How Nine Net Reels Got Its Name

Nine Net Reels went through four other names before I settled on the one that stuck, and none of the earlier ones lasted more than a day once I'd written them down and looked at them properly.

The first attempt leaned too hard on the harbour theme and ended up sounding like a seafood restaurant rather than a game — I won't repeat it here. The second was too plain, just describing the mechanic outright, which told you what it did but nothing about where it lived.

What eventually worked was thinking about the nets themselves rather than the fishing around them — the neat grid pattern of rope, three by three, pulled tight. Once I had 'net' in the name the rest came quickly, and 'nine' felt like the right nod to the grid without spelling out the mechanics.

I'll admit I still second-guess it occasionally, usually late at night when every word starts to look strange if you stare at it long enough. But it's stayed put for a good while now, which is usually a sign a name has settled properly.

Most of the other games on the site went through a similar back-and-forth, just with less agonising. This one was the first built, though, so it got the brunt of my indecision.