So I'm asking help from you, how do you get those fancy and cool names for your maps?.

Thanks.

lpfreaky90 wrote:
I just use the names of test elements
Another thing you could do is just grab a dictionary, go to a random page and picka random word. Then try to be creative with that

Well, in my case I'm finding name for mappack/mod I'm working currently. The one I have right now, isn't good somehow :l

Edit: But yes, that dictionary would be good option.

Packrat (p1)
Cold Conundrum (p1)
Portal Practice (p2, test map using ASW SDK)
Discouragement Encouragement (p2)
Conversion Diversion (p2)
Antiquated Aperture (p2)

They all have some connection to the map itself (for example, Antiquated Aperture is Old Aperture styled) and are either clever (IMO) or easy to remember.

For example one of my maps was named "Blue Walls" because of the fact the Hard Light Bridges were being used as shield walls.
Another example of mine is "Converting Propulsion". "Converting" for the Conversion Gel and "Propulsion" for the Propulsion Gel, which is what the chamber revolved around.

Sometimes though I get lazy with name because one of my maps is titled "Fizzle Bridges of Faith" Not hard to guess what's in that chamber. :p

However since it's for the mod than I would name it something catchy (even if cheesy) that has something to do with your storyline.

First think about what you mod will be about. Is it GLaDOS themed? Is it abandoned? Is it based around a character such as the coop bots or a new one you have made up?
This should be the basis of what you call your mod. If you call it 'Portal Germination', and your mod is about a robot who has a flamethrower arm. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Next you want to call it (or add) something portal related (as in having a portal word in the title). Think through all previous mod names (or in making):
- The Core- Back Stock- GLaDOS new testsThese are ones I can remember off the top of my head, meaning they are effective! As for Portal Stories, I had to look at lpFreaky's signature in order to remember the name of it. It is a little to too broad to remember honestly.
If you have a single map release: then naming the individual maps are important, however naming each map in a map-pack is not.
Name the maps so then you can come back to them and know which map is what. This would probably be a name like prefix_cubethrow_panel etc. You could also have names unique to it. Moth made a map called NinetyEight (I can go back to that map any time and know which one it is).

||A map with propulsion gel, repulsion, conversion gels,
call it:
Run, Jump, then Portal.

Tractor beam stuff:
Dynamic Excursion

Faith Plates:
Velocity Advancement.

Lasers:
Thermal Discouragement
or
Burning for Science.
or Thermal Manipulation

Fizzlers:
Incandescent Particle Manupulation||

Yey, chickenmobile mentioned my mod!

sp_quad_flow

Required test protocol
Aperture Binary Correctional System (ABCS)
Narbacular slop
Not for morons
Testing is a privilege
Bring your portals to work day
Portal: Paradox
Portal: Prodigy
Portal: Perfection
Caroline's back
Tenacity
Banging rocks together

Hope this helps

The title actually made sense in the original plot (which featured a dimension jumping Borealis - But i decided not to grind canon into dust). Not so much now, but I'm too lazy to think of anything better.

SP_CoreCiv was originally meant to be like Portal 2's early form, where the cores made their own little civilization in this facility, but it ended up being a few tests, two of them totally broken (I'll fix that map eventually, honest.)

On another note, DM_ScienceSphere is a HL2 DM map I'm working on set inside an Aperture Science Sphere, so obvious name..

Pitkakorvaa wrote:
Chickenmobile's and Lpfreaky's tips together gave me great name.

So, what is it?

another is called "destroyed place" because it is destroyed. the name is terrible.

FourthReaper wrote:
So, what is it?

Hah, you dog! You will see it when I update whole modpage at once.

Pitkakorvaa wrote:
FourthReaper wrote:

So, what is it?

Hah, you dog! You will see it when I update whole modpage at once.

I'm actually more of a cat person. :/

FourthReaper wrote:
Pitkakorvaa wrote:

FourthReaper wrote:

So, what is it?

Hah, you dog! You will see it when I update whole modpage at once.

I'm actually more of a cat person. :/

Oh that was off-topic? woops

Propulsion gel:

Propulsion Convolution
Lightspeed
88 miles per hour

Faith Plates:

Catapultastic
Like an Eagle

Fizzlers:

Taste of Blood
Emancipation Proclamation
Incandescence

Excursion Funnels:

Smell of Asbestos
Blue Spirals
Heartstopping
The Rats

Maybe that'll help?

kariko wrote:
Propulsion gel:
Propulsion Convolution
Lightspeed
88 miles per hour

Faith Plates:
Catapultastic
Like an Eagle

Fizzlers:
Taste of Blood
Emancipation Proclamation
Incandescence

Excursion Funnels:
Smell of Asbestos
Blue Spirals
Heartstopping
The Rats

Catapultastic sounds really bad, it doesn't appeal to me
Like an eagle: reminds me of Iron Maiden's Flight of Icarus. Personally I think Flight of Icarus would be a better name than Like an eagle

Taste of Blood: why would you taste blood? A joke about ear-tubes would be more fitting.

Smell of Asbestos: Asbestos doesn't have a smell, which makes it more dangerous
Heart stopping: I know this joke is made in-game but in real-life asbestos causes cancer, not your heart stopping.
The Rats: Keep out the rats would be better

Just saying

lpfreaky90 wrote:
kariko wrote:

Excursion Funnels:
Smell of Asbestos
Blue Spirals
Heartstopping
The Rats

Smell of Asbestos: Asbestos doesn't have a smell, which makes it more dangerous
Heart stopping: I know this joke is made in-game but in real-life asbestos causes cancer, not your heart stopping.
The Rats: Keep out the rats would be better

Both of you, did I miss or forget some in-game reference between Funnels and asbestos? It... isn't gaseous asbestos is it? Because I have been breathing that stuff in like it's particulate gold!
.....

But if this thread is really still being used (in an on-topic fashion, even though the OP won't need it anymore) then I'd better contribute.
So, after months of calling my maps like the bsp file (with the sp_fr_ prefix) I decided to go a different route and try a more catchy approach. Nothing fancy, but it still works in the workshop!

I agree with most posters here in that you can use used elements best for divising a name for your maps. For instance, I have a map with lasers, but it also uses fizzler puzzling quite a bit. So... Lasers + Emancipation Grills = Laser Emancipation. Simple, not special in any way, but if you tie it with screenshots and branding it does infact work better than something (even) more rusty.

Another example is Penrose. I made a map with world portals, so I thought of impossible geometry. That either brings me to Penrose or to Escher, and I like the sound of the former more... Introductory Science (the name for sp_fr_penrose_01 on the workshop) is pretty straightforward and not meaningful, but I think Room Dislocation Association is quite elegant, if I am allowed to humbly suggest so myself. And derived from the purpose of the puzzle, too. That is just done by looking for things in the dictionary of your mind, or the internet ofcourse, as has been said before.

Also, I liked the word Ouroboros, derived from the new Skyrim Online logo so much that I decided to use that for my next little project, which will play out in the underground for a change, making itself harder on completion, (biting you in the 'tail'). I know that has been done before, but by god I like that concept. So the first thing I did when I heard about that word was make a logo and concept for myself. Heck, it's even why I made a 1940's version of my logo in the first place. Don't even have a puzzle yet. Probably a bad idea, did it anyway. So what I'm trying to say here is that you can also go right ahead and choose a random word you really dig if you ask me.

So even if this wall of text doesn't bring much news to the table, at least I advertised my own maps here a bit. And I hope it helps you uninspired mappers anyway. ^^