slimeball was reading the thread from?  Might be fun to find enough evidence to not only guarantee a successful cease&desist but also line him up for potential damages.  Or better yet get him blacklisted from the App store.

Any plans for an Android port?  (before answering that in a way that might weaken your legal position, it might be a good idea to make sure Mr. Slimeball isn't trashing your trademarked brand with his drek in that market as well!)

No its not on the Android market.
And you wouldnt get much from him.

 :awesome_for_real:

Slimeball is trying to get TouchArcade to review his game. You should sent him a box of shit.

Oh, I don't mind if he has no money. I'd settle for the douchebag being unable to ever work or do business in the industry for the rest of his life.  :awesome_for_real:

I searched for "Foozle" on my iPhone apps and only found his. Where can I find the real Foozles?

Edit: Alas, only available in the Nordic region?

We are doing the Worldwide relase on the 9th of this month. There are promo codes in a spoilers further up this page of the thread.

Vaiti give us the drama! Did he cease and desist? Are you going to use your special forces Nordic teams to take him out?  :grin:

Awesome man! I have an Android phone but I'll put my Apple loving buddies on to this.

Awesome, I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for the date. I can stop checking the store now.

There is more drama to be had, but nothing really to be said about that drama at the moment as I'm still catching up on it myself. I just flew into the USA this week and am continuing work from here, 7 hour time difference and jetlag has kept me out of the loop some.

edit: And the current drama looks like something I'll need to be quiet about for awhile

How are things going with the game otherwise?  I tried to give a review via itunes, but it isn't letting me for some reason.

Because you brought a bunch of your heavy hitters from Norway with you amirite?  :awesome_for_real:


The opposition's new facebook page:

Isn't Vaiti Finnish?  Because if so, bringing a bunch of Norwegians along would seem a foolish thing to do.

I dunno, they could bond over hating Swedes.

Who knows. I just know he is from some place with ice demons and probably vikings and polar bears.
I imagine something close to Hoth with out the Imperial invasion.