Are you a maximalist or a minimalist when it comes to designing your island?

[eeveelovee]

I'm gonna be honest, I can't stand when islands are completely cluttered to the point where I can't even move or walk! Also, it's just too much to look at, I feel overwhelmed.

I love the simple, natural looking islands that have minimal decorating and designing.

What about you? Do you like the clutter of maximalism or do you prefer the 'less is more' approach with minimalism?

 

[tanisha23]

I guess I would say I’m somewhere in-between. I actually quite like seeing crowded island, or at least decorating that compacts things quite close together, but I don’t think on my own island does this. I thinks it’s quite easy to walk around the way I’ve designed my own island.

I would say I like looking at them more than traveling in them, idk, they just always look so interesting to me. I also imagine for the owners of these island, they probably don’t find it too difficult to walk around in since they know where everything is.

So from a visual perspective, I like maximalism, but not for walking in.

 

[Snek]

I try to fit my island with its current theme so it depends what exactly I decorate with. I don't like it too minimalistic or else I feel its too bare or too maximalistic or else I can't move around as well so I try to balance it out.

 

[oak]

I'm a maximalist but I've had to reduce the number of items on my island cause of lag.

 

[.: Meri :.]

I'm somewhere in-between, leaning towards maximalist. I like making detailed builds, but it's always important to me that they're still walkable and that anything to be interacted with is reachable, and also that there's still room to play the game itself (so places for presents from balloons to land, fossils to spawn, etc.). I also prefer using the in-game paths for sound effects/less lag/honestly custom pathing is just too much work for me

With that said, even with my current approach I've noticed parts of my island getting low framerates, and it's far from finished. I'd really prefer to have smooth gameplay, but I don't want to dial back any of the areas I've currently built either... eventually I'm gonna have to decide to either just deal with it or maybe do a second island overhaul askdfjfklfs. Minimalist builders teach me your ways

 

[VanitasFan26]

Yeah I considered myself to be a minimalist. I don't care for themes and I too don't like it when an island is cluttered with items. One of the things I noticed when visiting dream islands is that some people don't think about navigation. Often times you have to figure out where you have to go on the island and there is no clear path. I am someone who wants a design path that is easy to follow. I made one on my island Destiny as a perfect example.

 

[daringred_]

i haven't finished 80% of my island, but i prefer maximalist. not in the way that some people do, with a lot of custom designs and making fake buildings using the panels etc. it just bothers me having big patches of empty space, so i try to put a lot of bushes and flowers down and smaller outdoorsy things like the log stakes, bunny garden ornaments, ruined pillars. i have quite a natural theme for the most part, and there's still clear paths through all of town, and you can maneuver through the "clutter" off-path, i don't fill every square lol.

 

[Pyoopi]

Maximalist is more fun but I'm really aware that it can feel claustrophobic or too rigid to move around, which can frustrate a lot of people (me included). So I enjoy editing back areas and having some negative space. I do have some laggy spots but it's nothing like getting stuck in molasses or having random render pop-ins.

I left the long stretches of my beaches alone and it's just so nice to run. So now everyone can run freely as a wildebeest there.

 

[annika]

i'm mixed, but i guess it changes based on where on my island you are? some parts i've got cluttered up way more, but i like to keep my entrance, for example, super clean and easy on the eyes ig

 

[CylieDanny]

I have alot of highly decorated areas, and most areas are dedicated to various interests of mine. However they aren't cluttered to where you have to step/walk over things to get around, it's easy to navigate.

Mostly because I am terrible at running from wasps, scorprions, and trantuals. So all my pathways are 3-4 squares wide, and I made sure there were no items on the main paths to bump into.

So I suspose it's a mixture of both then?

 

[whatisjello]

I'm usually very firm set on the pathing on my islands. I like to have clear sections separate with easily connecting pathways with bushes and flowers lining the road and growing the 'courtyard' and 'park' areas as I play. I like to imagine what the villagers would like having, since they live there more than I do.

 

[azurill]

I’m in the middle leaning more to minimalist.I have some area like my farm area that have a bit more items. Most of my island is natural decorating. Most of my problem is I don’t always know how to make my builds look nice.

 

[S.J.]

I'm an accidental minimalist (and it probably extends further in my life than ACNH). I usually decorate more simplistically, but on my island, in some places it's definitely too simplistic and empty!

 

[BetsySundrop]

I was a minimalist, just putting a few things here and there. Then I got carried away (so many items and possibilities!) and became a maximalist. A very bad one, with a lot of clashing ideas, things in progress, clutter everywhere. And when finally 'done', wasn't happy.

So then I went back to minimalism.

But then I visited some nice super-decorated islands, and started thinking and getting ideas...

It's a vicious, vicious cycle...I'm currently stuck between going for max cottage core or moving all the houses to the beach (again!) and starting from scratch (again!) with a minimal approach (again!)...

It's kind of ridiculous.

 

[Croconaw]

I’m definitely a minimalist. Crowded islands aren’t for me. I will add things to my island I like, but there won’t be too much to avoid the unnecessary clutter. I’m a minimalist in real life, too, so I guess this makes sense.

 

[Fruitcup]

Id say my main island is more in the middle of the two but for my second island im aiming for a minimalist look

 

[oath2order]

Somewhere in the middle. I stole this image off Google. It is my nightmare.

 

[food_and_mysteries]

I thought I was totally a maximalist because I add every place that I love and all the things I love to my island in little "mini doll sets"... And also have lots of secrets. So that means, a lot of space devoted to decorations and little places. But now looking at that picture I dunno. Pathing is super smooth and open for me even tho I stuff my island full of decorations. It doesn't feel like there's much 'blocked' space. Like I would hate that picture too because of how difficult it is to get around. Though I'm sure the person with it loves the meandering path feeling of it which is lovely too I'm sure for someone not me.

My island is definitely got tons of stuff since I stuffed references to a lot of my favorite books and games and places and eateries, and tons of fake little buildings to go into but the pathing (altho it's only one space across) is pretty open and clear? It's not like cluttered in the sense of blockage or having to sit on chairs to pass thru. That's still maximalist right? I guess it's like a city town so the streets are simple, vertical and horizontal. I do have a few unsittable chairs. Is that maximalist?

 

[dizzy bone]

I'm a bit of both. I'm minimalist in a sense that I need clear and straight roads that are easy to access and get around. I don't like to take huge winding roads, complicated forested paths, on intentional mazes, to get anywhere. My roads are pretty straight forward and I also only use in-game paths (dirt and the cobblestone). I'm maximalist in a sense that hugging those roads are quite a few "fake building" formations (such as a laundromat, a supermarket, a cafe, etc.) that can get quite complicated, but nothing too tall to feel claustrophobic.

 

[daffodilcrossing]

I like visiting both but when it comes to my own island I’m somewhere in the middle. Mostly because I don’t like the forced perspective stuff on my own island, and I don’t like lots of random items being everywhere. And the lag is crazy! Especially when visiting islands so I don’t want to deal with that on my own. I want enough that my island feels decorated but not too much that it’s hard to walk through. And it flows over to HHP too, when I’m doing yards for clients. Because in real life no one has a completely filled in yard! So it’s nice to make it a bit more minimalistic and realistic.