# Feeling like your island is super small



## Delphine (May 5, 2020)

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but does anyone feel like their island is super small in comparison to others'?
I enjoy looking at island tours so much on YouTube to get inspiration and just out of pure curiosity, but more often than not I'm like "Their island is huge!!" and I'm not sure if it's just because I'm so used to mine and I know it by heart, or if people just have a layout that has plenty of tiny well thought out areas, but I sometimes think "Oh no I terraformed the wrong way now my island is ruined". And I get kinda "desperate" to make my island feel more... diverse? Big? I don't know. Maybe it's dumb and everyone gets this impression and it's natural. But I thought I'd ask!

So, is it just me who plays too much or do other people get the impression that their island is smaller than everyone else's? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


----------



## MarkySharky (May 5, 2020)

I was starting to think that but as I've 'made it my own' more and moved houses around etc. I can see space opening up.


----------



## Neorago (May 5, 2020)

All. The. Time. I was just thinking about this. It boggles my mind to no end! I don’t have a single creative bone in my body and don’t know how to terraform to get my island to look so spacious despite having lots of themed little areas, it all just looks crammed in there lol. I just go for it and hope for the best. But it’s still my island and has its own unique charm, I suppose. I’m sure your island is lovely! I do wonder though if it’s all in our heads  hmm... to YouTube!


----------



## fallenchaoskitten (May 5, 2020)

I think it has a lot to do with having condensed or small hidden spaces.

My orchard took up a massive part of my island, so I got rid of it. Same with a playground that yeah it was cute but I didn't really LOVE it. Moved 1 tree of each to a lil spot with a stall, and boxes to be like a fruit selling place. Then put some extra trees in villager yards (so I am  not super short on fruit.)  
I was then able to move the remaining 3 villager homes over there with their yards (7x9 for each villager...) which gave me more space in my bamboo forest, shopping distric, and mystical future garden.

So tips: 

get rid of what you don't love. 
it is taking up space that you could put want you want in

condense what you can
do you _really_ need 5 trees of every fruit in one spot? 
how wide are your paths everywhere? do you really need 3 wide in that one area or will 1 wide still look nice?
does every resident really need their on 7x9 space/yard? (yes)

utilize your beach and rocks!
most of these grand islands use them a lot
i have a player house on one, graveyard on one, part of my outdoor spa is on the beach, part of an outdoor cafe on one
don't forget there are rocks on the back of the island you can use! 
I personally am hating my original terraforming cuz I cannot utilize these so I am torn on changing this up...


----------



## kasane (May 5, 2020)

yeah for sure. i see some people's maps have a lot of terraforming done to them and it creates the impression it is big because they have such intricate cliffs/waterfalls. i suck at terraforming so i'm sticking to the first layer for now cri

terraforming takes ages and when you accidentally step forward you end up undoing what you just did. that's also part of the reason why i hate terraforming


----------



## Mello (May 5, 2020)

Every island I see is bigger than mine I swear.


----------



## moonolotl (May 5, 2020)

You know your island basically inside and out, but you dont know other peoples island. This makes them seem a lot bigger than they are since you're constantly discovering new things, but when you go around your island you already know what to expect
at least thats what i think about it


----------



## Blueskyy (May 5, 2020)

I only have about 1.5 mil bells right now. Once my last loan is paid off I’ll probably destroy some of my fruit tree orchard for more space. For now it is a money maker.


----------



## Aliya (May 5, 2020)

Yeah I notice it sometimes when I have a new idea and I don't have the space to do what I want. When playing normally, I usually don't notice it and think my island has a lot of space to work with, but the second I want to be creative, it's like nope you're out of room sorry.


----------



## Altarium (May 5, 2020)

moonrose said:


> You know your island basically inside and out, but you dont know other peoples island. This makes them seem a lot bigger than they are since you're constantly discovering new things, but when you go around your island you already know what to expect
> at least thats what i think about it


This! The only reason other islands feel bigger in comparison to yours is that you know your island! All islands are the same size, I'm sure the owners of these islands that seem massive to us would also say they feel theirs is small


----------



## alpacac (May 5, 2020)

I actually felt like I had the same problem as you but I was surprised by how much space I had once I just made minor adjustments. For example I placed buildings in front of rivers but left some space so I could see fish, only to realise how much unused ground I lost. So I terraformed the rivers right up to the building, as well as decreased river width by like 1 block and boom so much more space!! I don't even fish too often as a source of income (prefer islands really since its smaller area but same spawning rates) so I proceeded to even take out an entire river LOL I also adjusted the placing of my decorative areas to remove random nooks & crannies (hahaha) and free up minor spaces

Only downside of this is that everything now appears ultra organised (which is what I wanted for my town city centre area) but it may not be your style :/


----------



## bubblemilktea (May 5, 2020)

Yes!! I felt like I had this problem in NL too. I always feel like everyone’s islands seem like they have a lot more space than mine. I don’t know if it’s because I know my island or for another reason.


----------



## Delphine (May 5, 2020)

fallenchaoskitten said:


> I think it has a lot to do with having condensed or small hidden spaces.
> 
> So tips:



Thank you so much for the tips!! They're great and it's true I don't use my beaches as much as I could.



alpacac said:


> I actually felt like I had the same problem as you but I was surprised by how much space I had once I just made minor adjustments.



Yeah I think I struggle with this because I want some parts to be very organised and other more "natural"/messy looking! But I'll get there, thank you for posting!

Thanks everyone who has replied so far, even if it's just an impression due to the fact that we know our own island very well I find it very interesting to see other people experiencing this strange feeling as well! 

I did notice that I found my island bigger and bigger as I added little areas these past few days but still, hard to find a balance between fences and trees and bushes and paths and everything! Which is exciting! I love this game so much...


----------



## Clock (May 5, 2020)

At first, I always feel my island is small whenever I look at peoples layouts on social media and youtube before terraforming. Now it looks a bit more larger than my starter layout and after relocation, there will be more space.


----------



## moon_child (May 5, 2020)

I sometimes think it’s too small and then the next time I’ll think it’s too big and won’t know how to fill it up. It’s strange.


----------



## xara (May 6, 2020)

i don’t really think my island is too small but sometimes i’ll visit somebody else’s island and it feels so _massive_ compared to mine lol


----------



## lei (May 6, 2020)

My friend chopped down loads of her trees and left big blank areas of grass, which gave the optical illusion of WAY WAY more space... I kind of want to find an area or two that I can do the same. It all adds contrast, so you go from a condensed busy area in to a wide open space and the mind thinks "wow, this goes on forever!" That's my ultimate challenge to adapt my island to include this trick....


----------



## seularin (May 6, 2020)

even after ive terraformed most of the land, it just feels so small? watching island tours feels like they have unlimited space,,, ig its sense of placement??


----------



## BambieTheMayor (May 6, 2020)

I've thought the same thing, especially while watching YouTube just as you. However, after moving stuff around, destroying things I didn't really need or like on the island, organizing villager houses, etc., I can definitely see how my island is around the same size as everyone else's.

In my opinion, the biggest trick is to take advantage of the smaller spaces. nooks and crannys, if you will...  Giving every corner of space a meaning, a story, etc. will make the island look much bigger than it really is. Areas do not have to be big, yet lacking of decoration, to be impressive. I used to have a large park that was honestly _way _too big and had a lot of empty space. I cut its size down to 1/4th of its original size and was still able to decorate it nicely. With the extra space, I was able to make a lovely resting area that was its own little "island" using the magic of terraforming. It's one of the more popular spots of my islands when visitors come and see it, and definitely my proudest part of the island. 

Don't be afraid to knock down cliffs, turn rivers into ponds, or make that big cafe into something a bit smaller. You can do a lot of things with the space you have... you just have to play your cards right.


----------



## Underneath The Stars (May 6, 2020)

i have some tips regarding this because i felt this too. i noticed this while watching some island tours and thinking how are their islands so huge? SO many areas! i mean obviously because you're more used to your island too and it's your first time seeing theirs, but let's talk deeper than the first impression or appearance.

it's basically because they make use of *each & every space*. they make these little sections and plan to make use of every block as useful as possible. of course i'm not assuming that we're just placing some random stuff on ours, but let's say you have the plaza walk way so that's 2 blocks of paths... then next to it are flowers, fences & then trees as well probably. that's a lot of area already, fences count as 1 block not counting whatever decors or items you'll put next to it. some islands that give illusion that theirs have so many areas is because they cramp stuff, and that doesn't necessarily mean it will make it look small or crowded, but it means they'll have more space to make more island sections. i noticed some even have 1 block walk area for other sections (i wouldn't do this though). in the end, i ended up getting rid of huge orchards and minimizing them.

	Post automatically merged: May 6, 2020



BambieTheMayor said:


> I've thought the same thing, especially while watching YouTube just as you. However, after moving stuff around, destroying things I didn't really need or like on the island, organizing villager houses, etc., I can definitely see how my island is around the same size as everyone else's.
> 
> In my opinion, the biggest trick is to take advantage of the smaller spaces. nooks and crannys, if you will...  Giving every corner of space a meaning, a story, etc. will make the island look much bigger than it really is. Areas do not have to be big, yet lacking of decoration, to be impressive. I used to have a large park that was honestly _way _too big and had a lot of empty space. I cut its size down to 1/4th of its original size and was still able to decorate it nicely. With the extra space, I was able to make a lovely resting area that was its own little "island" using the magic of terraforming. It's one of the more popular spots of my islands when visitors come and see it, and definitely my proudest part of the island.
> 
> Don't be afraid to knock down cliffs, turn rivers into ponds, or make that big cafe into something a bit smaller. You can do a lot of things with the space you have... you just have to play your cards right.



we were definitely on the same boat here! our minds!!! yeah, definitely inspired to reduce spaces after watching youtube tours. i never noticed how our original maps had such huge rivers, and it's like so excessive sometimes. making it to a little pond does help. i don't see myself having more than 3 bridges because i think i have enough rivers already as they are such huge empty spaces.

definitely recommend taking advantage of smaller spaces. turn it into a cute little designated space with maybe like a bench/reading area or cafe whatever, people who'd visit it would see it as an actual area rather than an empty space.


----------



## ayeeprill (May 6, 2020)

Yes and no. I am very minimalistic in my decorating style so my island doesn’t feel too cluttered, but I do feel limited sometimes.

one thing that really helped me was making all my rivers straight - it may not work for your town but it did for mine and it made everything so much easier.
Also another thing that worked for me was incorporating areas I wanted in my town into villager yards - for instance Ribbot’s yard is also a gym and Sylvana has a library


----------



## brockbrock (May 6, 2020)

The way I was forming my island I had already build a third of it and only had placed 2 villager houses. I just felt like everything was too flat, and too spread out, so I demolished quite a bit and started some serious terraforming. Now, I feel like I have so much more space. I hope it stays that way!


----------



## Delphine (May 6, 2020)

Thanks again everyone for all the new replies!! 

I agree that islands that seem bigger generally use all the space available, thing is maybe I'm "far behind" (though I don't especially want to rush) and I feel like I don't have a lot of ideas/furniture/options? 
Like ok let's go with a little forest, a cafe, a spa, a yard sale... but I have so many little parks with the exact same furniture over and over and it's so easy to have everything feel so cluttered and repetitive.
And I have no idea what to do with the beaches honestly apart from putting a couple chairs and a hammock :')

Sorry if it seems like I'm never happy with anything haha but I've been creating more and more tiny areas and it's true it feels a lot more "lived in" if that makes sense! It's just hard to come up with diverse ideas that fit well together!


----------



## Romaki (May 6, 2020)

Kinda, the people with insane island layouts really know how to make use of every little corner. But when I walk around my island for fossils it feels huge too. I think it really depends on how you use your level. My second level is almost half the island at the moment and when I'm up there it kinda feels like another town from a previous game. It just really depends on what you do with your own island.


----------

