i feel so put off from playing

[Romaki]

Don't worry, a garbage island is much more unique anyway! Personally I suck too, but I try to work on each area indivually and just be okay with things just being in the right place for now without caring too much about decorations. Inspiration is good, but you have to like what you have and can do with that. Doing the entire layout at once is very discouraging.

 

[Cosmic-chan]

I was in this same boat! Don't try to force it let it come naturally. I hated my island but through inspiration and creativity I'm getting somewhere! Yes it's not as good as others but hey it's cute and that's what matters to me! I just wanna preserve it's natural state while decorating so I don't have to worry so much about terraforming!

 

[basicbobagirl1130]

This happened to me at the start of the game! I was really intimidated to start designing because my island looked like trash compared to the 5 star island tour XD. Eventually, you will be comfortable with terraforming and designing! A little tip would be take your time and don’t compare your work with others, and to not over work yourself. Have a great day!!

 

[Bethboj]

I felt this way after the first day of terraforming. I find that taking a break helps, coming back to something the next day helped me have different ideas.
And remember, just because your island doesn’t look as full or as decorated as others does not mean your island isn’t good!
I like to work on little parts of my island per day or per few days, such as the entrance, I spent afew days tweaking that before I even looked at the rest of the map. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get it perfect first try!

 

[Uffe]

I've recently found myself having this problem. I've seen a lot of islands that look great, and my biggest issue is where can I put my villagers' houses and still have enough room to decorate my island? Today, I came up with a possible solution. I have gone a few days saving up Bells because I've decided that I'm going to move all my villagers onto the beach for the time being. Then I'm going to decorate my island with the ideas I've already got written down. So stuff like cafes, parks, etc. After that, I'm going to put each house in whichever locations are open.

The other thing I'd suggest is coming up with a theme. It doesn't matter if you take multiple themes and mesh them together. The best thing for you to do is not compare your island to others. Another thing I'd mention, which you're probably already doing, is looking at island tours online. Maybe if you see something that you like on someone else's island, replicate it, make it how you see fit. I've watched TagBackTV, ZackScottGames, and Chase Crossing. They do a lot of island tour videos, and I've seen some things that I thought maybe I should consider doing myself. I hope you figure this out, because having the creative block really sucks.

 

[mirukushake]

I agree with everyone saying to wait until you have bells in the bank to start! I waited until I had several million, so now, while it's annoying to move buildings/stairs/bridges multiple times if you don't like how they end up looking, you have the means to just immediately remove/move it without needing to earn the bells in between.

What really helps me is having a Pinterest board. Right now it has over 400 pins, organized by exterior/terraforming/custom designs, etc. Any time I see something I like, I save it. Then when I get in the mood to be creative, I can easily find pictures to reference and not lose steam.

And just remember, your island is for you! It doesn't have to be the Mona Lisa of Animal Crossing islands. Sure there are people out there with genius creative islands, but those people are a very, very small number of AC players. Most of us are also playing on comparatively mediocre islands

 

[Hobowire]

you'll always be your own hardest critic. Just keep going at it until you find a happy medium.

 

[issh0mans]

thank you everyone so much for your sweet replies. y'all really are the loveliest community and made me feel a lot better. i love y'all
​

 

[GEEBRASS]

Lot of great advice in this thread! I think most of us have struggled with dissatisfaction, especially when we're comparing ourselves to immaculately planned and detailed islands where oftentimes people have time-traveled and unlocked/acquired pretty much everything in the game. Don't be afraid of copying something you see and think is great, either! It will end up becoming part of your own larger expression that is unique to you, and that's all that matters. That's how most creativity works!

 

[sdw4527]

I found myself comparing my island to others so much towards the beginning too. It's really a viscous cycle :/ They're good for inspiration, but after a point, you might find looking at other islands is doing more harm than good. I had the same issue at the start and even made a Reddit post saying how bad I was at designing things and wanting to just restart from scratch because of how bad my island looked lol. I'm glad I didn't follow through.

Just go with something and try it out, don't be scared if it looks bad as you can always change it later. 1 thing I wish I did was go more slowly. Don't go and build multiple areas at once, focus on 1 at a time as it's much easier to redo this way if you find you don't like it later, or add more to.

In terms of terraforming, you don't even have to terraform much if you don't feel comfortable doing it! I barely terraformed my island at all and I'm still satisfied with how it's turning out now. It might help to see some islands that aren't super decked out too. Could give you some much needed confidence

 

[brockbrock]

Hang in there! I've learned to accept that this game is a marathon and not a race! My progress moves at a snail's pace, but that's okay. I get stuck, I get frustrated, and that's okay. Baby steps!

 

[LambdaDelta]

(Still very weedy, because I want it to look like it's been there forever and I don't want fossils to spawn in there and have to open the fencing to get to them).

small tip: afaik, you can use invisible custom design paths to achieve this as well

 

[Noel_in_Sunrise]

I just don't enjoy design and customization in games to the extent that some people do. It is time consuming and feels like work to me.
As other people have suggested, I do little pieces at a time and make adjustments as I go.

If I wasn't playing the game with my mom (separate consoles/islands), there is no way that I would have managed to decorate and design as much of mine as I have. It is fun to tour each others islands. Mine is very planned and all the buildings, bridges and ramps are exactly where I want them to be. She does things the exact opposite way. She won't consider moving a single building and laughed at me when she saw me working with a map program, lol. Yet we spent about the same amount of time terraforming.

Anyway, what I originally wanted to say is that I totally sympathize with all of the customization taking away from the actual fun of playing the game for you. This is often a problem for me too with certain games, and nearly made this game not worth continuing for me when I was spending a bunch of time with island designer (the map overlay feature was not a thing yet for half that time, arg).

 

[OrchidMantisCult]

I tend to get stuck in a trap of comparing my island to others' and it makes me feel discouraged, but taking some time away from looking at other people's islands can really help. Nothing on your island has to be permanent, either; mine is constantly changing as I tweak it to suit what I think looks good. Sometimes you just have to experiment until something feels right.

As for concrete decorating advice that might help:

My first step is always to narrow down themes that I like. Sticking to one theme always feels too limiting to me, so I normally go with two or three. Gather inspiration and pick what feels good to you! For example, my town right now is largely Japanese-themed, but parts of it are witch/magic-themed and French-themed (think the gardens of Versailles plus marble statues). Those three themes seem SUPER different and hard to put together cohesively (if you even want cohesive "put-together"ness -- you don't have to!), which leads me to my next point.

My next step is deciding what colors I can use to tie my different themes together. The color serves as a "motif" that remains consistent through your different areas; it makes everything look very intentional and part of a whole, cohesive picture. I picked white as my main color, and different areas have accent colors. My accent colors are pink, blue, and purple and I use them to indicate different "zones" (my shopping district has a pink accents, my museum has blue ones, etc). You don't have to limit yourself, though; I just like the look of a unified palette.

Of course, you don't have to follow any of my decorating tips. Your island is yours to play with! I hope I was able to ease some of your struggle, though, and I wish you luck with your decorating! c:

 

[greenvoldemort]

The game hasnt been out long so really you shouldnt be feeling pressured to have your island looking 10/10 !! it takes time, and i know for sure it’ll take loads of planning and thinking!! good luck!

 

[stiney]

small tip: afaik, you can use invisible custom design paths to achieve this as well

That’s true but I love the aesthetics of the weeds in general and especially inside my abandoned ancient graveyard.

 

[visibleghost]

bro i relate so hard, i feel like my island is super ugly but i don't know what to do or how to fix it and it makes me sad and not into playing as much. i try to look at inspiration online and i might try to start with one area soon but yeah, i don't have much advice to offer. just some support lol.

 

[PajamaCat]

I 100% know how you feel! I just want to say please don't compare yourself to other people! It's just a game and as long as you're happy with your island that's all that matters. I know it can feel discouraging looking at all the things that other people are doing but it's not a competition. This game is meant to be relaxing, not stressful!

 

[Corrie]

This is exactly why I don't look at other's islands. I know I'll never make mine as cool so I just don't look and be happy with the small thongs I can do!