i'm unhappy with my island

Krissi2197

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I've been itching to come back to this game after leaving back in May or so (around the time Leif was introduced) and I finally made the plunge to become more active today.

Issue is I just... Really dislike my island. I haven't even uploaded a dream address yet because I'm so embarrassed by it. Especially after seeing everyone's gorgeous islands... I don't have the time, patience, or creativity to do stuff like I've seen on the internet.

Does anyone have any ideas on areas I can make on my island?? Rn I have an orchard, a marketplace area where my shops are at, a diner, a park, and that's about it... I want little outdoorsy areas sprinkled around my island but I have 0 clue on how to do this sort of stuff.

Pics or item suggestions or just overall themes would be hella appreciated x.x I want to love my island so I can have more fun playing the game!
 
You could pick a theme and run with it. That would give you some direction.

Mostly I'd suggest just imagining an area that you'd like to sit in or visit in real life and try to replicate that dream spot. Thinking about the whole island can be overwhelming... maybe just focus on one area at a time.
 
I don't have a theme for my island other than ordinary. You don't even have to strictly stick to one theme. I think small town works if you want to have lots of different little areas. Common areas I've seen is an orchard, farm, cafe, bookstore/library, bakery, diner, parks, carnival/fairgrounds. marketplace, pottery areas, greenhouses, teashops, sushi resturant.

My island is no where near done and I uploaded a Dream address anyway because I love feedback for my island.
 
Well, since there's the dream suite now, you can go lurk in one of it's designated threads on this forum (there's the official one where people put preview pictures etc. and another where they just drop the DA to make it "random") and visit a bunch in one go, taking screenshots and/or writing down ideas and visuals you really like.

From my personal experience, taking a photo of a real-life landscape and trying to replicate that never works out. AC works and looks so vastly different that each and every time it just did not come out looking right. I was also never impressed by other people's attempts at recreating irl sceneries. But maybe that's just me.
What worked out the best for me was literally just going with the flow, creating a general shape of each area first and then looking at the whole picture and deciding if it looks good and cohesive, before jumping into any detailing. To me, having a clear and well-put together image of the entire island is much more important than having a lot of really small thrown together areas that only mildly match each other (and then you'd also run into the trouble of trying to connect all of these areas in a pretty - and most importantly ACCESSIBLE - way. I can NEVER find my way around these over-decorated and landscaped islands)

Last but not least, for areas you could try and do... maybe think about your villagers, or villagers you might want on your island, and think about what THEY'd want. Maybe make little backstories for them, like idk, maybe someone wants to be a beekeeper or something, so you can make them a little bee-area (I don't know what that's called I'm sorry lol). Think of what you want the structures that are a mandatory part of your island to look like: Do you want your museum to be surrounded by an excavation site? Or would you rather like something more sophisticated? Maybe a place of learning if you're interested in having more than one player house, then you could make like a university for it and decorate it to match. Or you can put a tent near it and try to recreate the tent Blathers used to have before his museum was built. Think about what you want the shops to look like: Highstreet or maybe taken over by nature and nestled into a street corner, like those japanese aesthetic photos you can find everywhere.

Also wanted to mention that sometimes, things you thought worked out GREAT in your head will translate really badly once put into the actual game, as it happened to me quite a few times. But as I tried to recreate the picture floating around in my head, I had a new understanding of what actually COULD work instead, because I was directly terraforming and seeing how everything looked in real time. That then spurned new ideas and I redid the area before even finishing it first. So don't be afraid to drop an idea that you held onto for a while if it turns out to not look so great after all. You gotta be flexible because Nintendo's restrictions are weird lmao

I also really like the idea of having a seasonal area where you switch out the decoration with each season, keeping things fresh and also preventing you from tearing the whole island down again because you have decorating-fever LOL

And that concludes my novel. A long read I'm sorry, but I do hope what I said can be of some use to you 😢
 
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I don't think there is any reason to be embarrassed with how your island looks. As it has been suggested, having a theme could possibly help you out. You don't need to restrict yourself to one theme, either. Another thing that has been suggested is looking at real world places. If you can walk through your neighborhood, you could draw inspiration with yards of peoples houses. Taking pictures may not be a wise choice, though. 😬 Some people have posted their Dream Address asking for suggestion and feedback. You could try that and maybe have the person take pictures of certain spots of your island to show where they're located and what they think could work.

I've been going to different Dream Addresses trying to get some ideas for what could work as a good layout and whatnot. You can find a lot under #DreamAddress on Twitter. Doesn't matter if you have an account there or not, it'll be available to see. Check out some dreams, and maybe you'll see something you like and get some ideas from there. It's best to try not to be discouraged.
 
You have no reason to be embarrassed by your island. All of our islands look like trash at some point or another- even in it's 'final stages'. lol

But here are a few ways I have come up with inspiration:

1. Places like Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube can be great places to find amazing pictures/videos of other people's islands. You don't even need to have an account for these to browse to an extent.
2. Think about what you like in real life concerning landscape, scenery, and decorating. What's your style when it comes to the visual? Go off that the best you can.
3. Look at your villagers (especially your favorites) and decorate their yards or give them their own special places!
4. Try to remember somewhere personal you've been in your life that you enjoyed and try recreating it.
5. Take some time to explore dream addresses. It can be way more fun than collecting pictures. Sometimes the decor in a picture doesn't have the same vibe as when you're really there or may come off as crowded.

However- I'm sure your island is far prettier/cooler than you think. Good luck!
 
I think it'd really help if you used the map's grid system. Those white chalk outlines on the map divide it into 16x16 squares. Maybe creating areas within each square will help to make cohesive design choices. You could prevent an orchard or a park from being too small or too large by simply containing it within the square. You could maybe put in a small neighborhood in one too! Older AC games used this acre system to organize buildings and rivers into each acre.
 
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