call me crazy but i am genuinely curious - about animals crossing's developers and their process

[melonbread]

Hi. for those who know me from before, hello, sorry i've been super busy haha

and for those who dont i'm melonbread i have been playing animal crossing for a long time -- but i wanna update my username lol (to tinyapples which is what i use on other places/pen name/pseudo name)

I have not used this forum in a while but i thought i'd ask a burning question on my mind haha

Here we go!

quick backstory: I am taking a FINAL class i have graduated from college finally (art school) and I am taking 1 last class for final credit, and then i'll be done. it's a 3D animation class.

for whatever reason i have not asked the prof this but, we're deep diving into 3d modeling, 3d animation. both still/solid/non-moving models and animation. using Maya, a pretty popular program but not as much as Blender or Unreal engine

sorry i 'll get to the question sorry if you dont know any 3d programs but,

what program do the developers of animal crossing use to MAKE animal crossing?

does anyone know?

See, i've always thought AC was like a blend of 2d and 3d techniques. it's not pixel like pokemon (tho pokemon is mostly 3d currently), it's not 2d like any animated film..but it's not...really perfect 3d either i guess --? i dunno , it confuses me cause there's a lot of 2d elements. Cartoony, goofy, special effects and little things...the face shape..the animals.. even the layout of the screen(s), too.....just like the POP the ground makes when you dig up a hole for example. or the fruit.. it's not PERFECTLY rendered, ya know?

so i just wonder from an outsider's perspective. i searched on google twice. "what program did developers use to make animal crosing" "what program did they use to make animal crossing" etc "what program is animal crosisng made in" etc etc. Nothing much comes up. it mainly shows, qr codes, art topics, and fan creations. nothing much on the history of AC. i guess i could check Nintendo's website, but it's probably in japanese, i could translate it but .. idk, and anyway, a magician never revels his/her secrets amiright? it's probably not gonna say on the site "here's what we do to make our games"...i doubt it. maybe? hmm.

if anyone knows, i'd be mega curious. i have seen some of the earlier designs of Isabelle here and there, but they are mostly sketches from her creator.

why do i wanna know this? ah, no reason. it just crossed my mind, and i like animal crossing's style of game design, and if i ever make a game someday which i probably wont cause i'm a comic artist not a coder/game developer kinda, but i could dabble in it, i'd like to know so i could possibly make a game with a similar technique or program that could support that technique.
but its' mainly just random curiousity.. things get to me, and sometimes i really gotta know ! haha!

WHEW!!! sorry this was too long for such a basic question. if anyone has any idea pls let me know but if no one does, well...back to google search i guess haha

(also sorry if this isnt the right place ! i figured general discussion would work for a question of this nature)

 

[matt]

I think the games are written in c++ while the engine used is Maya / unreal engine / unity

I don't know much about it...

How the heck does c++ tell shapes how to move that's what I'd like to know
I recon the sprites are given a class or something and for each input the user makes it gives the class properties to return different actions by the sprite

 

[Beanz]

i have wondered this same thing before as this is also an interest of mine! i don't think there is an exact definitive answer on what specific programming language animal crossing was developed in but the nintendo careers site lists that a senior software engineer should know C or C++ and web development languages (HTML, CSS, javascript), other similar listings include python as well.

the career website states that an environment artist iii should have experience with unreal, unity, as well as a propriety engine. it also says applicants should be proficient with photoshop, adobe substance painter, maya, and zbrush which are programs that are used to create 2D graphics, 3D models, and textures.

TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT because i found this on reddit but it's interesting:

Spoiler: post

so yeah, this probably means that the legend of zelda: ocarina of time was probably built with a propriety engine that was originally created for mario 64, built from the ground up which later served as base for animal crossing: population growing. interesting.

there is also lots of debug and development info on https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor.

 

[kknocturne]

oh this is really interesting! I decided to do a bit a digging too and this could be wrong but according to reddit Nintendo seems to use a lot of different in house engines for their games? And apparently New Horizons uses an engine called "Lunch Box" which it shares with the Splatoon series, Nintendo Labo, and Super Mario Maker. It's actually all quite interesting!

Here's a picture I found of all their games since 2010 and their engines! Although I believe some games are left off of this.

Spoiler: image

edit: also I found a page on Nookipedia that goes over the development of the games a bit! it may not be super in depth but i hope it helps! https://nookipedia.com/wiki/Prerelease_and_unused_content