Island Inspiration: How did you find inspiration for your island and develop your own ideas for it?

[Dunquixote]

I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my main island; I’m planning on using my second island to experiment and plan it.

Initially my island was heavily inspired by Dragon Age, so I planned on making it medieval themed. Now I want to move away from that and try something else. I have a few areas that I want to keep if possible. I was thinking of having some more urban areas or at least by resident services and the entrance. I’ve been considering more One Piece Inspired areas but seeing this Persona 5 dream address made me consider something like that too. At the same time, I want something different.

I’m curious how everyone found their inspiration for their island(s), what dream addresses & designs are your favorites or were your inspiration? Or are there any you just like that you would recommend visiting? How do you take what you’ve seen and turn it into something that is more you (rather than it being an exact copy)?

I never visited dream addresses much, but I feel like it might help me a little here. In the past, Hobowire’s island and dream address had inspired me to go in the direction that I took - making something that is outside the box. I still love what he did and am happy with some areas on my island but I’m not satisfied anymore and want to try to make it look better and finish this island so I can start doing a second island.

Atm, this is what I’ve been looking at so far ; I’m going to update this as I find more:

ItsBakeNeko on Reddit made a Persona 5 island that I really love; I just found it recently and am revisiting again. The address is: DA-2657-0936-3795

I really love the idea of a Persona 5 themed island; I made some HHP paradise Persona 5 themed designs but didn’t consider making my island like that.

 

[azurill]

It took me forever to be happy with my main island. I didn’t bother with much with terraforming because I didn’t know where to start. Someone here I forget now who posted a picture of island neighborhoods and I combined a few of those. I also got inspiration from a mystery island I had visited to help me. So my map ended up :

This is the neighborhood ideas that I used to help place my houses

As far as decorating it I wanted it as natural decorations and some seasonal.

My second island I can’t figure out how to decorate or terraform it. I like a few of my ideas but can’t seem to get it how I want. It’s one of reason I am going to be restarting it soon. I will be going back to my original idea of an island based on stars and the moon.

 

[Dunquixote]

It took me forever to be happy with my main island. I didn’t bother with much with terraforming because I didn’t know where to start. Someone here I forget now who posted a picture of island neighborhoods and I combined a few of those. I also got inspiration from a mystery island I had visited to help me. So my map ended up :
View attachment 589371
This is the neighborhood ideas that I used to help place my houses
View attachment 589372
As far as decorating it I wanted it as natural decorations and some seasonal.

My second island I can’t figure out how to decorate or terraform it. I like a few of my ideas but can’t seem to get it how I want. It’s one of reason I am going to be restarting it soon. I will be going back to my original idea of an island based on stars and the moon.

Thanks so much for sharing! That is very helpful and interesting

 

[azurill]

Thanks so much for sharing! That is very helpful and interesting

Your welcome , happy I could help

 

[ellienoise]

I was just about to make a thread for this! Visiting dream addresses, watching youtube videos and pinterest is definitely where i draw inspiration from. I also get them from instagram and twitter. I have never thought of myself as very creative or good at coming up with ideas on my own, so I copy things that I like and then give them my own spin. I mean I also don't think copying something exactly as it is is wrong as long as you don't go around advertising your island on social media and claiming it as your own creation without giving due credit.
The way I do that is I usually copy structure or layout but then change the color scheme or the theme of the area I'm working on.

Credit to this creator for the inspiration:

Spoiler: For example, here's Lamplight's canal area

My town has more of a coastal vibe so I changed the colors. It is still a work in progress but you can kind of get the idea:

Spoiler

I take a TON of screenshots while i'm at the dream adress to make sure I don't have to come back and forth over and over. I hope this helps!

Here are some islands that I love. Let me know if you like them and I can share more!
kokiri DA: 6496 0582 1664
https://www.instagram.com/crossingkokiri/

Spoiler

Pickleton: DA: 5911-9667-7042
I mean this creator is amazing. every single one of their isles is incredible.
https://www.instagram.com/acnh.pickleton/?hl=en

Spoiler

Torinoko: DA 9215-6897-3915
https://www.instagram.com/torinokoisle/
Super fun, easygoing vibes beach town. Make sure to check out the secret beach on the top right corner of the island, it is one of my favorite things ever and i'm totally stealing it!

Spoiler

 

[Dunquixote]

I was just about to make a thread for this! Visiting dream addresses, watching youtube videos and pinterest is definitely where i draw inspiration from. I also get them from instagram and twitter. I have never thought of myself as very creative or good at coming up with ideas on my own, so I copy things that I like and then give them my own spin. I mean I also don't think copying something exactly as it is is wrong as long as you don't go around advertising your island on social media and claiming it as your own creation without giving due credit.
The way I do that is I usually copy structure or layout but then change the color scheme or the theme of the area I'm working on.

Credit to this creator for the inspiration:

Spoiler: For example, here's Lamplight's canal area

View attachment 589569

My town has more of a coastal vibe so I changed the colors. It is still a work in progress but you can kind of get the idea:

Spoiler

View attachment 589570

I take a TON of screenshots while i'm at the dream adress to make sure I don't have to come back and forth over and over. I hope this helps!

Here are some islands that I love. Let me know if you like them and I can share more!
kokiri DA: 6496 0582 1664
https://www.instagram.com/crossingkokiri/

Spoiler

View attachment 589568

Pickleton: DA: 5911-9667-7042
I mean this creator is amazing. every single one of their isles is incredible.
https://www.instagram.com/acnh.pickleton/?hl=en

Spoiler

View attachment 589567

Torinoko: DA 9215-6897-3915
https://www.instagram.com/torinokoisle/
Super fun, easygoing vibes beach town. Make sure to check out the secret beach on the top right corner of the island, it is one of my favorite things ever and i'm totally stealing it!

Spoiler

View attachment 589566

That’s very helpful! Thanks so much for sharing . I’ll check those out!

 

[oliv]

I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my main island; I’m planning on using my second island to experiment and plan it.

Initially my island was heavily inspired by Dragon Age, so I planned on making it medieval themed. Now I want to move away from that and try something else. I have a few areas that I want to keep if possible. I was thinking of having some more urban areas or at least by resident services and the entrance. I’ve been considering more One Piece Inspired areas but seeing this Persona 5 dream address made me consider something like that too. At the same time, I want something different.

I’m curious how everyone found their inspiration for their island(s), what dream addresses & designs are your favorites or were your inspiration? Or are there any you just like that you would recommend visiting? How do you take what you’ve seen and turn it into something that is more you (rather than it being an exact copy)?

I never visited dream addresses much, but I feel like it might help me a little here. In the past, Hobowire’s island and dream address had inspired me to go in the direction that I took - making something that is outside the box. I still love what he did and am happy with some areas on my island but I’m not satisfied anymore and want to try to make it look better and finish this island so I can start doing a second island.

Atm, this is what I’ve been looking at so far ; I’m going to update this as I find more:

ItsBakeNeko on Reddit made a Persona 5 island that I really love; I just found it recently and am revisiting again. The address is: DA-2657-0936-3795

I really love the idea of a Persona 5 themed island; I made some HHP paradise Persona 5 themed designs but didn’t consider making my island like that.

Hi! Your ideas are so cool!
Right now I’m redecorating my island because I wasn’t happy with it.

I like going through pinterest and search for ideas, and I change them a little bit to add more personality.
I love putting flowers and trees everywhere and doing little gardens for each one of my villagers.
I’m so indecisive and I think I’m going to remake my hole island hahaha

 

[himekirako]

i like looking through pinterest, twitter, and instagram for inspo! normally i’ll take inspiration from certain combinations of items that a creator used or it’ll be a terraforming/waterscapping build that i really like and want to recreate. i have a hard time trying to picture how to make things more natural and less… structural (?) so inspo pics really help, and dream addresses when i remember to visit some

i like to frankenstein inspo pics together to get a vibe going sometimes i have giant sections of emptiness on my island so finding smaller builds then putting them together really helps with my motivation and creativity going!

sometimes i’ll find a really interesting build and i’ll try to think of other items i could use so that it would match my island aesthetic, give it my own personal spin on it ٩(ˊᗜˋ)و

 

[Fruitcup]

What i mostly did was walk around my island a million and one times. Each time i would see something different that i wanted to tweak. Thats how i slowly and steadily made my island come together and be my own.

 

[. Rarity .]

My island has been through alot of changes. My favorote past theme for it was my South Park Island. I still have on corner of it, and a garden area dedicated to it though ♡♡

But some of my core inspiration came from A Disney themed island that *Chase Crossing* did. I absolutely fell in love with it. So I took a few ideas from it,

Then my isand slowly grew into what I wanted it to be.

It's split into four different themes, and some fandoms crossover in other areas. Top left is South Park, top right is frozen/tangledish?, bottom right is MLP, and then bottom left is Dangronpa! Not easy at all to design it. But I wanted four areas dedicated too certain fandoms.

It inspired me to make villager houses look like buildings, or represent character houses. Like in South Park, my three villagers houses look like three of the character's houses. So it's a nice way of not making fake buildings, which I've never managed to make. Well, at least to look like an actual building.

I started to make other areas dedicated to various fandoms, and it slowly came together. There's one area I'm thinking of expanding, but other wise I'm too happy with my island, to change any inch of it. Not all of it has fandoms, but my goal was to just make a mishmash of ideas.

--

I think it does take awhile to get to where you want to be, but there's no rush, inspiration comes to everyone in different way. For me it's was a tour, for my friend it was Pinterest. I'm excited to see how yours turns out ♡

 

[mermaidshelf]

Dream addresses, Youtube, Instagram, etc. are all great sources and I def find inspiration from seeing what other people are doing on their islands but for me personally, I try to look at real world examples of what I want to build. For example, I was trying to do a Greek inspired section so instead of looking at how other people's interpretations, I literally searched images of actual Greece. Of course, it is getting more difficult with search engines getting worse and worse these days and so much ai imagery clogging up the results but still worth sifting through to find accurate, real photos. Another technique I've also used is going to the street view option in Google maps (or whatever map options you prefer) and would go to the city/country I wanted to take inspiration from and moving through the streets and seeing how it actually looks. For example, I wanted to see Japanese temples, so I went to famous Japanese temples in Google maps street view and also jumped around to see how the streets around the area look like. I've also taken inspiration from my own city, the layouts of parks and shopping centers, etc. to give my builds a sense of realism and authenticity. I love creating areas that have special meaning to me, based on real places I've been to and have precious memories of. As for the layout of the island, I had a general idea of how I wanted to use certain things like my special beach and where I wanted to place my museum so I would build with those as starting points. Also I personally do not like so many of the available items in this game so I have a fairly short list of the items I absolutely have to use. That's another way I plan, I make areas that can incorporate certain items. All that said, I'm actually not done with my island and I feel that planning out a layout has been by far the most difficult aspect. I think another tip I can give is, sometimes you have to give up on a build, if it doesn't fit or it's not looking good. You can move it elsewhere or just give up on it completely and that's something I've come to accept.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I just had a vision of what I mainly wanted on my Island when I started over after crops were added. I wanted an orchard where two of every type of native fruits were grown and a small farming area for crops and a pumpkin patch to get different colors of pumpkins. Now I need to work on clearing out some trees and flowers to make a bamboo zen garden with a small waterfall and another section to create a community park.

 

[meloheart222]

my favorite color is pink, so I always just add lots of it and go from there lol. But Pinterest is always your best friend when you need inspo

 

[Clock]

Pinterest, Youtube channels that show case their non-hacked islands and looking at real life scenery inspires me to. I also use island planner to plan everything.

 

[Wolfsbane]

I usually go for forestcore/naturecore themes. I love when islands look like islands (nothing against citycore, kidcore, etc themes, you all have my respect and admiration). I draw inspiration from my villagers most of the time. I don't give them square yards necessarily, but I'll decorate around their houses with my headcanons for them in mind, their general aesthetic or letters we send one another. (❁´◡`❁)

Custom designs have inspired me a bunch too, especially paths, roads, rocks, anything natural.

And of course, seasonal anything. I love when my island reflects the seasons and holidays, so I try to add a bit of that here and there too.

 

[annex]

My first town that I've been playing for over four years is forest and camping themed. I just chose that theme because I love the natural look of trees. I did add lots of fun characters like...

Smokey the Bear. He's the park ranger.
Papa Smurf. He's owns papa's pizza parlor.
Hazel. She owns the Happy Hotel.
Resetti and Honey. They run apartment buildings for the npc's.
Charles runs a bait and tackle shop.
Christopher Robin. He lives in the 100 acre wood.

I recently started a new town. The main character is Beatrix Potter. I added Mr. McGregor a few days ago. I'm not sure how to decorate the entire town. I think it's just going to be simple, flowery and have lots of trees.

 

[KittenNoir]

I love watching other peoples island tours on YouTube for inspiration

 

[Cynthia100]

I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my main island; I’m planning on using my second island to experiment and plan it.

Initially my island was heavily inspired by Dragon Age, so I planned on making it medieval themed. Now I want to move away from that and try something else. I have a few areas that I want to keep if possible. I was thinking of having some more urban areas or at least by resident services and the entrance. I’ve been considering more One Piece Inspired areas but seeing this Persona 5 dream address made me consider something like that too. At the same time, I want something different.

I’m curious how everyone found their inspiration for their island(s), what dream addresses & designs are your favorites or were your inspiration? Or are there any you just like that you would recommend visiting? How do you take what you’ve seen and turn it into something that is more you (rather than it being an exact copy)?

I never visited dream addresses much, but I feel like it might help me a little here. In the past, Hobowire’s island and dream address had inspired me to go in the direction that I took - making something that is outside the box. I still love what he did and am happy with some areas on my island but I’m not satisfied anymore and want to try to make it look better and finish this island so I can start doing a second island.

Atm, this is what I’ve been looking at so far ; I’m going to update this as I find more:

ItsBakeNeko on Reddit made a Persona 5 island that I really love; I just found it recently and am revisiting again. The address is: DA-2657-0936-3795

I really love the idea of a Persona 5 themed island; I made some HHP paradise Persona 5 themed designs but didn’t consider making my island like that.

How do you require a second island

 

[Dunquixote]

How do you require a second island

You have to have a second switch or switch lite and a second copy of the game.