Names in Games!

WARNING: This article contains spoilers. Spoilers are blurred, hover over them to view them at your own risk.

Introduction

Hey, pal! Atlas here, just wanted to leave a little update on the storyline. For more updates about Parallax, be sure to visit the Writing and Storytelling category.

So… Many… Names…!

Did you know that there’s an estimated 45,000 names in the English dictionary alone? You didn’t? No worries, neither did I! I just googled it. But still, isn’t that crazy?! There’s so many names out there with fascinating backstories.

Needless to say, it wasn’t easy for Ace, Orcinus, and I to settle on just one name for a character. For example, the main antagonist, Damian’s, original name was Dwight. But I convinced Ace to change this because I felt that Damian had a more sinister mob-boss-like ring to it than Dwight (apologies in advance to any Damian’s reading this article). Instead, we assigned the name Dwight to one of the lead protagonists, Dwight Griffin.

Although we had finally settled on names like Damian, Nova, Lucas, Keith, and more, Ace addressed the last names of characters the other day. He outlined the names we had finalized, and the ones that were undecided.

Ace’s message in our Game Ideas channel

Since the image is far too small to read, here’s a quoted version of his message on May 22nd, 2022:

“I have been spending the past few days thinking of full names for the Parallax characters and I think I have some good ones:

The following 3 names have already been set:
Wade Walker
Valerie De La Rosa
Ace Fenton”

Deadpool, AKA, Wade Wilson.

Wade Walker is one of the former lead scientists of Orion. We wanted his name to have some kind of alliteration (where the first letter of his first and last name are the same), and we decided on Walker. Funny enough, Ace asked, “What about Wade Wilson?” But I informed him that we were unable to use it because Wade Wilson is the alter ego of Marvel’s classic anti-hero, Deadpool.

As for Valerie, we took inspiration from someone we knew with the last name Rose. We shook it up a bit with the “De La,” which in French translates to “of the Rose.” Valerie is also a former Orion scientist, but after being roped into Orion’s scrappy experiments, she was turned into a mutant. Ace and I felt that this name, which seemed so elegant and beautiful, really harped on that “Appearance versus Reality” trope. Her post-experiment form doesn’t match what you’d expect of her name. And yet, in spite of what she’s been through, she still kept her calming, warm, compassionate ideals close to her heart.

And, saving the best for last, is Ace Fenton. Ace Fenton is not to be confused with our genius lead writer Ace, whom the character is based off of. Ace plays a big role in the story, so be sure to check out his homepage for more information.

New Names

Now let’s move on to the new names he pitched.

“Here are my ideas for the new names:

1. Keith Hope -> Keith Orion
2. Damian Dusk
3. Dwight Griffin
4. Skye Storm
5. Dustin Clint
6/7. Magnus Smith & Tyson Smith (These 2 characters are brothers)
8/9/10: Mira Gray, Glacia Gray, Klaus Gray (These 3 characters are all related)
11. Dynamis Clarke
12. Draven Hyde
13. Ebony Grace
14. Logan Payne (This character will be called by his last name in the game)“

At the top of the list is Keith Orion, the founder of biotech company Orion. Ace’s original idea behind the naming of the company would be that Keith named it after the Orion constellation. While this was a solid idea, we were struggling on what his actual last name would be.

Ace’s message in our Game Ideas channel

Ace felt that Hope could be a good last name for Keith, because was seen as a “beacon of hope” that outshined the lack of government action taken against monster attacks. However, our cherished Orcinus brought forward a really great point.

Although Hope is a great name, the theme should be implied rather than directly said. In addition, having the company named after him further proved that it only became corrupt when Damian took over. Keith put his money where his mouth was to cure the monsters, not just eradicate them.

Likewise, most last names attributed to pre-existing characters are pretty straight-forward. We didn’t want every single name to have some “hidden meaning” because we felt that it distracted from names that were intentionally created with significance embedded in them. For example, one of those special names is for the lead antagonist, Damian Dusk.

Not only do we love alliteration (like mentioned before with Wade), but it also has a double meaning running behind it. Ace chose “Dusk” because dusk is the darkest hour of twilight, and this was well-aligned to that villainy aspect. More importantly, though, dusk is also defined as the “transitional state” in between the sunset and sunrise. When Damian becomes increasingly desperate later in the story, he injects himself with a faulty, unstable serum from Orion that was intended to give the patient increased strength and speed. However, this slowly causes him to transition into an unstoppable beast (e.g. the “transitional state”).

Thanks for Reading!

~ Atlas from Atomic Rush Studios

“Rushers Stick Together”