Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a creative outlet that has helped players create some amazing things. While some have stuck to designing clothes and pathways, others have taken on huge terraforming and construction projects to recreate both real and video game-inspired locales such as the Hyrule Castle Garden from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
However, the costs associated with building inclines and bridges means those players should make sure they plan everything to avoid wasting a lot of time, effort, and in-game currency. Animal Crossing fans have been active creating tools like websites to share custom designs, and a 24-year-old game designer named Rob Fichman — who goes by bobacupcake on various social media sites — has contributed to that effort with an Island Planner app.
Fichman posted the link to an "early version" of the Island Planner to Twitter Saturday, created with the help of art assets from his girlfriend Carmela Diaz and a handful of QA testers. The program, which works on Mac and PC, lets Animal Crossing: New Horizons players place buildings, pathing, ramps, bridges, and terraform both cliffs and water on a grid programmed with the same restrictions as the game so they can test out what works.
Below the Island Planner webpage, Fichman warns that there may be bugs due to its early status and leaves access to a feedback form, as well as a download link with optional donations for his small indie development studio Bubble Wand Games. In conjunction with tools like the Happy Island Designer which let one player turn their map into Sinnoh from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, there are some interesting ways to really get ideas churning.
Of course, island planning is not the only facet of play in Animal Crossing: New Horizons which has spurred a community response. Fan-made tools have been designed to do everything from help figure out a player's turnip prices and trade items to create island tunes.
Some players have even begun to imagine what kind of items Nintendo may be able to add to the game now that major updates have started to roll out, such as one Redditor designing a possible fence gate concept. It's inspiring to see a community come together to help one another with such a relaxing, creative title, and Fichman's Island Planner will no doubt get some good use as it continues to evolve.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.