When "THE JOY OF CREATION" was still in development as "The Joy of Creation: Ignited Collection", the first game in the The Joy of Creation series was going to be remade as part of the collection, where it would have been known as "The Joy of Creation: Classic". However, on July 27, 2023, Nikson revealed that he had changed his mind about adding Classic to the collection, instead having it only include The Joy of Creation: Reborn and The Joy of Creation: Story Mode.

On March 25, 2024, Nikson revealed that the game's title was being changed from "The Joy of Creation: Ignited Collection" to "THE JOY OF CREATION". This meant the game was no longer a bundle, but drawing inspiration from the original Story Mode and Reborn titles to make THE JOY OF CREATION its own game in the series. Nikson claimed that the first title never fully resonated with him after deciding against including the Classic mode as a part of the games to remake. He made the change to emphasize that it was an entirely new project re-imagining elements of earlier games in the series instead of a remaster or update, which he felt did not quite capture the essence of the game.