Come on, Roger. "Princess on the Rag?" I bet less than 1% of the class have even heard of that saying. You old people and your weird sayings, ruining my title =)
But seriously, I had heard the term "on the rag" before (but only from older generations), however I'd never heard the saying with the "princess" at the beginning. Now--unless I want to make it a coming of age story =)--I guess I have to change the name. But the question is, what else do I call it?
I liked the title "The Rag Princess" because of its simplicity. The first two words are only one syllable each, and the word "Princess" kinda gives it a fairytale feel.
I don't want to use Roger's suggestion of "The Patchwork Princess" because the word "Rag" is kind of important thematically for the story I want to tell (I've been working on this story for years).
I could just call it "The Ragdoll Princess" but that extra syllable takes away from the simplicity of the title. If I want simplicity, I could just call it "Rags" or something. But then I'd lose the "princess" and possibly some of the fairytale feel.
It might be good for me to give a quick synopsis of the story. On the surface, the story is about a new girl (Ana) at an orphanage (back in the early 1900s) who gets bullied by all of the other kids. The meanest and oldest of the girls at the orphanage locks Ana in the cellar. Ana's only real friend, her ragdoll, comes to life and then has to search through rooms in the orphanage to find clues about where the key to the cellar is hidden. Each room is like a level in the game (with puzzles, enemies, and a boss), and each room leads the Ragdoll closer to where the key is hidden.
Another interesting thing to note is that all of the orphans call themselves princesses, they all own one doll, and they have a sort of pecking order. The leader of the orphans owns a porcelain doll, and because she owns the best doll, she outranks everyone else. Whoever has the worst doll is the lowest in their hierarchy. That's why Ana is bullied so much because of her Ragdoll.
Each room/level (there'll be like 3 or 4--whatever we have time for) has a theme based on which princess owns that room. The boss of the Paper Princess's room is a paper doll, the boss of the Puppet Princess's room is a marionette, etc. Upon beating the boss, that princess will tell you a vital piece of information about where they think the key is hidden and let you progress to the next room. Each room allows you to learn a little bit about that orphan's troubled past (this is done in a way that won't interrupt gameplay, similar to the game Psychonauts, where you can learn about each character's past while your inside their brain). Ultimately you learn much more about Ana's traumatic past.
My favorite games (like the Silent Hill series, Rule of Rose, or Fatal Frame) have ambiguous stories that can be interpreted in different ways. I want this game to be similar. You can take the story at face value, that Ana's Ragdoll really does magically come to life and save her. Or everything could be imagined up by Ana as a type of fairytale fantasy, and as a way for her to at least mentally escape a bad situation.
Right now, I guess I'm leaning toward "The Ragdoll Princess" hopefully that's different enough that older generations won't start giggling hysterically.
