From falling sand to Falling Everything: the simulation games that inspired Noita

Can’t Stop Playing is our monthly celebration of a game we’re loving. This time we have been buried under the pixel avalanches of physicsy roguelike Noita. Watch out for more articles on it throughout the month.

“Ants. Cover them in ants.” The RPS treehouse is gathered around my screen, where several dozen stickmen are currently duking it out in a blank 2D void. This is not nearly violent enough for Sin, who has seen the Ant button. I obligingly sweep my mouse across the screen, summoning a haze of insects. Some of the stickmen jump into them, and get stuck there. “They’re suspended in the ants!”, I cry. “They’re suspended in the ants!”, cries Sin. Then she sees the button for Acid.

We’re poking at Powder Game, also known as Dust. It’s a ‘simple’ simulation where you conjure different elements and watch them interact, and I remember mucking about with it back in my school days. Little did I then know that such “falling sand” games would one day inspire Nolla Games to make Noita, their platforming roguelike where “every pixel is simulated” – but experiments have more serious consequences.

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