First thing you did when unlocking Island Designer app?

[IndiaHawker]

So this has been such an exciting wait for me and now I've finally bought both the cliff permit and the water permit I'm at a bit of a loss with all these options!! Last night I moved my house and have been scaping a little area around it but I'm lost as to the other areas and where to even start - I'm so locked into certain ways of how a town 'should' look, eg when we had cliffs in City Folk they were always at the top of the map so I struggle to think around that concept although maybe that looks best I don't know!! Just looking for stories, ideas, what you've done right/wrong etc please - screenshots of your landscaping totally welcomed too!! Please and thank you

 

[JKDOS]

You're not required to terraform to progress the game. If lost, just put the shovel away and leave the town as is. If you have an idea in mind, go for it.

If you'd like to change the town, but don't know what you'd like to change, start here: https://eugeneration.github.io/HappyIslandDesigner/

 

[Underneath The Stars]

paths.. the first thing i did. made my island look more complete ya know? and i'm thankful i started with that! cliffs and waterscaping were overwhelming to say the least, i'll definitely take things slow and not try to achieve what i was envisioning in such a short amount time. it's barely a month since i started playing! i don't want it to look like a town yet.

 

[Pyoopi]

I haven't done anything yet, lol. I just want to pay my last house loan before I start anything.

I took a screenshot of my island map and I'm going make a rough layout of what I want. I like planning with any design work.

 

[JKDOS]

paths.. the first thing i did. made my island look more complete ya know? and i'm thankful i started with that! cliffs and waterscaping were overwhelming to say the least, i'll definitely take things slow and not try to achieve what i was envisioning in such a short amount time. it's barely a month since i started playing! i don't want it to look like a town yet.

While pathmaking is an easy way for people to get started, it may help in some places to wait until you've terraformed before placing paths, as the landscape will change, and even the houses at some point potentially.

 

[LambdaDelta]

I removed everything I possibly could

 

[Krissi2197]

First thing I did was clear out an area for my shopping district! Then I immediately got to moving my shops and museum to where I wanted them to go.

Take it at your own pace.

 

[MindlessPatch]

I started with paths because I had a basic idea for pathing around resident services. I also added paths outside villagers homes but didn't connect some of them to the rest of the paths until days later. My stores and museum are around my resident services and I ended up moving all of them one space outward so I could make the paths 2 spaces wide lol that was a huge hassle but I'm super glad I did it!

As for cliffs/waterscaping I had grown to hate a certain aspect of my river so changing that was my major goal. I started just messing around in the game and got overwhelmed pretty quickly so I took a photo of my map on my phone and drew on it. Drew something I liked and then it was a matter of bringing it to fruition in the game. Very fiddly process worst part was getting the new waterfall sitting in a way I liked it. I wanna say I destroyed and rebuilt the cliffs for the waterfall at least 5 times. Last thing I did was destroy the part I hate then plant the trees I had dug up from new river area and god that was satisfying.

 

[Tsukuri_Yukimura]

When I unlocked the permits, I completely made my island flat. Then found the top center point on my map and made the tallest cliff I could and moved my campsite there then moved my house on the ground level so there is a two layer waterfall behind my house coming from the campsite area. Then on the two top corners I made a one level cliff and moved the shop in one corner and the tailors in the other. Removed the river so I can make it once I have the houses where I want them. Working on my Garden and Museum areas now.

 

[Flare]

I tried experimenting with it and made some waterfalls at my entrance. Ever since then I haven’t done much since I’m kinda confused on what to do.

 

[moon_child]

My vision for my town isn’t anything crazy. I wanted something simple and practical for normal day to day gameplay. I don’t want too much clutter. When I got the permits, I decided I couldn’t put my plans into action with everything lying around in their original places so I leveled my town. No rivers. No cliffs. No trees. From there, I’m slowly working and bringing my vision into life one section at a time. I don’t TT so it’s taking so long moving one building at a time but it’s okay, it’s slowly coming along well. My process is terraform the area, move the building / house that belongs there, then paths, then landscaping. I’ll say I’m now at around 40% of my map completed.

 

[ForbiddenSecrets]

I took down 2/5 of the cliffs and split my river into two. It freed up space I wanted on the ground level. If you don't know what to do though then don't stress it.

 

[capnport]

I made paths connecting houses and other buildings to each other!

 

[Underneath The Stars]

While pathmaking is an easy way for people to get started, it may help in some places to wait until you've terraformed before placing paths, as the landscape will change, and even the houses at some point potentially.

oh definitely. for me it applied, though, because for the most part i’ve already decided the neighborhood area since the start.
i just didn’t set paths for the part of my island where i don’t know what to do yet.

now that you’ve mentioned it, i wouldn’t recommend it for people who would want to landscape and eventually change levels or cliffs already. and move buildings —a lot of my friends already did this as soon as they got island designer. i might move my museum but with my design set in mind, it might overwhelm me because i’m going to need 1 bridge and 3 inclines for this area alone.

 

[Darcii]

I made paths to connect all my inclines, but I was a bit bummed out that they don't fully reach, I.e. there's a gap between the path and the stairs, or between two different types of path. It looks messy. Am I doing it wrong?

 

[roundfrog]

Flattened everything.
It took about a week before I started building stuff back up, though.

 

[Mayor-of-Bliss]

I started small and worked up.
First I did paths.
Then, I made what I call "land bridges" over the river because I'm done paying for you cheap animals even if I love them.
I enclosed my town area with a small wall. I'm making a fairytale town so I was going for like...a castle village thing.
Then I got serious and made a maze I later tore down. Made my lake into a heart. Took away an offshoot of the river. Built a wierd pond thing I later removed. And demolished all my cliffs except the one where my original two layer waterfall came down.
I redpath a lot.
I have a few empty areas in town right now I'm playing with but pretty sure I'll end up removing it.

 

[spacewalker]

first thing i did was make some small adjustments near a cliff so i could put an incline where i wanted. it was just one block off of being symmetrical, and now i could finally build it where i wanted! ive very slowly started making some paths and adjusting some cliffs now, because i wanna build a little bamboo getaway on the highest cliffs and move Dobie in there, put some bamboo fountains and other items on there... but i need to cycle a lot of houses around before i can finish that up. im really trying not to take up everything at once - i wanna make sure it doesnt look too unnatural.

 

[kindheartedhog]

I just unlocked terraforming the other day, the first thing I'm working on is making 2 sets of neighbourhood areas for my villagers. You can only move one house per day though so it's going to takw awhile

 

[Carole]

I am not someone who has a wonderful overall master plan for my island with gigantic terraforming projects - - I love my island as is, and I just use terraforming when I encounter something that I wish was a little bit different.

Like others here, I put down paths and I think they add a lot to my town.

Then, I was annoyed because there was a lake that was too close to Nook's Cranny so I had to go clear around the lake every time I went from my house to the store. But the store needed to remain there because my stores and museum are next to each other and this one was on the end of the line of such buildings. So anyway, I filled in a tiny finger of the lake that was blocking me, so that I can take that shortcut. It's terrific! And it doesn't detract from how pretty the lake is, at all.

Yesterday I (slightly) reshaped a short length of river bank on both sides of the river to make it straighter, so that I could put a bridge exactly where I wanted it to be.

Then I wanted to put a ramp in to make it easier to get to my private beach, which was almost inaccessible, so I used a little bit of terraforming first to make the fit less awkward.