Every game released has been released under some sort of company, studio or brand. I grew up admiring the companies/studios Konami (NES), Left Field Productions (N64) or FUNimation with (GBA + PS2) so I knew that I needed a studio company name to release my game titles under and I began brainstorming.
This name came about while I was working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, a couple of months removed from graduating college. I remember using sticky notes and jotting down ideas that I would come up with in between my car-rental duties. It started out as Lot-A (Lotta, A whole lotta, A whole lot of) Creations.
I used the generic ___________ Games template for this name. I also used my childhood nickname/Initials in J-Mise. But, I later diverted from that idea because I starting thinking, “What if I design game studio merch? Would I want my friends walking around wearing my name as a brand? Nope”. So this name selection didn’t last long.
I specifically remember hearing the word “Rated” on a morning radio show, Sports Junkies while driving a 2017 BMW X3, on the way to drop off a customer at the local body shop and I knew that I wanted to create “Arcade” style games. So I put the two words (Rated Arcade) together and it sounded cool at the time (especially since it was a play off of the MPAA movie rating system: Rated R). Plus, arcade style games seemed like an easy task for a 1-person game studio, I enjoy how you can play arcade games in spurts to kill time, and they normally contain strategic game rules which create a lot of attention to detail. I then began sketching down ideas and reaching out to artists to polish my sketches on a professional level.
