Animal Crossing New Horizons Roundup: Just Make It Your Own Way

[kjorteo]

Apologies if I get a bit wordy in this one. It's the culmination of some things that have been building for a long time now, I think.

Meanwhile, on the island....

Comments

[kilroyfirelizard]

I don't really blame you too much for not wanting to go 5 star; the whole develop the hell out of this deserted island can be a bit much, and certainly does defeat the purpose of living a relaxing lifestyle on a deserted island. I worked my way up to 3 star, and that's good enough for me! I don't want a big city on my island, I'm happy with a small town look for now. Have all the houses nicely organized, shove my shops together in a small area of the island, give the museum a nice big open area for some outdoor exhibits because why not, and have the rest of the island be a nice nature area (save for the fruit and bamboo groves.) Still have a slightly civilization type setup without sacrificing the natural island aesthetic

[kjorteo]

Our residences aren't even close to organized. We have the museum, Nook's Cranny, and Able Sisters all kind of next to each other just north of the plaza, so all the commercial and professional stuff is kind of right there which makes shopping more centralized and convenient for everyone. But the houses? The houses are sneezed every which where, more or less on the made-up-as-we-go philosophy of "what looks like a good spot" and giving everyone a fair amount of room to breathe and have a spacious view and such, with no real planning beyond the immediate "where do we have room to set up one more plot" every time it comes up.

And it's a good system! It's chaotic but it's quaint and island-y, good for our generally low-impact natural aesthetic. Arranging people in a tight suburban grid just feels out of character for this island, for the same reason that the five-star requirements do.

Oh I can't wait to show you what we did with the museum, though. It (along with the clifftop cafe, which has come an impressively long way since the time the screenshots for this update were taken--working through a backlog and all) are the two honest-to-goodness "put it in the tourism brochure" must-see highlights of our town.

[kilroyfirelizard]

Oh yeah, same here with the houses. All over the place, and it was kind of screwing up a few things with the shop rearranging. I may still change what I have planned, maybe even leave the houses as is (save for one already set for moving) and put the museum cliffside instead of right at the base. I did want a bit of neatness at least, but we'll see. I like the idea of a slightly suburbian setup, but I tend to get new ideas all the time and see how it sits on paper, so to speak. I am definitely interested in seeing how this museum winds up looking though!

[kilroyfirelizard]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1belfjSTRRP-eyq3ZlnztZqAaQ1yszdKP/view?usp=sharing has the current outline of what I had planned (ignore the vacant houses, they're occupied now); with https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CXGK_vg4rvQDzFroqAFsYJjFNwqR4X7/view?usp=sharing how it looks as of right now. I kind of actually don't like how close together the houses are planned now that I look at this, with all that open space left over on the main area so I need to rework that idea and give them more than just 48 square digs for property space, but I definitely like the idea of the museum having ALL of that open space to work with, especially if I throw up a bunch of outdoor exhibit stuff like the fossils and Flick's sculptures. Cafe would likely work well to the west of the pond, too.

[kjorteo]

Oh, that is impressively well thought out! You have the perfectly organized fruit orchard and everything! I agree with the first draft of what you had planned looking a little cramped there, but to be fair, as you can see, even what you have right now before moving everyone is already a lot more consolidated than our island. :P I think that's the beauty of this game--there's a lot of room for style and personalization, to express looks and aesthetics that are perfect for one island even if they might not work on another.

Like, I used to think we were purposefully leaving Tharotia undeveloped or underdeveloped compared to something like this, which is masterfully well done and amazing and I love it for what it is, but it's also the exact polar opposite of our aesthetic and makes me vaguely itchy just imagining doing something like that here. D: But the more I see things like this, or even compare notes with you, the more I realize... no, we do have a valid deliberate aesthetic that we're pouring actual effort and craftsmanship into (maybe not this much, but definitely not nothing,) the "all natural" look is in fact a look too, and there's a lot here that I've done to pull it off and that I'm proud of and can't wait to show off as these updates continue! (Or you can just come over sometime. :D)

[kjorteo]

But yeah, you're talking to... in addition to how influential No Man's Land was on us from childhood, you're talking to someone who adored SNES SimCity (even if I was never good enough at it to get a Megalopolis--Metropolis was always the best I could do) but found the contrast between the Village and by the time you get up to Metropolis themes depressing.