Hey all. 

I'm about to publish a demo for my first game. But I'm stuck on the username I should use here on itch and other places. I see some people using their real names, especially for tabletop RPGs, but is it a good thing?

What problems could I have if I use my real name? Should I use an alias?

Thanks

If you're planning on doing gamedev long-term, you should definitely try and come up with a good developer name. It sounds simple, but it's really not. Are you ever planning on having a website or social media accounts for your games? Make sure the name you pick is one that is available online. You can use namechk.com for that. Also think about how you would create the logo for whatever name you pick. Some names sound cool, but are nearly impossible to come up with logo ideas for.  Alternately, you may have a cool logo idea, but no idea what name to attach to it.

As an example, one of the coolest names I've seen is from the developer Trilobyte. Because a trilobite is a creature, they were able to integrate that into their logo. And the word "byte" would be familiar with anyone into computers. It's a nice play on words, too. Below is their logo off of their website.

Thanks, guys. If I really advance on this game dev journey, I'll consider using an alias.