The Village of Renga - An Animal Crossing Experiment

[BogusMeatFactory]

Welcome To Renga

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Overview​

I had this strong desire to revisit the old Animal Crossing games and experience them in a very different way. I love to take old games and apply modern technology to change the way we see them and, hopefully, allow us to be able to use the full range of features and mechanics in an easy way. Using the dolphin emulator, three friends and myself are playing Animal Crossing a little differently. With myself living in the midwest of the United States, two friends living on the East Coast and one living in Australia, it isn't easy for us all to connect on a regular basis, so I devised a way for us to connect in a very unorthodox way. I pitched the idea of us playing the original Animal Crossing together, with each of us getting the save data to play for one week before passing it on to the next person. This way, we prevent any burnout, let the game have a more natural progression and also allow us to experience the original game with all of the features fully fleshed out.

So many people play Animal Crossing as a solitary experience and yet, the game offered the ability for 4 people to play together in asynchronous play. Villagers would talk about the other players to you, letters would be shared and the world felt even more fleshed out when you had full residency in that little central plaza. Add to it, we are highly encouraging other friends who aren't able to play on our game to make towns of their own so that we can visit them and continue to get the full breadth of the game's features in order to really emphasize this sense of community and belonging.

What's in a Name?​

So we set off to make our town, but we were hit with the first big hurdle. What do we call the name? Some names were thrown out like Hotdog (who doesn't want to live in Hotdog Town?), Renato, Gala, Esher and Renga and we put it up to a vote. We decided to go with Renga, which is a style of Japanese poetry were individuals write a series of stanzas before handing it off to another to continue. The concept fit perfectly with our intentions and it was almost unanimous! We had our name, we had our philosophy and now we needed to set up some rules.

The Rules​

The rules were fairly simple

1. No hate speech, bigotry or inappropriate content. We are keeping it strictly PG. This means no crass letters, inappropriate designs for flags and clothing and no inappropriate catch phrases for the villagers.
2. Do not be unnecessarily destructive. Accidentally destroying a flower here and there is no big deal, but don't go chopping every tree or intentionally destroying anyone's projects. We are all here to have fun and it doesn't help to be counterintuitive to everyone's ability to enjoy the game.
3. Try to use the features to their fullest. This means go out and make some shirt designs, write in your journal, write letters to players and villagers alike. A lot of times folks fixate on hoarding bells as quick as possible, but what we are trying to do is let the game go at a natural pace and not force anything.
4. No Time Traveling. This ties back in to the last rule. We don't want to force things into being. Let things happen naturally and time travel can really muck the game up ESPECIALLY when it involves other players in the same town.
5. Look out for your fellow villagers. If someone is looking to complete a furniture set and you see a much needed piece for them, grab it for them if you can. Finding stuff in Animal Crossing can be very tough some times so it helps to keep an eye out for each other.
6. Do not hog the content. It can be easy to binge the game, but with the original Animal Crossing, villagers only have so many jobs they need done and it can take a long time for new activities to pop up. The same can be said for Museum donations. We don't want one person to hog all the fun, so try your best not to binge everything at the expense of other people's fun. (The exception is fossils. If you've got one the museum doesn't have, donate it. Getting those all in can be a grind!)
7. The player who has the game for the last day of the month is responsible for raffle tickets for the rest of the players. Everyone should have their tickets in their gyroid or out available for the redeemer to turn in for prizes.
8. Be careful when travelling to other towns. If we get an invite to another village, be sure to come prepared. Every visit results in one of our villagers moving out, so be sure to limit yourself to a single trip so make sure you bring everything you need.

We also all agreed that anyone sharing their town were to follow those big conduct rules. All four of us stream video games to some extent and we wanted to stress that it wasn't mandatory and everyone involved consented to the game being streamed for those who wanted to.

The Town Itself​

Being the creator of the idea, I had the honor of going first. It was exciting to see what sort of town we got and overall, I was super surprised by our layout. It was easy to get to the places of interest with the river being very straightforward. There aren't a lot of nooks and crannys to lost in and a lot of open space to work with on projects. Our native fruit is the peach and I forgot just how endearing all the characters are. They really had strong personalities and stood out amongst each other in great ways. Copper and Booker, Phyllis and Pelly, Sable and Mable.... they all embody such different personalities and it really feels great to interact with them.

The Villagers​

Here was my initial breakdown of the villagers we had at the start of our town.

• Bob the Cat - The very first villager created, Bob is a purple cat with a flower shirt. He's the resident stoner and we love his laidback attitude.
• Mitzy the Cat - Lives directly next to Bob and while I am pretty indifferent to Mitzy, the idea of her living next door to Bob made her a bit more endearing to me. They were besties.
• Cookie the Dog - The sweetest dog on the planet and don't you dare talk bad about Cookie! Seriously though, she was a sweetheart who we loved dearly!
• Lobo The Wolf - Art thief extraordinaire. Lobo the wolf is a cool dude. He got the reputation for being an art thief because he gave me a pop quiz early on and acted a bit cagey when handing off my prize, which was a perfect painting! I donated it to the museum and it seems the cops have lost the trail. Lobo is cool.
• Boots the Alligator - Never met Boots before so it was a treat to see a new face. He does the head-down-eyes-up thing which I think is very silly. He is the sporty type but his energy is off the charts on a whole other level! Was super welcoming from the get go and even made me the coach of his swim team. Boots and I are best friends in this one.
• Friga the Penguin - She sniffs her own farts. I do not like her one bit. I dislike her so much that I wouldn't even want another town to have her because I wouldn't wish her on anyone!
• Rowan the Tiger- Our tropical island resident. He is a latin lover and exuding way too much cool. Love being able to use the GBA link features in the game on dolphin so I have spent a lot of time already with Rowan, helping him dig up treasures and fish.

Sadly, after visiting my first town twice on accident, Mitzy and Cookie moved over to the town of Bevin 67, but we did get Maple the Bear in exchange.

My First Week​

My first week was a rollercoaster of emotions.

• Day 1 began with Tom Nook holding his end of the month raffle, which I didn't know about so I couldn't purchase any tools whatsoever. Shook trees, talked to the villagers and did odd jobs for them. Got a pear and an orange right out of the gate which was amazingly good luck! Planted those in a C-1 in the tiny nook there. Let everyone know as well so they didn't get chopped down.
• Day 2 Tom Nook sold only a single shovel, but it happened to be April Fool's Day so I got to hear everyone's little pranks and jokes. It is funny that every single character has something, even folks like Booker and Phyllis. Got my copy of Super Tortimer and.... man I really wish we could play that game hahaha! What I loved most about the holiday was that they wrote the characters to not all be good at pranking. I loved when Booker tried to play a prank about his weight loss and it fell flat so hard that he felt embarrassed. That sort of stuff adds some real personality to the world. Not everyone is the most charismatic and perfect and it makes it feel really special!
• Day 3 Tom Nook sold an axe.... and a shovel. Three days into my week and I only have a shovel. I have the worst luck! Copper tells me Katrina is coming to the town soon and I am dreading that moment. I have never had a good fortune from her in my entire time playing the series! I trip a lot in my life. I put a call out though to some folks on my social media to see if anyone had a town save I could visit and suprisingly someone did! A good friend of mine who lives in Japan had a north american save from a town they started with their friends in 2021.
  
  I was so stoked to visit Bevin 67, which was a serendipitous event because I am a huge fan of the Massively Multiplayer Online Adventure Game, Myst Online URU Live, the Myst MMO (yes that is a thing that exists) and Bevin was the name for community neighborhoods players would get placed in to at character creation. It was in fact a reference to one of those and was where the group met up when they played that together. It made me so excited! Got me some cherries, mailed lots of letters and sent lots of gifts and I cleaned up their town for them completely. I also got a fishing rod from their store... YES!!!!!! They hadn't played in 3 years, so there were a lot of weeds! Sadly, Mitzi and Cookie moved there, but we got Maple the bear in exchange!
• Day 4 Tom Nook is selling an axe... and a shovel. Glad I got my fishing pole somewhere else! Katrina is here as well as a new villager, Astrid the Kangaroo. She had major David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust vibes and I looooooved it! She was too cool for school though! Katrina gave me my fortune and it was surprisingly not the worst luck. I don't know if it was her or not, but I caught nine red snappers in a row and two barred knifejaw. In the end of my fishing trips, I netted over 200,000 bells incredibly fast. My luck was off the charts. It came at a cost though. All the lady villagers stalked me. Astrid, the too cool for school kangaroo was following me everywhere and trying to make me jealous by talking about her boyfriend and being very desperate. Even Friga was trying to get too cozy. It was terrifying! Luckily, the spell wore off within the hour and the went back to their normal weird selves.
• Day 5 Tom Nook closed for remodeling, but we got another kangaroo named Marcy. She seems nice and nothing at all like Astrid. Very cozy!
• Day 6 Tom Nook's store is finally open and WE GOT A NET! A miracle! It also was the cherry blossom festival and it was so nice to see all the villagers hanging out at the fountain feasting on food, dancing and having a great time. At this point, I've already paid off two house loans and got my basement, so I've started to hoard my stuff instead of selling it. My basement is full of stuff. Storage was a nightmare in this game!
• Day 7 last day of my week before I had to go say goodbye. It was time for me to lay plans for the next player. I put a few things up on the community board to set the stage for some fun stories in the future. I communicated my little head canon for the villagers on the board, talking about Astrid being a stalker and to please respect my space signed "You Know Who." I also put up a haiku competition for all the players from the, "Haiku Master" and I'll be giving out a reward to each player for their Haikus when I see them next.
  
  The other one was a scavanger hunt from, "The Animal Man," who spoke in riddles and seemed a bit unhinged. I buried a boot behind Tom Nook's store. You can see the hole, but only at juuuuuust the right angle. He is going to be a recurring character for when I get to play. Before I left, I made sure to write in my journal and talk about my feelings about this journey. It is a really exciting idea for me, but also a little anxiety inducing. I've never really played Animal Crossing in this way where I had so little control over what happens, but I know my ability to embrace the chaos of it all will surely lead to some fun stories!
  
  Before I left, I said hi to our new villager, Tangy, the Orange-headed Cat and got my song from K.K. Slider. I listened to Aloha K.K. and said goodbye to Renga before I uploaded my save.

Initial Thoughts​

Animal Crossing Gamecube is so drastically different than the later games in the series. Villagers had such a broad range of emotions ranging from enthusiastic and welcoming to outright hostile. Some took time to open up and be accepting of me, while others shared their constant distaste for me. Regardless, it is so refreshing to have everyone feel so different, even if they shared a similar personality type and some of the same dialog. I loved the little things like how the post office works and how animals would respond to the things you would write to them about. When I thanked Lobo for his painting and how I delivered it safely to the museum, he reacted to that in a way that felt genuine. He talked about how great the museum is for the preservation of things.

Fishing is a lot more challenging than in any other entry to the game and I actually embraced it. It required focus. I spent so long fishing almost on auto-pilot relying solely on sound to catch things and now, I needed to be completely engaged with the process.

I can not wait to see what people do with the game and I hope we see the town evolve in fun and exciting ways! Fingers crossed

Final Stats​

Population: 8 - 2 Cats (Bob, Tangy), 2 Kangaroos (Astrid, Marcy), 1 Penguin (Friga), 1 Alligator (Boots), 1 Bear (Maple), 1 Wolf (Lobo)
Fruit: Peaches, Pears, Cherries, Oranges
Items Donated to the Museum: 8 - 2 Paintings, 3 Fish, 3 Fossils
House Upgrades: 2 - First floor expansion and Basement.

I hope you all enjoyed. More to come!

 

[BogusMeatFactory]

Welcome Back To Renga

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How things have Changed​

Welcome back everyone! It is my week to play once again and I have a LOT to update on, so bear with me as this is going to be a series of a lot of loooong posts! All of the villager players have finally moved in and in one months time, we have a completely full village. Renga is teaming with animal villagers who are overflowing with character and story. Let's start with the new villagers and a brief breakdown of my initial thoughts on each.

The Villagers​

Some villagers have left, others have stayed. We have said goodbye to both Mitzi and Cookie already, and while Bob, Boots, Lobo, Friga, have all stayed rooted in town, the additions are numerous and wild! Here are my thoughts on our new neighbors!

• Snake - Snake is a pink bunny in a ninja outfit and he is SO COOL! I see him as a guy who watched a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in his life and wants to be a ninja more than anything! I met him on a rainy day and his umbrella was riddled with arrows to add to the excitedly cool nature of him! He is Michelangelo personified!
• Queenie - The latest addition to Renga, Queenie is a purple ostrich overflowing with sass. She moved in just a day before I took over the game and she made her presence known! Unlike the fart-sniffing Friga, Queenie is snooty and sassy, but also very classy. Her house was surprising when we found it was laid out like a chessboard with all the pieces and even the wall resembled that of a backgammon board. Much like the queen in chess, Queenie does whatever she likes and commands her environment.
• Chief - Another wolf joined the town and Chief is a lot surlier than Lobo for us. Chief mostly keeps to themselves and hasn't really roamed the village a lot. They live sequestered off in lot C-1 away from everyone and they continue to be pretty reclusive. A lone wolf indeed!
• Maple - Maple the bear is a southern belle with lots of charm and class.... at first, but we noticed some darker and more disturbing overtones when we got to take a look at her home. She has 3 Papa bears, 3 Baby bears and 2 Mama Bears in her home. It wasn't until we realized that SHE represented the 3rd Mama Bear that we started to understand that her private life is... complicated. Maple is unassuming until you find out that she is... freaky.
• Astrid - This star spangled kangaroo moved in during my first week of playing, but I never got the opportunity to talk about her in more depth. She gave intense Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie vibes with her home filled with regal furniture, an electric guitar and... a vat of toxic waste. She has this air of superiority, but there was the moment where she became obsessed with me and it was... problematic. A restraining order may be in place hahahaha. But seriously, Astrid is too cool.
• Paolo - Paolo the pink elephant is a simple guy. He doesn't do a lot of thinking and that adds to his charm. He is easy to warm, easy to impress and always willing to help even if he has no idea what he is doing or why. We love Paolo because he adds that grounding element in a town full of drama queens. Paolo is salt of the earth!
• Peanut - Peanut the pink squirrel has, much like Chief, kept to herself really. She lives by the shoreline in lot F-1 and seems to be kinda quietly living her best life by herself. I don't have much of an opinion of her as of yet as she sits tucked away from the rest of the town. We will see how she does!
• Goldie - If anyone has anything bad to say about Goldie the dog.... shame on you. While she doesn't have the glitz and glamor of villagers like Astrid or Queenie, she makes up for it with wholesome friendship and loyalty. Some villagers may be vanilla and bland, Goldie is that premium vanilla that hits the spot when you want something simple, but reliable. If you don't like Goldie, you don't like happiness.
• Savannah - Savannah the zebra (NOT A HORSE) moved in next door to Friga and I hate to say it, but Friga has had a bad influence on her. Savannah took on Friga's proclivity for farts and seems like that girl who is the best friend to the mean girl in school, who is super nice, but keeps her head down and does as she is told. Some day Savannah you will be free to live your life away from that ominous cloud of stank... someday.
• Marcy - Another Kangaroo in the town, Marcy seems about as average as you can get. She gives off a motherly vibe with her baby in tow, but she seems to just enjoy the quiet simple life of town. She asked me to help with flowers, so there is that. Another really down-to-earth villager who doesn't want to stir up any trouble.
• Tangy - Tangy the tangerine cat is the life of the party. Seriously, her zest is unfathomable and one of the brightest spots in the town. Super excitable, running around crazy and the only time you see her stay in one place is to watch the fish float on by the river. How could you hate a cat that has a tangerine for a head? HOW!?

The New Players​

Let's take a second to talk about the new players to the game. As I said before, Renga is an experiment of playing the original Animal Crossing with friends online using an emulator. We each get to play for one week before passing the game on to the next person in life as part of a 4 week rotation. We are all now finally moved in and already the village has come alive with activity. Let me give you a brief introduction to each of the other players.

Meet Minty​

Minty is our agent of chaos. That shirt was a genuine choice and they lived up to the decision. On their first day, in an attempt to help clear out a secluded section of B-1 for our non-native trees, they cut down... ALL OF THE NON-NATIVE FRUIT TREES I PLANTED ALREADY! We had pears, Cherries and Apples planted and all were lost from the mayhem! I promise, the authorities were notified and fines will be issues haha! They always mean well, none the less, but it always ends up resulting in mayhem which I absolutely LOVE! Surprisingly his home is quite fancy and free of madness!

...oh wait...

His money making effigy is... something. Also slightly perturbed by the axe collection.

Meet Coding​

Coding is a laid back kind of guy. He takes things as they come and doesn't sweat all the small stuff. While Minty is eager to please and gung-ho about projects, Coding just chills. He has the old Microsoft Word assistant, Clippy on his door and his house gives off major whole-in-the-wall antique store.

Meet Key​

Key has been my internet bestie for over a decade. We are twins in our perspective of how we play games and how we view games in general. They were the main impetus for wanting to do this project in the first place in an attempt to find a great way to play together without feeling those social pressures to stick to a very rigid schedule. In Renga, Key is just as jolly. Their letters are always supportive of all the villagers... even Friga and they want to try and turn their home into a teahouse/sushi restaurant and I am all in support for this endeavor. You could not have a more supportive and awesome neighbor than Key!

So now that you have met everyone in our town, the next big post will be about my first day coming back to Renga and all the madness that has ensued while I was away!

 

[BogusMeatFactory]

Round 2 Day 1, 2 and 3​

The Letters​

Our day started off with a bevy of letters from some strange folks! Minty was the first letter, sending me my golden shovel I planted. His lack of proper letter formatting scares me.

Next was a letter from Coding. I think he has lost his mind.

Even more baffling was the letter I received from... Clippy? It's confirmed, Coding has indeed lost his mind.

Lastly I received a very scary letter from the Renga Health and Safety department concerning my axe storage in my basement? So what if I left a bunch of stationary around an axe? IT'S NOT WEIRD!!

The Bulletin Board​

After we went through our letters, I had to check out the community board. I had put up a haiku contest for the other villagers and two of the three players submitted a response and, oh they are a treat!

I am torn on who is the winner here. Spring's Fragility is the clear winner, but also... it is about Friga's farts. I am conflicted hahahaha!

Round 2, Day 1​

So one of the first things I did on my first day was introduce myself to all the new villagers. It was such a treat to get to know them and start to get a feel for their personalities. Villagers like Tangy, Snake and Queenie were instantly endearing with their wild personality and styles. What was NOT endearing was the fact that I recognized that some villager habits were... spreading. We've talked before about Friga the penguin and her tagline, "brrrmpth." Some say it's her being cold, but let's be real here. It's a fart. Well, with great dismay, when I introduced myself to Savannah the Zebra, she greeted me with that all too familiar fart. Not pleased. Even worse, our resident stoner, Bob ALSO started picking up the nasty habit. What happened while I was away? Was this Friga inviting her neighbors over for dinner and her cooking causing some sort of gastro-intestinal virus or was it a concerted effort to form some sort of flatulent gang! Friiiiiiiiigaaaaaaaa!

I had gone through the village talking to everyone, but there was one villager I couldn't find, Boots. To recap, Boots has instantly become my Animal Crossing bestie. He made me coach of his swim team and I caught wind that he even let other players know that he thought I was the coolest. So, in my search for finding him, I scoured the town, only to find him running around at the fountain plaza with Queenie and that's when I saw it. He was ATTACKED! Queenie approached him, she got angry and he got immediately sad. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure she pecked him! Ostriches are ornery and Queenie was no different. A letter was sent out by me to let her know how uncool that was. We don't do that in Renga, especially not to Boots!

Even more distressing was when I went to check on our non-native fruit trees. In my first week playing, I was given pears, cherries AND oranges. I immediately planted them off in a very sequestered nook in lot B-1 at the base of the cliff face. The trees flourish there and I had gathered some fruit before I left. When I came back, however they were all GONE. What stood in their place was a single sign with a smiling face that resembled my own, mocking me.

We were lucky that a single pear tree survived, but the damage was done. I put a bounty up on the bulletin board asking for information on the culprit with a reward of 50,000 bells! Justice will be done for my plants.... justice.

Sunday also marked a very important day, Turnip Day! Joan was there and this was the very first time anyone could really participate in the stalk market. at 103 bells per turnip (not a great price I know), I invested over 80,000 bells worth of turnips, storing them in the cool dank depths of my basement. I am watching the prices like a HAWK.

Sunday also marked the visiting of Wendell the walrus. His starving artist routine was intense and I gave him a barred knifejaw in exchange for some music music room wallpaper. It will dampen the screams of whoever chopped down my trees that's for sure!

The last big thing of interest was the greatest obstacle I've ever faced in any village I've ever lived in... rolling a ball up a hill. Tangy asked for a ball and I jumped at the chance. Who could say no to a cat with a tangerine for a head? So I set out to find a ball. There was one I brought to the fountain plaza to cheer up Boots post-pecking, so I rushed there. Sadly, in our attempt to get it across the bridge, it fell victim to the river. As we scoured the lots for a replacement, we found one at the base of a hill. This was going to be impossible. For those that don't know, pushing a ball up a hill is incredibly difficult. The ball is very bouncy and eager to slip out of your grasp and roll back down at a rapid pace, usually into the river.

I had to play this smart. I decided to dig a series of holes down the center of the hill, leaving just enough room along the right side to push the ball up against the ridge of the cliff. Little did I know, balls love to fall into the holes and get stuck. The only way to get them out is to hit them with a shovel and send them careening in a random direction, usually down. So I set up a SECOND set of holes to help mitigate any errant flailing and, after a few attempts, I succeeded. Easily my biggest accomplishment in my entire life. No hyperbole there!

All-in-all, it was a great day. I got to learn a lot about our new neighbors, had lots of adventures and had to send a letter to Friga asking her to politely see a doctor to help her with her digestive distress issues.

Day 2​

Day two was a far more uneventful day. I used what remained of my savings to pay off my basement to Tom Nook and spend the bulk of my day fishing for bells. Most of the villagers were pretty complacent with little needs so I used that time to work hard on paying off my ever-increasing debt. I also replanted the pears from the remaining tree in that orchard and replaced the sign with one of a pear to make it clear that these are NOT TO BE CHOPPED DOWN! I hope whoever did this gets the message!

Day 3​

Today was raffle day at Nook's place. My neighbors and I all agreed that we would set out our raffle tickets for everyone so that whoever was in town that day would turn them. We followed the current schedule of play to determine whose tickets are redeemed first and agreed to rotate so that everyone eventually gets a chance to be first.

1. First place prize was a White King
2. Second place prize was the Gold Mario Statue
3. Third place prize was the Garden Pond

We didn't know how the odds were going to be and if the first person redeemed would just win everything because they were first. I placed my tickets first into Tom Nook's hands and with sweat on my brow I watched as the wheel turned to reveal... I HAD WON! I got the third place prize on my very first roll. I was worried immediately that it may be too easy to win everything and no one would get a chance. Me second roll was a miss, but before all was said in done, I got the one thing I really wanted, that Gold Mario Statue!

There was only one prize left, the White King and three people with tickets. I hoped someone would win something but, after all the rolls had finished and the dust settled, no one claimed ownership of it. I put the Garden Pond up for sale at a reasonable price in case anyone wanted it for their their collection.

All in all, my first three days have been pretty eventful in Renga. I still have four more to go and I am very excited to see what I can set up for everyone before I leave!