More on Noon-Flower (Game Idea)

Jun 22, 2023 Jun 23, 2023 (IST)

Just a summary of my motivations, inspiration, and the origin of the name (it’s random). See my first post on Noon-Flower for an introduction.

(Noon-Flower was previously called Wijo)

🔗Motivations

Multiplayer: For me, the main deciding factor for playing a game is if I get to play it with other people. The only one I play right now is Call of Duty on mobile, simply because I’m able to easily get online with friends.

Co-op: I also don’t want to get into the highly competitive PvP games, because while it feels cool to dominate, it requires practice that takes a lot of time and their nature can often exclude people. I used to play Valorant and League at one point, for example, and I was at the point where I would do target practice every day. PvP is still alright, of course, but not the exclusive focus.

Depth: While it’s nice to play Call of Duty with friends, I want something a little more varied sometimes. That’s why my concept is heavily influenced by Minecraft. I’d like exploration, crafting, NPCs, some building, and maybe quests.

Extensible: I think the reason Minecraft is so compelling is that it allows you to create your own game, and it allows this along a smooth gradient. It can be as easy as creating a small base for yourself, or you could go on to make a large adventure game with custom dungeons, loot and gameplay mechanics.

Free: My options for multiplayer games with friends can be quite limited, because I can’t expect anyone to buy games. Also, a Libre/Open Source game should allow further participation from the community. Frankly, that would be really cool.

2D, Pixel Art: This simply makes the game possible to create. 2D pixel art is easier to create, but also easy to mock up, sketch, prototype, and reason about. It’s effects on even generating ideas for a game should be exponential.

🔗Inspiration

Minecraft: I’ve mentioned Minecraft under the motivation points on Depth and Extensibility, but Minecraft is basically a game engine. It allows you to realise (a version of) nearly any game idea you have.

CrossCode: I found the mechanical depth of CrossCode really cool, as well as some of the RPG elements, like the quests and characters/story beats. Their movement and parkour system is really cool, and I find the overall combat system quite good as well, even if I select upgrades pseudo-randomly.

🔗Why Noon-Flower?

It’s simple to pronounce and remember, and doesn’t have any specific meaning, which means I’m not bound to anything specific. Like, Minecraft is so much more than mining or crafting — it’s more building or auto-farming than mining for lots of people.

While it’s supposed to be random and meaningless, I did imagine the game and it’s (potential) community developing a random obsession with some item called the Noon Flower. I was picturing bases, custom maps, maybe some magic, lore, art, and stories about some mythical/magical item.