Being the #2 top-selling Nintendo Switch game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has proven itself to be an incredible and time-consuming game that fans across the globe are having a hard time putting down. The chibi-style, animal-loving, island-centric title in the Animal Crossing series was instantly a hit with old and new fans alike, and it's not hard to see why.
There are so many fun and exciting aspects of the game, which came directly from the brilliant minds of developers Aya Kyogoku, Hisashi Nogami, and many others on their creative and technical teams. The development of the game was not all smooth sailing, as it took way longer than one would guess to get the final game out! Here are 10 surprising and interesting facts about the creation of New Horizons.
10 Development Began Way Back In 2012
New Horizons took a whopping 8 years to be released, having been first conceptualized back in 2012. Just after the release of New Leaf and during the production of the Welcome Amiibo project, the developers revealed to the Washington Post that the team was already thinking up ideas for the next game in the series. They even started planning out things without even knowing a thing about the eventual creation of the Nintendo Switch!
9 The Creators Actually Made Time-Traveling Easier
To many players' surprise, the developers admitted that they don't think time-traveling in an Animal Crossing game should be considered cheating. They do think that everyone should play the game without secretly changing the date and time on the Switch's clock, experiencing everything in real-time, but they understand why fans wouldn't want to wait so long for their upgrades. They still added time-traveling consequences, like turnips spoiling, but they tried their best to combat time-traveling with more positive updates to the game like terraforming!
8 Gender Was An Important Concept
One of the best parts of the new game is the lack of gender restrictions. Players can choose any outfit, hairstyle, or facial structures to look however they want, no gender roles enforced. Kyogoku shared with the Washington Post that she and her team "wanted to create a game where users didn’t really have to think about gender or if they wanted to think about gender, they’re also able to."
She continued to say that making sure there were gendered and un-gendered designs throughout the game was important with how society is changing to accept identities of all kinds.
7 The Team Is Still Working Through COVID-19
Though there was a point in time where most things were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Animal Crossing team at Nintendo are carrying on with business and making sure their fans are happy with the number of seasonal updates and events that are coming out. The office is now open during different hours now in order for their employees to arrive and leave work during less busy train hours. They are also being pretty flexible with employees in order to make sure everyone stays safe. Next time you update another seasonal event, think about the hard work these game creators are putting into them!
6 Nintendo Lost $1 Billion In Stocks Because Of New Horizons
Back in 2019 when New Horizons was being revealed at E3, it was admitted to fans that the highly anticipated game was going to be pushed back until March 2020 in order to make sure nothing was rushed and there were no big mistakes. That day, Nintendo stock dropped over $1 billion! Thankfully, they have recovered and skyrocketed back up since then.
5 There Were Some Last-Minute Design Changes
Clearly the development team decided to make some last-minute changes to the stunning island game, with the E3 reveal trailer showing off some textures and designs that are nowhere to be found in the final version of the game. There are patterns and textures of the snow and grass that are clearly different from the trailer to how they look in the game.
Along with the change in environmental design, there are multiple colors and styles of fences shown in the trailer and on promo photos that can't be found anywhere in the actual game! Oh, to have a white lattice fence.
4 The Creative Team Was Filled With Diversity
In a Nintendo interview with developer Aya Kyogoku from 2015, during her time working on multiple Animal Crossing titles, she mentioned that being a female developer wasn't really noticeable anymore, as more and more women had been filling up the halls of Nintendo. She revealed that during creative meetings, there would be about half men and half women, with people of all backgrounds and ages pitching ideas. This is what led the game to be so inclusive and exciting for everyone to play, regardless of their identity.
3 The Game Is Inspired By Their Mobile App
Aya Kyogoku shared details with The Verge about the New Horizons gameplay, saying that they wanted to make sure old fans of the series would have just as much fun as new fans. Combining classic aspects of the series with new, modern-day tweaks to make a perfect balance was no easy task. Nook Miles were created to help "facilitate the discovery of ways to play” for those who had only played Pocket Camp before New Horizons came out.
2 The Worldwide Release Was Super Important
The New Horizons producer Hisashi Nogami revealed that though the team had already planned to release the new game worldwide at the same time, it became more crucial than ever to make sure that happened once COVID-19 hit.
Previous Animal Crossing games were released in Japan months before they came to America and other countries, but with the heavy emphasis of online play and the fact that everyone was going to be trapped social distancing for a while, Nogami and his team made sure each country was able to play the game at the same time.
1 Nintendo Broke Crazy Records With The Game's Release
When New Horizons was released back in March 2020, fans knew the game would be a success... but it really blew expectations out of the water! Within just 11 days of being released, Nintendo sold over 11.77 million copies across the globe. New Horizons sold over 5 times as many copies than the previous Animal Crossing games during the initial release. The game surpassed the total earnings from every single past AC game combined! Whether it was influenced by quarantine, the excitement from the mobile game, or just because it's such a good game, New Horizons definitely made its developers proud.