Let's Talk Island Themes

I was initially going for a pirate theme, but over time I've fallen out of love with the idea. Instead my town looks more like a Harvest Moon or Pokémon inspired layout from the Gameboy era.
 
My island theme is a little bit of everything because I couldn’t commit to one thing. I designed each area/theme around my villager’s houses/facility buildings:
1. Trashy rural beach town for Cyd and Nook’s Cranny
2. Overgrown seaside village with a shell furniture theme where Tabby lives
3. A cleaner suburban village with a grand museum walkway where Jambette, Scoot, Ursala, and Freya live
4. Ken and Hamphrey’s overgrown zen town hidden in the forest
5. Erik’s cabin in the woods
6. Me and Dizzy‘s house on the hilltop lol

I also made areas based on the garden gnomes (Gnome Research Facility) and the snapping turtles/monster statue. I would say my areas came along naturally after I was inspired by a set or item. Originally I wanted to have a full island with a similar aesthetic to Hamphrey and Ken’s overgrown forest/zen town and have it slightly horror-based but I don’t think I could let go of any of my current villagers to see that theme through 😅
 
I’ve kind of got a boardwalk theme, but can’t completely do it until I get that blasted blue rose. I did add a sort of river walk with a carnival vibe this weekend.
 
The theme is basically tropical island hijacked by pirate baddies that turned it into their personal playground. Short version: pirate town or baddie vacation getaway. It's run by a boss pirate (my character) and basically tourists that find themselves on this island either wear cement shoes or get robbed.

I'm really glad the pirate themed stuff came out but I need more booze drinks. Where's my rum.. 😣
 
I'm going for a danger/adventure vibe with lava fields, lots of jumping and stepping stones, a barbarian village, a swamp with Venus fly traps, I'm trying to get all my villagers to be vaguely monsteresque and brutish so it looks like a bunch of rampaging monsters took over the island :p
I'm really interested in how this looks, not gonna lie. Did you use a custom design or does the game have Venus flytraps as an item?
 
I'm going for a sort of... Temperate Rainforest with some magic and a town by the coast theme. Like a Pacific Northwest vibe, but probably a bit more fantasy. In practice this mostly means cottagecore, with lots of rocks and moss. I've yet to really figure out how to make it more distinctly itself. Also, a large botanical garden with a bamboo garden attachment because I can. My problems right now involve a lot to do with rivers, and some trouble with the sheer number of custom paths I have vs the number I want, and trying to get them all to look right. Also, running into Isabelle's tree limit that makes me want to forgo 5-star, just live in trees where I want them.

I want to figure out a layout I like better, too, so it's all tricky. But the nice thing is, I at least enjoy the sense of not being done, and taking things one step at a time.
 
I don't have an overall theme for the entire thing... but definitely have "sections" that are themed.

The entrance is the business section. Airport, shops, hotel, townhall, etc.
Right of the river is to be more natural with a more natural river. Has more garden-y nature stuff in general
Left of the river is the 'suburbs' and outskirts of town with the residential, forest to campground, etc. The river is more 'man made' looking.

I plan to build up these section themes more as I go along.
 
I'm really interested in how this looks, not gonna lie. Did you use a custom design or does the game have Venus flytraps as an item?

It's a custom design :) it doesn't look super realistic but i can send you a screenshot when I get back home if you want
 
My theme just kinda ended up being a suburban island. I have one part of the island that is the town plaza: all the shops are near eachother, there's a playground, all the pathways are cobblestone, there are streetlamps, etc.

Then another section of the island is the neighborhood, with 5 houses on the lowest level, and then above those are 4 houses on the highest level. Dobie's house is secluded from the rest, as sort of a cabin near a pond. The top right corner of the map has a lil zen spa. Outside of the town plaza section, the pathways are dirt, with a few stepping stone paths. Each villager (aside from Dobie) has their own fenced in yard.
 
I originally was going to have half of my island dedicated to ancient ruins and secret ancient areas and stuff, but there are basically no items like that. I thought there would be at least the ancient set from nl lol
So now I have no idea what I'm doing, just whatever I feel looks semi-decent at the time.
 
Back
Top