every animal crossing game had some interesting concept art and early prototype designs. from animal crossing, wild world, city folk, new leaf, through new horizons, what was going on? what were they thinking? twitter: / rocketelijah
That’s what I figured as well. Like when you scan that Amiibo in New Leaf, Wisp even mentions how noteworthy and famous he is and that he can’t bring him to town because he’s so busy. I found that to be a nice touch.
Technically that shopping street *is* a mall. That's what malls used to be and still are in some countries; long outdoor streets of just different shops for people to walk along. Sometimes called a promenade or a pedestrian mall.
In America we have some similar remaining places we call "outlet malls" that are outdoors storefront mall areas (there's specific ones like Tanger Outlets) though, I'm sure they're more regional than I realize. But in Washington DC they still have a huge walk path mall (no shops just a long walking road almost like a park) We also have "strip malls" which are just long rows of stores slammed together in a long lot.
Over here in Germany, but I think it’s a thing in a lot of European countries, most cities have a city center with at least one, if not multiple shopping streets. We do have indoor malls, but the central part is where you usually find these promenades of shops. Add to that the fact that it’s often the exact part of the city with the most really old buildings („Altstadt“), with architecture from the Middle Ages up to early 20th century. So the street in New Leaf, or the city in City folk, do look like how cities look over here.
The fact that they put so much effort into every little detail is amazing. No wonder they don't release new animal crossing games every year or every 2 years. Maybe they're already working on concepts for the next one that will be released like in 2027
it seems like they used to be super detailed focused, but seeing how they rushed new horizons out cutting content in favor of bigger profits, maybe it's not so much that anymore.
this video made me have even more respect towards ACNH, the attention to detail is massive and the concept art and ideas they had for the game are simply fascinating
18:38 I believe that little creature is Princess Kaguya from "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter." The story is pretty famous in Japan, partly for being the oldest extant literary work in Monogatari form
The first and second games art direction had a cute folk art charm that was seen especially in promotional material and UI. Very whimsical and unique. Seems too be lost in New Horizons in favor of minimalism or relatability.
I really appreciate all the details they put into new horizons. Makes me appreciate the game a lot more now. They took the time to put thought and care into objects which now kinda makes sense in terms of the gameplay now. They focused more on the interaction with the environment as opposed to other things.
6:05 the small yellow statue looks like a raccoon/tanuki to me. In Japan many businesses have tanuki statue bringing good luck and Tom Nook himself represents that.
Imagine if back then, Nintendo worked with Disney to make an animated Animal Crossing movie, with the concept art looking so cute and cartoony it could’ve worked.
if he did that i would actually die happy elijah is one of my fav informational ac youtubers and i still have yet to see a good and filling ac iceberg video
As someone who still likes New Leaf over New Horizons, I really hope NH was just a big tech demo and that the next AC game will just blow everyone’s minds. The potential is unreal
That 3d texture you talked about is called a Height Map, most modern games rely on Height maps to reduce the amount of polygons in a model for better performance. There technically still is a height map on the grass in the final version, it's just used differently, in still night pictures you can see the grass is lit like there's slight hills and slopes, that's done by the height map. Even New Leaf uses height maps throughout the whole game
That statue that looks yellow gold in the concept art for tom nooks place at 6:10 .... its a golden tanuki statue with the classic pale stomach and leaf on its head (the leaf is said to help the tanuki transform so thats why its on its head). Those appear outside of shops and restaurants in japan, although they usually have a hat on and leave nothing to the imagination on the gender.... being a children's game, they decided to tone it down a bit.
Just so you know i have found your channel about a month ago and i’ve been binge watching every animal crossing content thank you for actively making some still because it’s my special interest 😸 I love your videos
kinda felt like clickbait i dont feel like the thumbnail really showed what this video would be about i was lead to believe this would be like some really early dev stuff.
They look like they came from an unreleased 90s reboot of Sylvanian Families that tried to be more like Tiny Toon Adventures & Animaniacs, but instead ends up being an edgier Wacky Wack Wack World of Tex Avery.
I found a teaser poster for the movie back in the day that had drastically different designs for the characters, and even had unscrupulously replaced a character being Margie who replaced Lucy. I can link the image, if you want.
I wish there was an option to play as the og shorter character, i think the taller one in New Leaf is uglier. I like the game better than Wild World, but i wish there was an option to change the graphics back to a more primitive design lol. Like how u can switch your head with your mii for some reason.
