Looking for advice on my island!

[mayorsam17]

So, due to my lack of creativity and my inability to make decisions, I have found myself extremely stuck on what to do with my island.
I know I want a forest/natural theme, but I have no idea where to start with terraforming, placing buildings, and moving my villagers houses around

People on here are so creative and I admire everyone's islands so much, and so I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to take a look at my map and give me some pointers.
I've attached a photo of my map currently, and if anyone could take the time to let me know how they would move buildings, change the river, terraform, place houses, etc. I would be so so grateful!

(even if you just wanted to draw over the map that would be much appreciated!)
Thanks so much

 

[voltairenism]

First of all, you have a lot of cute villagers <3
So, I think one way of not getting too overwhelmed with this is not touching the river unless it starts bothering you (like, it's on your way of doing something, etcetera). Also, a way of getting inspired for terraforming is looking at pictures from the real word or landscaping concept art!
One thing I suggest to shake things up is terraforming the front of the island. It's a very vague suggestion, but irl few cities are so organized and planed as the default ACNH islands, so if you terraform and make more valleys and depressions, it looks more like rough terrains that you see IRL. I mean, it's not supposed to be realistic, but you can a very interesting layout like this, at least in my opinion.

 

[Rosch]

This is just a suggestion...

You can start by removing that small pond between the airport and resident services. You can turn it into a park, especially since they are aligned. OR you can keep it, turn it into a proper circular pond and decorate your entrance around it.

You can use the resident services as your central hub and create paths from there leading to the left and right side of the island.

On the mountain side, you can build a nature trail leading to the secret beach and your museum.

You can also try and straighten the "U" section of your river since it would give you more space.

You can move Nook's Cranny to the left side of the "hub" so you both have stores easily accessible.

To have a natural look, don't plant trees or create paths in a complete straight line. You can try to modernize your "hub" since it's your town center though.

 

[mayorsam17]

First of all, you have a lot of cute villagers <3
So, I think one way of not getting too overwhelmed with this is not touching the river unless it starts bothering you (like, it's on your way of doing something, etcetera). Also, a way of getting inspired for terraforming is looking at pictures from the real word or landscaping concept art!
One thing I suggest to shake things up is terraforming the front of the island. It's a very vague suggestion, but irl few cities are so organized and planed as the default ACNH islands, so if you terraform and make more valleys and depressions, it looks more like rough terrains that you see IRL. I mean, it's not supposed to be realistic, but you can a very interesting layout like this, at least in my opinion.

Thank you so much! I'll take a look at some landscape concept art, and I like the suggestion about adding the valleys and depressions to the front (it does feel a lil flat rn)

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2020

This is just a suggestion...

You can start by removing that small pond between the airport and resident services. You can turn it into a park, especially since they are aligned. OR you can keep it, turn it into a proper circular pond and decorate your entrance around it.

You can use the resident services as your central hub and create paths from there leading to the left and right side of the island.

On the mountain side, you can build a nature trail leading to the secret beach and your museum.

You can also try and straighten the "U" section of your river since it would give you more space.

You can move Nook's Cranny to the left side of the "hub" so you both have stores easily accessible.

To have a natural look, don't plant trees or create paths in a complete straight line. You can try to modernize your "hub" since it's your town center though.

I really love the idea of having the secret mountain path leading to the beach And I'll for sure stagger the trees - that should look really cute and I agree - it will for sure add to the natural feel
And I think I will for sure straighten up the U and move Nook's Cranny because both are are little awkward/impractical at the moment.

thank you so much for all the suggestions, I really appreciate it! <3

 

[mayorsam17]

Bump
(Still would love any input!) ❤

 

[mayorsam17]

Bump

 

[mayorsam17]

Bump!

 

[sleepydreepy]

If you really wanna go big, here is a really cool idea that I came up with the other day (or at least I think its really cool!), but will not be doing on my island since I decided on other plans. If I get a second switch/game (which is highly unlikely) I'll do it, but feel free to use it too!

Spoiler: My cool idea (with pictures)

Do you know what Sootopolis city is/do you play pokemon? It's a city in the middle of the ocean that is surrounded by high rock walls (in the game the only was you can access it is by underwater) and has a giant pool in the middle. There are houses on various levels of the walls....this is really hard to explain but I'll try to find a picture of it that does it justice:

I think they took inspiration from real life Greek cities on the cliffs by oceans:

Anyways, this is my big brain idea, I think this could be sooo cool in ACNH. You could have stairs right outside the airport so you can go directly up to the third level and could see the rest of the island from there, and then have a pretty lake on the first level in the middle with no rivers...Let me know if you need more info on this lol.

 

[Acies]

I knew this looked familiar... I had the exact same map in the beginning.

 

[mayorsam17]

If you really wanna go big, here is a really cool idea that I came up with the other day (or at least I think its really cool!), but will not be doing on my island since I decided on other plans. If I get a second switch/game (which is highly unlikely) I'll do it, but feel free to use it too!

Spoiler: My cool idea (with pictures)

Do you know what Sootopolis city is/do you play pokemon? It's a city in the middle of the ocean that is surrounded by high rock walls (in the game the only was you can access it is by underwater) and has a giant pool in the middle. There are houses on various levels of the walls....this is really hard to explain but I'll try to find a picture of it that does it justice:

View attachment 254619

View attachment 254621

I think they took inspiration from real life Greek cities on the cliffs by oceans:

View attachment 254620

Anyways, this is my big brain idea, I think this could be sooo cool in ACNH. You could have stairs right outside the airport so you can go directly up to the third level and could see the rest of the island from there, and then have a pretty lake on the first level in the middle with no rivers...Let me know if you need more info on this lol.

oh my god this is brilliant.
i don’t know if I have the terraforming skills to execute it but my god it would be so beautiful. Greece has been one of my dream travel spots for years now and recreating that in animal crossing would be unreallll. Maybe I could make a little marina/fisherman’s area at the bottom? And it would look really cute if the villagers houses had lil thatched roofs and we’re kinda scattered around the cliff side randomly so it looked like a real seaside village!! And i could make a little beachside cafe up on a cliff peninsula maybe? Way up on the third level and overlooking the water.
thank u so much for sharing, I’ll use elements of it for sure

 

[lei]

If you really wanna go big, here is a really cool idea that I came up with the other day (or at least I think its really cool!), but will not be doing on my island since I decided on other plans. If I get a second switch/game (which is highly unlikely) I'll do it, but feel free to use it too!

Spoiler: My cool idea (with pictures)

Do you know what Sootopolis city is/do you play pokemon? It's a city in the middle of the ocean that is surrounded by high rock walls (in the game the only was you can access it is by underwater) and has a giant pool in the middle. There are houses on various levels of the walls....this is really hard to explain but I'll try to find a picture of it that does it justice:


I think they took inspiration from real life Greek cities on the cliffs by oceans:


Anyways, this is my big brain idea, I think this could be sooo cool in ACNH. You could have stairs right outside the airport so you can go directly up to the third level and could see the rest of the island from there, and then have a pretty lake on the first level in the middle with no rivers...Let me know if you need more info on this lol.

thats an insanely cool idea. Giving me ideas for my island now :O not at that scale but terracing... the idea of terracing is awesome!

 

[Bugs]

Also, a way of getting inspired for terraforming is looking at pictures from the real word or landscaping concept art!

I second this! And I'd also like to add to the concept art thing - a good place for inspiration is your favourite games! Or even ones which you just enjoyed the scenery of. As strange as it sounds, I've taken a lot of inspiration from GameCube games I used to play as a kid, they give me feelings of adventure and nostalgia and I really want to recreate that for my island (for me specifically, I've taken a lot of inspiration from Wind Waker, Starfox Adventures, and Rayman 3)

 

[sleepydreepy]

oh my god this is brilliant.
i don’t know if I have the terraforming skills to execute it but my god it would be so beautiful. Greece has been one of my dream travel spots for years now and recreating that in animal crossing would be unreallll. Maybe I could make a little marina/fisherman’s area at the bottom? And it would look really cute if the villagers houses had lil thatched roofs and we’re kinda scattered around the cliff side randomly so it looked like a real seaside village!! And i could make a little beachside cafe up on a cliff peninsula maybe? Way up on the third level and overlooking the water.
thank u so much for sharing, I’ll use elements of it for sure

thats an insanely cool idea. Giving me ideas for my island now :O not at that scale but terracing... the idea of terracing is awesome!

haha thanks guys! I love designing games like this and its so hard for me to conform to one plan for my island when there are so many possibilities! glad you both can take inspiration from my idea

and yeah if you are looking for more ideas you can dm me heehee

 

[mayorsam17]

I second this! And I'd also like to add to the concept art thing - a good place for inspiration is your favourite games! Or even ones which you just enjoyed the scenery of. As strange as it sounds, I've taken a lot of inspiration from GameCube games I used to play as a kid, they give me feelings of adventure and nostalgia and I really want to recreate that for my island (for me specifically, I've taken a lot of inspiration from Wind Waker, Starfox Adventures, and Rayman 3)

Oh my gosh, you took inspiration from windwaker!! That's amazing ahhhhh I adore that game, so much nostalgia. I grew up playing zelda and used to spend hours roaming around clock town, so I'm thinking I might take some inspiration from majoras mask! I've also been looking at some ghibli concept art and fallen in love with a lot of the designs, so I might try to mix in a bit of that too

Thank you for the input, so helpful and very much appreciated <3