Samer Khatib Games: Branding, logos and labels - Explained

UPDATE: 4/23/2021

Some of the information in this blog post is no longer valid or relevant. The "Samer Khatib's" brand has been canceled. Instead, all games published by Snowconesolid Productions going forward will be labeled and or branded as Samer Hills games. For more information on this decision and on the Samer Hills brand, please visit the Samer Hills post here:

//SAMER HILLS URL - COMING SOON

Original post below.

     As someone who has been a small-time independent video game developer since 2010 trying to build a brand name, operate a game studio and make a name for myself in the video games industry - there has always been a lack of consistency with my works, how they present themselves, and how I represent myself and my brand. Branding is an interesting topic and it's important for any company or creative individual. It's something that I personally feel like I have overlooked over time or rather, something that took a lot of figuring out over time. 

     Over the years and especially in recent weeks ever since returning to the indie game dev scene with "The Debug" - I have tossed many new names and labels around. I even announced a new type of branding/label earlier today on Twitter. The "Samer Khatib's" label. And, in typical Samer Khatib fashion, I have taken something that should be simple and turned it into something that is unnecessarily over convoluted. All these different names/labels paired with older names or brands/labels and icons that I came up with from earlier Samer Khatib game development years have made me a developer with more confusing naming and labeling than all of Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

     My name is literally everywhere. I always believed that there is no better way to own your own work than to simply just put your name on it. You see a lot of "Samer Khatib" plastered all over the place in all of my works. I know it's obnoxious and you're probably thinking "wow, this guy is really full of himself". It's annoying I know but I swear I'm not trying to be funny and I honestly do have an explanation and reasoning as to why I label everything and overuse my own name.

     So, in this blog post, I'm going to explain all the naming, branding, icons, and labels I use as a game developer/studio and explain what everything means.

Brands & Label names:

     * "Snowconesolid Productions" - This is the name of the studio. Additionally, sometimes you might see "Samer Khatib (Snowconesolid Productions) LLC". This is also the name of the studio. These names are interchangeable. 

Examples of where you would see these appear in my works: At the very start of any of my games, the very first splash screen that will pop up will be the first label. It will just say "Snowconesolid Productions". As for the second label, which is much longer, this is for other things such as copyright of the game or whatever product is. 

How it's typically represented in games. Half Snowconesolid Mascot in the center followed by the text Snowconesolid Productions below. You may also see different variations of this logo, but the same design and format.

"Snowconesolid Productions"

Snowconesolid Productions logo

     Let's talk about "Business". This is a term that I personally cannot stand for many reasons but mostly because I am just bad at it. However, if you are serious about something or want to pursue your dream beyond it just being a hobby then you will probably be faced with this term numerous times. More specifically, lets focus on one of the most important parts of your business and that is "Branding". Whether you are a new YouTuber or Twitch streamer trying to make it big or a small indie solo game developer such as myself, the branding means everything. I think that building up your own brand is very important because it creates an identifiable image or name for your company, for your product and most importantly, for yourself.

Snowconesolid Mascot thing...

     As you can see by my own logo and mascot, obviously i'm not an expert on branding. But having or building your own brand is cool because it allows you to have this alternate name or alternate persona that is associated with your work. I started learning how to create games back in late 2010 and ever since then I have always identified myself as "Snowconesolid". This is the name I decided to go with as a developer. I know it is a very strange name, and I have talked about this before on the blog - it is really just a silly name that has no meaning. It was something I came up with years ago and then just started using it as your typical "online screen name" or online persona. The purple-cat mascot thing (above) also has no real meaning. It was just something that started as a terrible random drawing I did on paper years ago that continued to evolve. For some reason I decided to make this my logo and something that would identify my work. I started placing the words "Snowconesolid Productions" in all my games as if I was an actual game studio and ever since this has just been something I continued to roll with.

     Anyway, as I continue to hit big milestones in my journey in game development the more serious I am starting to become as a indie game developer. I know I don't make the greatest games but I am constantly working hard and doing my best to keep improving. I have been doing this for years now, but the more I do it, that need to continue creating just keeps getting bigger. I am normally the type of person who tries something and then eventually gets bored and moves onto something else. But with game development that is not the case. I am very passionate and love creating games so much. I am starting to realize more and more that this is something I want to continue doing. So I will continue to make more games and expand my brand as much as I can. 

     I recently created a new separate twitter account: @SnowconesolidPR

This account will be the account for "Snowconesolid Productions". I'll be honest though, I will probably only use this account to spam "promote" my new stuff  such as new games, Steam greenlight campaigns, etc. Hopefully I won't come across as too spammy promoty (that's not a word) with this account.

     Anyway, my main account is still: @snowconesolid
This is my original account. It will still be the account that I will use more and be more active on and get to actually just be myself on. So if you are interested check those out. (Or don't. Totally not trying to advertise my twitters right now...)

     Anyway, to end things off I just want to quickly take the time to say thank you to all of you out there for constantly giving me the motivation to continue doing what I enjoy doing. This blog has been up for years now. It was dead when I first started, but as I continue to post and look at the stats for it, i'm seeing that it is starting to get daily visitors and the numbers are growing. More traffic is coming in. More people are starting to reach out to me on twitter and take the time to say "hi", or "your game is cool". And more people are checking out my games and letting me know what they thought of them. And that is just so cool to see. Seeing people take the time to play something I created or take an interest in my work makes me genuinely happy. It keeps me motivated. So thanks everyone. You are all awesome and I am so grateful for all of you. I look forward to sharing the journey ahead!