The game finally has a name

may 26, 2026

I always wanted the game to have a simple and easy-to-remember name that also stuck to your head, tying the title to the experience, and not to the meaning of the words. For example, if I personally think of Harvest Moon, I don't think about the word harvest or the word moon, nor do I think about the phenomenon of the actual Harvest Moon, from which the name is derived ("the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox"). I just immediately remember flashes of images and the feeling I used to feel when I used to play it. When I think of Rune Factory, I definitely don't think of runes or factories. It's just its own meaning now in my head.

Initially, I wanted to name the game after a place in the game, similar to how Stardew Valley is named. But many games have used this route, and I'm afraid this game will fall under people's mental category of "just another fictional place named cozy game" that people might forget. And no matter what name I tried to spin: Nostaldia, Buttercup Bend, or a million other cute names I tried to come up with, it never felt "just right".

So I went back to Harvest Moon and Rune Factory again. Could I rely on the game to give new light and meaning to simple words that I put together? I ran through a few again. There was "Summoner's Song". But it felt way too generic to fly on its own. I did try to make a logo for this as well, but it didn't take. So I scratched it and tried again. I did like keeping the word Summoner in, and tried to use "Summoner Bard", but I was afraid of it getting misunderstood as more of a heavy fantasy game as opposed to a cozy one. While playing around with the words, I fell on Summoner Parade.

The image it immediately gives is cute and silly. Little creatures following a singing main character as they walk through the streets of a small town, exactly the image the game needed. Short, simple, hopefully memorable. Not sure how people will shorten it in the future, though, since no one's going to want to type out Summoner Parade every time they want to talk about the game. SumPar? SPar? I don't know. But if the time comes, it will be a problem that solves itself.

For now, I can just be happy that I can say Summoner Parade is the name of the game, and I love it.

xanthua