Rebranding

[thepaperpilot]

Howdy everyone!

In just shy of a year ago the first version of the modding tree was released by Acamaeda. It abstracted a lot of the features in The Prestige Tree to allow people to add new layers really really easily. It allowed so many things to be either values or functions that would get calculated every frame. I loved the idea immediately (and maybe even had my own ideas of a similar project before aca beat me to it ). It quickly grew very popular, received many many updates, and Jacorb himself even used it to rewrite the original The Prestige Tree game.

One thing that was really notable here, was people weren’t just using this tool to add new content to TPT. Historically incremental game mods have either added new content or modified the pacing of existing content. Rather uniquely, the TMT community almost exclusively replaced the entirety of TPT with new content. This inspired incredibly ambitious games that would be unrecognizable from the game this tool originated from.

I’m so proud of this tool and the community that’s built itself around it. This tool has effectively lowered the barrier to entry into incremental game development, and even game development in general. It’s a great stepping stone between things like visual programming tools (like Scratch) and making an entire game out of nothing. It also allows beginner programmers to make games that still have things like saving and useful settings, that would be boring to implement and would often be skipped otherwise. Not a day goes by when there isn’t someone in the #modding-help channel on discord learning how to program because of TMT.

That is all wonderful, and I love to see how TMT has grown over this year it’s existed. It’s kinda crazy to think this all started less than a year ago. But looking back on it all, one thing struck out at me:

“The Modding Tree” doesn’t really encapsulate what makes this tool so special.

And so here we are, 25 days from it’s first anniversary, and I’d like to propose a rebranding. (And just as a heads up this has been considered internally and with the mod creators)

What would this mean for the community?

Well the name of the discord server and GitHub repo would change, naturally. I’d like to work on fleshing out the brand identity, so the tool can hopefully spread around the greater game dev community, and in general get across the idea that the people making games with this tool are not merely modding, but outright creating games. As part of this process (which will take awhile), I’d also like to work on a nice homepage to show people just how special this tool is.

We’ll work on a new logo and banner and potentially other assets as well (thanks ducdat again for our current ones and already working on some ideas for the proposed names).

What are we rebranding to?

Well, while discussing this with the mod creators, there unfortunately wasn’t a clear consensus. There have been several good ideas thrown around, tweaked, etc. But none that had a universal “yes, that’s the one”. So we’ll list the ideas we have here, but then I’d love to hear from the rest of the community: what do you think of these ideas, and what are your own? In a week or so we’ll probably create a poll for all the suggestions and decide our name from there.

Here are the ideas we’ve had:

Flexible Incremental Toolkit

Or FIT for short. I think this does a great job at describing the tool and what it’s used for. For branding purposes we may also shorten it to FITK, which has more reasonable domain names to buy.

I’d also like to point out the use of the word incremental. While obviously a reference to the type of games the tool is very good at, it also has a bit of symbolism. I believe it does a good job at referencing this trait this tool has that a lot of other game engines don’t: the way layers work allows new content to continue to be added easily regardless of how many there have already been. Typically games in other engines slow down as more content is added and everything gets less cohesive and more coupled. In a way, you could say this tool encourages adding new content incrementally, compared to other engines.

Flexible Layer-based Incremental Toolkit

Or FLIT or FLITK for short. A variant of the above name that emphasizes the use of “layers” internally.

Flexible Layer-based Incremental Creation Kit

Or FLICK for short. Another variant if the above that’s easier to pronounce.

Incrementum

This is Latin for “growth” and “development”, and happens to be similar to the word incremental. The symbolism of growth is used to focus on how this engine helps people learn to code and get into game development, as well as how it’s roots (heh) are in incremental games. Plus it’s logo could be a tree which would be a fun reference to the prestige tree.

One criticism of this name has been that it doesn’t really describe the engine though, it’s just a bunch of symbolism. Because of that it’s been proposed to include one of the above names as a sort of tagline. E.g. “Incrementum: a flexible incremental toolkit”.

Trees and More Things

This would allow us to keep the TMT acronym, which could help adoption and spread amongst those already familiar with the tool.

Others

• The Prestige Engine

Feedback

And that’s that! Once again, I’d love to hear your feedback both here and on the discord server. And don’t worry, regardless of what happens, any mods you’ve created or forum links you’ve made will continue to work. While we’re very excited for this rebranding, we’re committed to making the transition as easy as possible.

Thanks for reading!

[Sashachan]

The Prestige Engine is kinda sick

[nothing0074]

yesss

[The_Incremental_Nerd]

i urge you to keep the original name, as it describes the engine the best. the modding tree lets a developer make a modded version of the prestige tree. there is no reason for this rebranding, other than your weak reason.

[Yhvr]

(This is a reply to TIN, but I dont think the forum says that)

Where is the line drawn between “mods” and “standalone games”?
You don’t call, for example, A Hat in Time an “Unreal Engine mod”, so where is the line drawn between a mod and merely using something as a “liftoff point”/game engine?

[TheEgglet]

i kinda agree with the incremental nerd, if i had to choose though it’d be one of the last 3 (incrementum, trees and more things, the prestige engine)

[TeleKawaru]

This is definitely a tough topic and I’m glad to see you opening it up for discussion.
I agree that with as far as the engine has come, the original name doesn’t necessarily encompass the entirety of what it can do. However, I agree that the recognition of the original name is valuable and a lot of people can be pretty reluctant to have something like that change.
Has there been any discussion to simply adding to the existing name?
The Modding Tree - Incremental Toolkit
Though I’m sure being identified as TMTIT wouldn’t be too great. lol
If I had to pick from the list, I honestly like “The Prestige Engine” the best.
I would think that again, over time, the types of different games made would make the name not necessarily relevant.
Do any of the proposed names describe a game like TreeQuest? No.
While I like the games that follow the typical setup of TPT, I also like when a developer tries to see what else they can to do break out of that mold.
Anyways before I go on too long, I would again like to thank you all for opening this one up for discussion.

[Acamaeda]

By the way, I have veto power here. I’d have to be sold on some of these options in order to use them. I’m hesitant about Prestige Engine, because it sounds like it could be the name of a regular incremental game. I also don’t want something unpronounceable, or containing the words “mod” or “tree”, because those imply TMT is much more limited than it actually is.

[ducdat0507]

I just personally pick “flitk” because it’s a unique enough word that we would get no problem getting a domain name or having the same name as everything else, while keeping it a short and simple word, although it may twist some people’s tongues. But with all that, “Incrementum”, “Trees and More Things”, and “The Prestige Engine” are also pretty good names.

@TeleKawaru

Has there been any discussion to simply adding to the existing name?

The point of the rebrand is to make the framework be more of creating your own games and less of modifying the game it’s based on, since most of the “mods” created with it are full rewrites of the game-play, and sometimes people do very unique and exotic things with it. When people say “modifying an incremental game”, it’s more like adding content to already existing ones or tweaking some of it to fit more people’s tastes. I’d say those games are “TPT inspired” or “a TPT clone” rather than “a modification of TPT”. This is why we don’t say FE000000 is an “Antimatter Dimensions mod” and also why we want to stray away from the word “modding” when possible.

@Acamaeda

I’m hesitant about Prestige Engine, because it sounds like it could be the name of a regular incremental game.

I don’t think so, since the word “engine” already say it’s more like a framework and not a game. If it’s still weak then we can change it with something stronger like “The Prestige Framework” or whatever.

[ducdat0507]

Some other names that I came up:

• "Alfisigm"
  “Acamaeda’s Layer-based Flexible Incremental and Simple Internet Game Maker”.

• "Alfosigm"
  “Acamaeda’s Layer-based Flexible and Open Source Incremental Game Maker”. Basically the same as the previous one but edited a letter, probably for an easier pronuncition.

• "Tsuika"
  Japanese for “addition”. Simple.

• "Rick"
  “Repurposable Incremental Creator Kit”. Too generic synonym?

• "Upgrade Creator Kit"
  A simple, basic name. Maybe a little bit too simple.

• "Yet Another Incremental Maker"
  Ok that’s a rookie name.

• "Acamaeda’s Engine"
  No brainer.

• and maybe also add “The Prestige Framework” to the list?

[Cweepaw]

agree, keeping the original name best move 11/10

[Inferno]

Could just be the Tree Engine or the Incremental Tree Engine, just throwing out ideas

[Snek]

I think The Prestige Engine suits it well

[unpingabot]

So far my favorite is incrementum, imho it’s the best sounding one and I think that it works better I the context

[VoidCloud]

For coming back and reading missed stuff this sounds sick

[Piterpicher]

I’m late here, but The Prestige Engine sounds like a cool name.

[thepaperpilot]

I should mention, the name has at this point been determined, and it will be announced once the next major update to TMT comes out.

[Piterpicher]

OK, looking forward to it.

[VoidCloud]

Epic!