Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
We’re half a year away from the release date. Despite new information on Animal Crossing: New Horizons announced earlier this month, my plans haven’t changed. If you want to read about my current plans, read last month’s blog entry. I also have a blog entry on the rating system I will use on how I will rate the changes. From this point on, I will no longer link to the older entries, so if you want to see them, read them through the New Horizons blog category.
So what’s today’s announcement? Well, Nintendo’s new Switch Lite has came out today, it’s been 5 days since the GameCube Version’s 17th anniversary in the United States, and 5 more days until Happy Home Designer’s 4th anniversary in the United States. But today’s blog entry is about another analyzing blog entry of video games - The Box Theory.
Back when ACNL was first released in the United States, I came up with a theory where every game is a box. The more features there are, the bigger the box. Why do I use the term “box”? It’s because the producers “think outside the box” when making a new game, and that’s how the box expands. Adding new items does not expand the box. It just makes the box prettier. But adding new features expands the box, especially if it’s an innovation very few people would expect.
Here are some examples of the Box Theory:
Town Design, House Design, and Character Design:
Back in the GameCube Version, despite different locations and maps, every town was essentially the same. Tom Nook’s Store, the Post Office, the Dump, and the source of the river were all in the A-acres. The Train Station was always in Acre A-3. The Able Sisters and the lighthouse were always along the beaches, with the lighthouse being in the same acre as the mouth of the river. The dock to the island was always Acre F-5. The Police Station, Wishing Well, and Museum were always in the C-acres, D-acres, and E-acres. The acre with all human villagers was always Acre B-3. The only way to decorate your town is by planting trees or growing flowers (back when flower breeding didn’t exist). On the subject of houses, every house could only have two floors and a basement, with one room per floor. There were five different types of furniture (action and on/off furniture, dressers, chair and beds, tables, and stills) as they can only be one type. You can also change the carpet and wallpaper. The only way to customize the exterior is repainting the roof and adding a door pattern. And character customization, you can only change the shirt, and the pattern applies to the hat as well.
Wild World started expanding the box as we were able to have different hats or head accessories, hairstyles, flower breeding, ground patterns, town flags, and bigger houses (but only one). There’s also no fixed location for each landmark as long as the waterfall and the town gates were at the cliff. City Folk expands it a bit more when you had all four human houses in different locations and town funds.
New Leaf takes it at a much further step as you can place houses, attractions, and PWPs anywhere (the houses in New Leaf are even bigger). You can also customize the exteriors, add wall furniture, and (after the update), move furniture anywhere. Character customization is also improved as you can change tops and bottoms, eye colors, and socks and shoes. It’s like the characters aren’t the same as they used to be, not anymore.
Finally, you have New Horizons, where you start from scratch and build from ground up. You also have more options for your characters, path design, placing items anywhere, and crafting. It shows that Animal Crossing has came a long way, from essentially being the same to completely different towns and characters.
Shops:
Another thing that evolved over time is shops. Back in the GameCube Version, Tom Nook used to do everything, as he was in charge of renovating your house, selling items, buying from you, catalog, and turnips. On the items, he sold furniture, carpet, wallpaper, clothes, umbrellas, plants, stationary, and tools. In Wild World, as more clothes were introduced, the Able Sisters started selling it, as Nook was in charge of the rest (including hairstyles). In City Folk, the Shampoodle was separated from Tom Nook, as shops are the same.
Going to New Leaf, Tom Nook’s Store broke into four branches. Nook’s Homes (where the debts, remodeling, house design, and Tom Nook goes to), the shop (which had stationary, tools, music, furniture, carpet, wallpaper, and ordering), the garden shop (which had saplings, shrubs, flowers, and plants, but will eventually integrate with the other shop), and the Re-Tail (which had selling, refurbishing, and turnips). The Able Sisters also separated hats, accessories, and umbrellas from the other clothes. So just one shop got separated into six different units in New Leaf.
I wonder what New Horizons may eventually have? Maybe Saharah would have her own shop, which sells all the carpets and wallpaper (including the regular ones) in the game, as the furniture has their own shop as well. Maybe we could have a mall. Or maybe, we could have one shop that sold everything like the GameCube Version did, but as it expands, it separates the rest. Or maybe, we can make our own stores and decide what’s being sold.
Conclusion:
We still have six months to go before we can see New Horizon’s release, but you can see the idea on what this theory is like.
So what’s today’s announcement? Well, Nintendo’s new Switch Lite has came out today, it’s been 5 days since the GameCube Version’s 17th anniversary in the United States, and 5 more days until Happy Home Designer’s 4th anniversary in the United States. But today’s blog entry is about another analyzing blog entry of video games - The Box Theory.
Back when ACNL was first released in the United States, I came up with a theory where every game is a box. The more features there are, the bigger the box. Why do I use the term “box”? It’s because the producers “think outside the box” when making a new game, and that’s how the box expands. Adding new items does not expand the box. It just makes the box prettier. But adding new features expands the box, especially if it’s an innovation very few people would expect.
Here are some examples of the Box Theory:
Town Design, House Design, and Character Design:
Back in the GameCube Version, despite different locations and maps, every town was essentially the same. Tom Nook’s Store, the Post Office, the Dump, and the source of the river were all in the A-acres. The Train Station was always in Acre A-3. The Able Sisters and the lighthouse were always along the beaches, with the lighthouse being in the same acre as the mouth of the river. The dock to the island was always Acre F-5. The Police Station, Wishing Well, and Museum were always in the C-acres, D-acres, and E-acres. The acre with all human villagers was always Acre B-3. The only way to decorate your town is by planting trees or growing flowers (back when flower breeding didn’t exist). On the subject of houses, every house could only have two floors and a basement, with one room per floor. There were five different types of furniture (action and on/off furniture, dressers, chair and beds, tables, and stills) as they can only be one type. You can also change the carpet and wallpaper. The only way to customize the exterior is repainting the roof and adding a door pattern. And character customization, you can only change the shirt, and the pattern applies to the hat as well.
Wild World started expanding the box as we were able to have different hats or head accessories, hairstyles, flower breeding, ground patterns, town flags, and bigger houses (but only one). There’s also no fixed location for each landmark as long as the waterfall and the town gates were at the cliff. City Folk expands it a bit more when you had all four human houses in different locations and town funds.
New Leaf takes it at a much further step as you can place houses, attractions, and PWPs anywhere (the houses in New Leaf are even bigger). You can also customize the exteriors, add wall furniture, and (after the update), move furniture anywhere. Character customization is also improved as you can change tops and bottoms, eye colors, and socks and shoes. It’s like the characters aren’t the same as they used to be, not anymore.
Finally, you have New Horizons, where you start from scratch and build from ground up. You also have more options for your characters, path design, placing items anywhere, and crafting. It shows that Animal Crossing has came a long way, from essentially being the same to completely different towns and characters.
Shops:
Another thing that evolved over time is shops. Back in the GameCube Version, Tom Nook used to do everything, as he was in charge of renovating your house, selling items, buying from you, catalog, and turnips. On the items, he sold furniture, carpet, wallpaper, clothes, umbrellas, plants, stationary, and tools. In Wild World, as more clothes were introduced, the Able Sisters started selling it, as Nook was in charge of the rest (including hairstyles). In City Folk, the Shampoodle was separated from Tom Nook, as shops are the same.
Going to New Leaf, Tom Nook’s Store broke into four branches. Nook’s Homes (where the debts, remodeling, house design, and Tom Nook goes to), the shop (which had stationary, tools, music, furniture, carpet, wallpaper, and ordering), the garden shop (which had saplings, shrubs, flowers, and plants, but will eventually integrate with the other shop), and the Re-Tail (which had selling, refurbishing, and turnips). The Able Sisters also separated hats, accessories, and umbrellas from the other clothes. So just one shop got separated into six different units in New Leaf.
I wonder what New Horizons may eventually have? Maybe Saharah would have her own shop, which sells all the carpets and wallpaper (including the regular ones) in the game, as the furniture has their own shop as well. Maybe we could have a mall. Or maybe, we could have one shop that sold everything like the GameCube Version did, but as it expands, it separates the rest. Or maybe, we can make our own stores and decide what’s being sold.
Conclusion:
We still have six months to go before we can see New Horizon’s release, but you can see the idea on what this theory is like.
