1. About a week before the game came out I sat down and started thinking about ideas. I didn't watch trailers or Nintendo directs or whatever before hand so what I knew about the game was very limited. I decided to simply
think of an island name and island theme. I would also encourage everyone to do this when they start the game. As I've mentioned numerous times, my island, Maui, is largely based on my personal trip to Hawaii a few years ago, and the TV show LOST (that was filmed in Hawaii). I also decided early on that my island's color pallet was going to be "sunset colors" because sunset is my personal favorite time of the day.
2. The next step was of course to start the game- I spent about a month playing the game without any particular goals in mind, other than to
collect as many
items as possible. Once I had access to the terraforming app, the real fun began.
3. Because I am very organized and a planner, I have an irl notebook dedicated to video game stuff- half of it is AC and the other half is pokemon. I use it to
brainstorm ideas for my AC island. I draw or write whatever comes to mind, and then later decide where it will go on my island. Overall this notebook is for me, and thus most of it is scribbles and not pretty. I do draw for real though, and although I've always had a gift for art, my sketches/first drafts have always been scribbles. As I mentioned in another post, I have two modes- purposefully messy or perfectly neat. And because I don't have time to make every idea into a perfect drawing, I purposefully make it a messy sketch.
Here is an example (I can't believe I'm posting this online lmao):
If you follow this journal I'm sure you'll recognize that this is the Southern Lighthouse near my house and Diva's house. As you can see, I came up with this idea of a lighthouse on a hill (originally with a moat around it) on May 4, 2020. This area wasn't complete until well into June, but I'm fine with working at my own pace because I know the outcome is well worth it.
4. Once I had an idea, the next step I suppose would be to
plan out where on my island I would incorporate this new area. I would also think about how it would blend with the rest of my island. Sometimes this step would already be done in the draft (such as the southern lighthouse) but other ideas I've had (such as the Luau venue) was not created with a location in mind.
5. The last step is to actually
do the idea in ACNH! Sometimes this would work out, but sometimes it would not! Here are some pictures of the campsite/luau/oasis area. In the first picture you can see that this area no longer exists on my island. The idea was a total flop and I ended up tearing it down. But the second picture is the Oasis as it is seen today! Sometimes things work out as planned, but sometimes they do not. That's all apart of the creative process.
The Dig Site 
The Luau 
How I created Maui & my creative process 
