animal crossing: A quick history

In March 2020, two things happened:
1. The world shut down.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released for the Nintendo Switch.

With everyone stuck indoors and a game that anyone could play (even non-gamers!), millions downloaded Animal Crossing and a cultural phenomenon was born. We couldn’t meet in-person, so we met in-game. There were dates, playdates, family gatherings, birthdays, even weddings!

The concept was simple: You have an island. You live with animals. Your job is to catch fish, bugs, cook, and decorate your island. Any way you like. And your friends can visit (via the internet!) to tour your creation in real-time.

Thus, our community was born. Reddit was for trading items. TikTok made memes. Facebook organized playdates. And Instagram became a place to share builds. “Builds” being arrangements of any of the 4,895 unique in-game items to create a scene.

And the way to make these builds extra special was to add a couple of “custom designs.” You see, in addition placing furniture and flowers, there is a 32x32 pixel canvas that you can draw on.

And that drawing can be put on anything!
The ground, the wall, clothing, furniture upholstery, even your face.

This allowed creators (us!) to develop new design styles and eventually, terrain. Giving way to island themes like Cottagecore, Citycore, Kidcore, Vaporwave, Spooky, Swamps, Volcanos, Prehistoric, even Sky Islands.

And so, we started to tell stories…

To teach others to make their own designs, I started the AC Code Academy Discord Server with tutorials, design advice, and a small community of other pixel art students.