The importance of branding and company name?
For some time now; I've just had the two domains:
jamiewoodhouse.co.uk
qwak.co.uk
Which is fine, I guess; but, qwak.co.uk only carries one game, and the other domain is my name! I'm looking ahead and thinking I need either a new domain (i.e. mygames.com) underwhich I can trade, or to repurpose qwak.co.uk, so that it's carrying multiple games.
The good thing about using the qwak.co.uk domain, is that I have an existing mailing list, and traffic coming to the site. I guess the bad thing, is that it could confuse people if I start blogging about new games in development, and then selling them on qwak.co.uk.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments on that?
Thanks,
Last edited by Jamie W; 05-23-2010 at 08:25 AM.
I always believe that the best approach is to have a domain name for your company/gamedev name and use something like mygames.com/mygame or mygames.com/games/mygame. The reason is that you build awareness for "mygames.com" which, if a game proves popular, can be good for the other games. Also you can put some non-game related stuff, like a community (forums, mailing list, etc) or information about your games.
Personally i never liked the "www.mygamename.com" domains.
Domain names are so cheap, you might as well make a new company name and shove any new games under that (plus thier own pages if you feel that way inclined). Definitely go with .com though. Also, make the name you pick suggest the types of games you want to make.
www.mindflock.com - social AI-based games
I kind of like qwak , it's original and easy to remember.Unfortunately the .coms are already taken (for qwak and qwack) and it's true that the .co.uk extension is annoying.
Try to find a personal, catchy name and register the .com.
qwackgames is available and qwackqwack.com is available too at godaddy.
Maybe it's time to find a name for your company?
Things to bear in mind:
* .co.uk will cause Google to think your website is only for the UK audience, not the global audience that you want.
* You probably shouldn't use a company if you aren't incorporated. If you don't have anybody working for you, it doesn't make much sense to incorporate.
* I think at this point people care more about whether the game is pretty and fun than what company made it. Worry about making a fun, pretty, popular game, then you can worry about brand recognition for your company once you've already got players hooked.
Just my two cents
I don't think it is necessary to have a company to start working on brand recognition. He can chose a name for his devellopment studio. IMO It's better doing it now than after.
JovianBlue video games blog
I agree, I think it's fairly important to think ahead with these things..
Anyhoo, thanks again for all your comments and suggestions; I've been thinking for some time now, trying to come up with a neat sounding domain, I have half a mind to stick with the qwak theme, but widen the scope a little to include other games. So, I've just registered this, and I'd be very interested to hear what you guys think..
mrqwak.com (i.e. Mr Qwak)
I'll probably snag mrquak too at some point, as I guess that's a pretty common typo (in fact, even though I spell the name with a 'w', that's incorrect according to the usage of the english language, where a 'u' always comes after a 'q').
How's that sound?
qwakhouse.com ?
I like the idea of tweaking your main 'qwak' brand.
Qwak Arena?
I'll get me coat.
www.mindflock.com - social AI-based games
milkandqwakers.com ?
LOL. Actually Adrian, qwakers.com was looking good for a while too, kinda sounds like crackers..
Not so sure about the Qwak Arena thingy Phil, google already gets easily confused between qwak and that other brand!
Yup, I think it's a good existing theme I can run with barrygamer; I'm really liking Mr Qwak...
I could build a character (Mr Qwak) in to the brand, and even base games on it (Mr Qwak on the Moon ... Mr Qwak at the Races ... etc).
I'll need to snag the other domain I think (the one with the 'u' in it), I get quite a few people finding my site using the search term 'quak' ... wots wrong with people, can't they see it's a 'w'? (actually, it does kinda look like a 'u' with a dot in it, in the logo).
I think if you use Qwak or similar as your main domain your company brand needs to match. Qwak Entertainment or something similar. Doesn't make sense to use qwak.co.uk as the domain for JW Entertainment or Blue Monkey Games or whatever you decide on.
Don't stick with Qwak as your main domain just because it has some traffic. If it is time for you to develop a company brand image then do that and get a domain to match - keep qwak.co.uk as the games main page and add links back to the company site - or as other suggest redirect qwack.co.uk to whatevergames.com/qwak - that way you won't lose the traffic coming to qwak.co.uk but they will find out about your main site too.
I like Qwackers.com
Qwakers.com makes me think it would be pronounced as Quakers which is a religious group.
MrQwak isn't so bad either.
That's pretty much what I'll do Dan. Keep qwak.co.uk, just for the existing game; and have a seperate main site (mrqwak.com), where I can retain a little association with the game, but develop a wider scope to include lots of other games.Originally Posted by Obscure
I like qwakers.com too Bmc (or did you mean, to spell it with a 'c')? Even Dan spelt it qwack.co.uk, I'm not sure if people are doing that intentionally or if the name is just awkward to spell?
I mean, quack is the noise that ducks made, but spelling it qwak is quite a bit removed from the correct spelling; and I wonder how many people remember the game from the Amiga days, and put 'quack' in to google, and so don't find my site. I wonder how big a problem that is?
Philip Ludington
Mr. Phil Games
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