Originally posted by Katana:

"That's The Sexy Brutale. It's got a *terrible title* that most people will by no means want to understand, or want to go anywhere near. Might I suggest that you try and ignore that, and give it a shot." - TotalBiscuit
"Have to say though, the title *really* doesn't do it any favors. I'm pretty sure just about everybody got the wrong idea from that." - a Redditor

I think it's the opinion of a lot of this game's players, and hopefully of the game's own developers, that The Sexy Brutale really deserves a lot more attention. But, thinking it through thoroughly, the game may have to take a few cues from the very boring world of marketing.

Steam gets so many games these days that the cover art for a game - even the *first words* of a game's title - start to form impressions that may lead someone to make a decision within SECONDS of whether they're even going to investigate the game further. I honestly think that a solid look at TSB's trailer - of murder, mystery, a chibi art style and a haunted mansion - are enough to captivate the attention of anyone interested. BUT, it's not even a given that every Steam browser will go that far.

I'd suggest some people read the interview with Ken Levine over the cover art for Bioshock Infinite - artwork that reduced the idea of a floating city and a girl that can travel through portals, into a game about a scruffy guy holding a rifle next to a burning flag.
https://www.wired.com/2012/12/bioshock-infinite-box-art/

This cover art was never meant for the core fan that understands the art of the game inside and out. It's more of a marketing item to make sure this game is reaching the right demographics and not being turned aside as "Probably a dating sim...?"

One thing I want to be clear about is that since it encompasses so much dialog and artwork in the game, I do not think it would make sense to change the name of the *casino* within the game. That would be putting too much work on things. But, there are undoubtedly creative avenues that one could try to, vaguely, distantly, convey what the game is about - I'm not even sure I have the best ones, but they're primarily intended to suggest to someone who's a fan of murder mysteries that, no, this game is not simply trying to bait your attention with a half-naked, sexy woman.

The Brutale Cycle
Spy at the Brutale Casino
Brutale
Mask of Brutalite (accent mark on end?)

I can't deny that to lawyers, developers, everyone involved, changing the actual title of a game is a huge amount of work - usually relegated to sneaky early access games that want to shed their stigma, or those victimized by a Bethesda lawsuit. But every impression I've seen of the game suggests it really might help gain some impressions.

Is the title bad, yes, Should they change it, no?

At this point they really can't change it. All they can do is hope in the future to find a better title.

I skiped the game without looking even though it was in my "recomended" list, all because of the name. It took my a Jimquisition's episode to come back to it. I would say "change it", and let marketing consequences be dаmned. It will cause a mild confusion, but in a month everyone will forget the old name and will carry on. And the devs will not be associated with this name. History wise it's better to remane it.

No, it shouldn't

The title is great. Divisive, maybe. But hey.

The title fits well and at this point I doubt they can really change it,even if they wanted to. Word of mouth will hopefully help bring people back if they overlooked the game in an initial glance.

The kind of person that would dismiss a game based on it's title probably wouldn't enjoy it anyway. Personally, I saw the name was a bit strange and I was intrigued. It led me to buy it.

I am also confused about the usage of the word Brutale in the title. Is the game French, or does it have anything to do with the DC comics supervillain?

Brutale, because the marquis thought it sounded exotic.

I don't see as much issue with the word "Brutale". As long as buyers don't know what it means, it invites mystery, which is the point. But from the seemingly direct implication that something "sexy" is at work, buyers may think that the developers are trying to entice people with cheap sexuality - like the many "Anime/Sexual Content" games that appear on Steam every few weeks.

I know it seems prejudiced to dismiss games based on their title, and knowing everything I do now about the game, I certainly would hope no one does - but I have to admit that it's exactly what I do for most of the many games on Steam that cycle at warp-speed through the New Released or Recommended catalog. "Zombie Park? Eh, probably another crummy early access zombie survival game."

The name is a little weird, but I think this was always going to be something of a niche title that relied on word of mouth to get attention so I'm not sure that's a problem. At least the name isn't bland :)

More importantly I've heard a few people saying the trailer doesn't really do the game justice, which is a bigger problem if true since that's what people who have had their curiosity piqued will likely be using in deciding whether to buy.

Originally posted by Thumbs Up Cat:

The kind of person that would dismiss a game based on it's title probably wouldn't enjoy it anyway. Personally, I saw the name was a bit strange and I was intrigued. It led me to buy it.

It's not that people inform themselves about the game, but decide not to buy it because of the title. It's that the title and the main picture for the game are the only things a potential buyer sees before he decides to investigate the game further.
When I bought and played it, I loved the game. But when I first saw it no steam I nearly instantly dismissed it. The title "The Sexy Brutale" sounded like a cheap game thats trying to get buyers through sex. The main art with various diverse characters being the main focuss, reminded me heavily of fighting games. So my guess was that this was a fighting game with various cartoony characters that loose clothes during it or something. Not something I am interested in.
The title and the main art for it should show potential buyers what kind of game this is. This goes whether the game wants to be niche or not. Mystery games are not mainstream, but the niche buyers still have to get that this is a mystery game in the first place. The sexy brutale does a terrible job of this. Sorry Revolting Ozelot, great game. Terrible name.

Originally posted by Amaror:

Originally posted by Thumbs Up Cat:

The kind of person that would dismiss a game based on it's title probably wouldn't enjoy it anyway. Personally, I saw the name was a bit strange and I was intrigued. It led me to buy it.

It's not that people inform themselves about the game, but decide not to buy it because of the title. It's that the title and the main picture for the game are the only things a potential buyer sees before he decides to investigate the game further.
When I bought and played it, I loved the game. But when I first saw it no steam I nearly instantly dismissed it. The title "The Sexy Brutale" sounded like a cheap game thats trying to get buyers through sex.

None of this would put off someone who actually researches their purchases though, which Steam pretty much requires you do these days (since there's no quality control you have to look at reviews to even know whether a game works). Maybe the name costs a few impulse purchases, but I imagine a niche genre indie title like this is more marketed towards savvy purchasers who research their purchases.

The main art with various diverse characters being the main focuss, reminded me heavily of fighting games. So my guess was that this was a fighting game with various cartoony characters that loose clothes during it or something. Not something I am interested in.

That's really just subjective on your part though. I liked the art because it seemed quirky and distinctive, with an emphasis on characters, and the fact there's a chess piece representing a person depicted indicates that there will be some plotting, manipulation and intrigue involved.

Not everyone thinks the way you do and needs the title of a game to spell out the genre and tone, essentially.

It wouldn't matter. I think the devs knew the game they were making was a niche title anyway and probably not banking on a huge amount of sales up front. It just isn't that kind of game however it's the kind of game that could garner a cult following, enough to turn a pretty penny in time.

The Sexy Brutal simply isn't a game for the masses even if it had a better name that fact wouldn't change. For me, I seen Total Biscuit play the first few minutes of the game and describe what it was like and knew in the first five minutes that it was a game I would want to take a look at(And I did but I really don't have much time to set aside for gaming at the moment), prior to this I hadn't heard of nor seen it. The name really wasn't an issue for me in the end.

Having said that there's an awful load of ♥♥♥♥♥ released on STEAM and too much trash on the upcoming section, so much The Sexy Brutal most likely was hidden beneath a pile of dirt and possibly ate into it's sales numbers because it didn't really have a chance to get recognition. I think The Sexy Brutal is a prime example of how developers and publishers need to rely on more traditional methods of marketing which, unfortunately, requires spending more money to get the game in big name hands and actually put their titles in the eyes of prospective buyers. There's very few games that make it big without marketing and generally when they make it big it's because they ticked all the right boxes to deem them "indie darlings" which had everyone jumping on the bandwagon singing it's praise(Stardew Valley for instance).

The Sexy Brutal is a great game but it has it's issues, enough issues that I wouldn't be singing it's praise or racing to tell everyone about it. Gameplay is a bit repetitive and the mystery of the game feels defeated straight out the gate given you know how they die almost instantly and are forced to just replay the same killing over and over, simply following steps X or Y made. I think this is a trap that most games fall into these days. They try to add mystery but try to hide it under padding but in doing so they completely miss the hook to get players interested. The Sexy Brutal is guilty of falling into this trap. The only mystery is a skinless woman who gives you powers and talks about someone you don't even know that happens to run the house. That's all you have to go on and there is no hook to draw the player in to really care about why it's happening, who the woman is or why you should give a damn about the guests. You're just plonked in the middle of it, told to save someone and then had some nod towards a greater narrative you really have to dig into without much of a hook to drive you to do it.

I'm all for narrative driven games but I really need a good hook into the narrative to play it from start to finish. If I'm playing an hour or two and still don't get hooked in, chances are I won't play that game for a few days at which point my interest is already lost and it's a game I'll have on the back burner. You've got an hour tops to really hook a person into your game, if you can't do that you'll have issues. Your first hour of a game should be akin to the back cover of a book where you're given a paragraph to work with which gives you the basics of what the book is about and why you should bother reading it.

Gameplay is ininspiring and repetitive in the end and too much reliance on forcing you to do the same things from different perspectives to get anywhere. Not a good mix... Having said that I would have loved if this was a more traditional "Whodunnit" kind of game with a lot less hand holding(The house being more open right out the gate and not having entire sections gated off until you essentially save target 1 then target 2 and then target 3, etc., etc.) and only really played on the time mechanics lightly as opposed to having it so integral into solving the killing.

Aesthetically the game is everything I want from a murder mystery, the dialogue is cool, there's enough killings but the repetitive nature of the game coupled with the lack of apparent mystery just kills any real incentive for me to go out and start telling all my friends and anyone who will listen to go out and buy the game.

Originally posted by Delta:

Originally posted by Amaror:

It's not that people inform themselves about the game, but decide not to buy it because of the title. It's that the title and the main picture for the game are the only things a potential buyer sees before he decides to investigate the game further.
When I bought and played it, I loved the game. But when I first saw it no steam I nearly instantly dismissed it. The title "The Sexy Brutale" sounded like a cheap game thats trying to get buyers through sex.

None of this would put off someone who actually researches their purchases though, which Steam pretty much requires you do these days (since there's no quality control you have to look at reviews to even know whether a game works). Maybe the name costs a few impulse purchases, but I imagine a niche genre indie title like this is more marketed towards savvy purchasers who research their purchases.

I think you're misunderstanding. It's not that the name turns away impulse buyers, it's that it turns people away from even researching to learn what the game is about. So many games pop up on Steam, I probably see 50-100 games each day that I had never heard of before. I think most people don't have time to research every single game they see, so, whether consciously or not, we rely on the title and cover art to pique our interest. Then after we find something that stands out, only then do we look more into it.

I myself had not even heard of this game until the Acheivement Hunters started playing it. Now I've played multiple times through and have the highest time (of two) on speedrun.com at the time of this post. I love this game, but if I had just seen this on the front page, without knowing anything about it, I'd have no reason to look more into it. The name definitely could have been better. And a niche game like this has to work extra hard to draw in the intended audience, since it's target audience is so small to begin with.