how do you design a town?

so, as an ACNL player that has struggled with making my town look presentable (especially compared to some of your guys', woah) how do you guys usually design your town? like, place CWPs and whatnot?

since i'm kind of a perfectionist, i ended up caving a couple weeks in and mapping out my entire town on google sheets. i did it unit square by unit square, and i measured out where each building was, where each of my trees and bushes were, what my paths were like, etc. it took a couple hours tbh but i am sooo glad i did it, because once i did all my mapping, i could start planning. i made a copy of my map, named it my "dream map," and started entering in where i wanted to place or move stuff. i really recommend doing this because even though it's totally time consuming, i use this map to check my town every day, as i'm building more and more pwps, landscaping, and placing villager houses!

here's a snippet of what my map looks like lol:


if that seems too extra for you (haha), i think it's great to go section by section in town. focus on one building/pwp that you've already built and work on just the area around it. plan general places where you'll put villager houses, so you know not to build pwps there. i think the most important part of planning your town is putting down your paths. once you've put down paths, you have a general framework of where you'll be moving around in your town, and you can see little sections you've carved out with your pathing.


if you have any questions about stuff i said (hehe i rambled a little, sorry!!), just let me know!! hope that helped some!

I use photoshop to create illustrations and logos.
You can try Inkscape (a free vector art program).
Or you can use 5cm/s's method which is simpler and more efficient!

I actually just started a town, so I don't know if this will hold true for my new game, but here goes:

Just looking at the map I'll have some broad ideas for specific areas in town, like where I'd like to plant a forest for the campsite, where I'd like my villagers to live etc. In my current town, I've designated a section specifically for some of the zen public works.

Other areas or PWP placements are more inspired on a whim by the surrounding landscape, like finding a perfect place for a fruit orchard or fishing spot.

I guess a combination of planning ahead and spontaneous inspiration? It's hard to describe, but I'd say start with one thing as a landmark for that area (lighthouse by the cliff for example) and then elaborate on that somehow (like other PWPs that fit the theme, tree groves, flower gardens, paths and small plazas using patterns etc.)

If you're specifically thinking of heavily pathed towns, I can't say much because mine are usually more open. I know lots of people plan their pathing from the start - I personally like getting a sense of the layout and how I move around it before I structure everything

I don't do much outside planning like drawing it on paper or whatever, but I will run around town a few times, block off paths and walk ways I want with QR patterns. The rest kinda flows naturally. I'm better now at not placing things everywhere too randomly. I only breed the flowers I need, I only build the PWP if I know it's in a good spot (eg, a villager moves in next to my desired spot, I check with Isabelle to see if a PWP would look good with it, then place it there. I don't start off the town by building random PWPs because it's a pain to demolish later). I don't care so much what villagers move in though so the whole dreamie thing never stresses me out.

these are actually really helpful! i'd start over, but ugh it'd take forever to get where i am now in the game. i wish i had another copy lol, but these are cool and i'll definately try some of these out!

Once I got to town, I planned out, broadly, the feel of areas. Four years in, I'm still tweaking the looks of things.

I don't use patterns except as placeholders for trees and bushes. Laying them out gives me an idea of how a forest will come together and rough boundaries for paths (dirt).

I have all my villagers, and they essentially took over the eastern strip of town, so it left figuring out PWPs a lot easier.

The only thing left is to decide whether or not to add a mule or two.

I like to choose different areas, and sort of block them off on my map! In my last town I had a forest area where a few cabins were, and in this one I've got a shopping district, a park, a neighborhood, a campsite, and a garden area! Oh, and I always make sure to have some cool archways to block off these areas. Trees are great for sectioning off spaces if you want a lot of dividing lines, which I love! A nice row of perfect apple trees with a flower arch in the middle serves as a great entry to the neighborhood, while an illuminated arch, bushes, and a fountain welcome you to the shopping center! Parts of my map usually inspire my placement, like I put my campsite near the river so I'd have a little fishing spot, I put my garden near a waterfall for a nice view, and I put shopping near the train station like in a real city! Hope planning your town goes well, I'm sure it'll look lovely

This is how I plan. ( :