Yeah, I'm not attempting to sell titles over the more fundamental parts of level design.
"There's madness in the method" (Havoc 5). The level's good, level title is not that bad but certainly a little generic. Yet I wonder what you would propose as a better title?
Considering levels in L1 and ONML ordered before than "There's madness in the method", the title becomes surprisingly good. The level and terrain focus on a single main idea. This trick is hard to explain and needs experimentation to execute, but it either works or fails immediately. Such trial and error is worthy of that title. Maybe the madness lies in holding RMB to assign to walkers?
Contemporary level design focusses even more on one core trick per level than L1 and ONML. The title would be less precise today.
Especially if you aren't keened on revealing any spoilers about the level solution.
Hints at the solution in the title, hm. Sometimes, even direct hints look innocent. You don't interpret them as hints at all before you've solved the level or are explicitly told to interpret the title as a hint:
Derailed Level
Abort the Experiment
And I'm looking forward to... :lix-evil: <Nepster> SimonN: I disagree with quite a few of your arguments and will reply eventually. But first I have to transform my loose feelings and vague ideas into proper arguments.
-- Simon
Yes! Please! I hate it when people talk about a level (often from the original game but other games too, even custom ones) and say; "...Taxing 5..."
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT LEVEL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! How could you remember the numbers easier than the title? Use the title please, I can't remember ranks and numbers.
I'm afraid I fell into that on my level pack thread. I apologize. I'll stop that in the future to prevent confusion and irritation.
Personally, I do believe that titles are just as important as the actual level, but I don't think titles should take priority over the actual level and I don't think someone should alter a level just for the sake of matching the title in some way. Titles are the last things I think about when I design a level, and I usually try to see what the spirit of the level is and come up with a title matching that. Sometimes it's literal and direct; others are less literal and less direct. They still hint at the solution using titles that may seem like they have nothing to do with the level, but they actually do. I will go as far as to say that even "There's Madness In The Method" falls into that category and was a vague hint to the solution. A hint where in order to solve this level you're going to have to try doing some things that seem crazy enough to work.
As far as making pop culture references: on one hand if someone doesn't get the reference then the title would just seem generic to that person, but if the person doesn't get the reference and it still connects with the level in some way then that's okay. I did name a level "Walking The Blue Mile" which is a reference to "walking the Green Mile", but even if you don't get the reference the level has lemmings that are walking in a crystal terrain (blue) and the level is a little long (mile), so it still works out even if it's kind of dumb and can still be much better. "Never Getting Back Together" is another reference, but the title perfectly summarizes the spirit of what the puzzle in that level is going to be without being literal and direct.
EDIT: Just remembered another good example. There's a GeoffLems level called "Panic At The Disco". It's a reference to a band, but at the same time even if you don't get the reference... the level itself looks like a disco with what looks like a disco ball and everything, and you're panicking because of the short time limit. Not direct at all, but still related in some shape and form.