Let's talk about aesthetic!

[jokk]

i don't like inaccessible islands. while they can look nice with lots of cliffs, i much prefer simpler layouts that are easier to navigate. i like natural themes and love when people decorate with glowy items like nova lights etc

 

[Le Ham]

Sometimes the cluttered style islands can be really well done, but to me, most of the time they aren't even worth taking pictures of. If they're unique enough, I'll put up with the clutter and lag. But the ones I favorite tend to be non-cluttered, yet extraordinarily beautiful and unique.

I've also found that I enjoy visiting islands where they don't have amazing design sense, but you can tell they poured a lot of love into their island. It's like looking into someone's personality. Maybe I'd compare it to a YouTuber's island, where it's more about having fun than being Insta-friendly. Those are lots of fun to just explore, see what they did, guess what was going through their minds.

 

[coffeedrinker]

My favorite islands are the ones that are well-designed, easy to navigate, and have some unique ideas. At this point, I have seen a lot of great ideas, so it is always impressive to see something that I have never seen before. I did go on a tour recently that had the potential to be one of the best islands I have ever visited. It was so hard to navigate and stressed me out! I ended up leaving quickly because I just kept getting stuck.

 

[LunarMako]

I love looking at themed island. Because it is something I will never do.
I seen a Doctor Who island that was awesome. I also like see the islands where people completely change the layout with every season.
Unlike me. I have halloween, turkey day and Christmas items around. HAHAHA.
Mostly because I don't want to get rid of my pumpkin patch because I like the way it looks and I don't have enough Christmas items to replace my turkey day yet.

 

[Rika092]

Ah I may be the unpopular opinion here in that I actually do kinda enjoy clutter-core aesthetics. There was one town that I dreamt because I saw someone doing a tour of it on YouTube. It is VERY cluttered to the point where I find myself getting lost several times (and had to call for rescue service lol) but the execution of the island is phenomenal. The waterworks are amazing, and the way they used the tiles as paths as well as their choice of the customized patterns are just excellent. Now, I cannot imagine how this person navigated their town on a daily basis, but the island itself is very nicely down and I can appreciate its beauty and the aesthetics. That said, I do agree that having too many items out in one area tend to create lagginess, which I too don’t enjoy much.

The best kind of islands that I really enjoy though are typically those that tell a story or have a theme. It just adds so much more depth and cohesiveness to the island in my opinion.

 

[Raz]

While my island isn't considered cluttered by any means, it has a lot of things on it. But ease of navigation is something I always took I consideration from day 1.

 

[Lilyacre]

I really dislike cluttered towns, I just think they look really messy and they're so difficult to navigate. If I step off the plaza and there's like 10 or more items on the floor straight away, I usually just hop back into bed and go somewhere else. I also dislike fake cities using the simple panel - it just looks odd to me because it's clearly not a building and just a pattern of a building. It looks cool at first but as soon as you walk behind the panel it just looks so out of place. I felt the same when people would use water patterns in NL to create ponds, it just looked fake and weird.

There's a few other things that I'm not keen on:
- Islands with really boxy cliffs and rivers. All the straight lines just looks so unnatural.
- Hundreds of flowers that are all different colours and just growing wild (especially on the beach - I hate flowers on beaches)
- Islands that no longer look like animal crossing because there's no trees or visible grass.

I really like islands where the shape of the river and cliffs naturally guide you around the island. I've really struggled to find many of these but when I do, I just love exploring them. It's even better when there are no paths, it's just completely natural but it's still clear where the paths *would* be.

 

[-Blue-]

I like islands that aren't cluttered. I used to hate the islands in NL that just had presents and goodies littered everywhere. It felt like a trash-heap, even if it looked like they really put a lot of heart into the town.

I feel like these same people went overboard in NH and made their island so decorated that you couldn't possibly enter anything or interact with anything. It was a like a museum/zoo exhibit.

As long as your island didn't do that, I gave it a chance.

 

[minnew]

I usually decide on whether or not to tour the whole island based on how much/how well the town hall/plaza is decorated. I prefer a foresty aesthetic, but will definitely still look at others if they've been thought out well. I see the appeal with the cottagecore islands (they're gorgeous in pictures), but I find them hard to navigate if they're too cluttered or have a lot of dead ends.

I've seen a few Japanese-inspired villages that have been amazingly designed. I really appreciate islands that keep it simple/cohesive but still beautiful!

 

[Uffe]

Cluttered islands can look amazing, and because things are so close to one another, it creates the illusion of the island being much larger than it really is. However, even though it can look nice, it being cluttered does make it difficult to get around certain areas. It also makes the game heavily lag, which is unfortunate. Don't get me wrong. I'm not dissing on people who have a lot of enclosed areas and made their island look nice, it's just not my cup of tea.

 

[Sara?]

Things I like to see:

- Open spaces to freely walk
- Creativity
- Sense of reality Aka furniture that you would see in outdoors setting and fitting to the season
- Natural creative islands

Things i dislike to see:

- Overly clutter islands where i bump on everything trying to move
- Islands that are divided into sections and each has its own kind of theme
- Unrealistic furniture like outdoors library ( the books would get wet !)


Bear in mind that this are my personal preferences which does not mean that I am unable to appreciate other islands although they might be cluttered or decorated in a way i would not do, when i find this islands while dreaming i do really appreciate the hard work the owners have put into them and i do enjoy the one time walk around them. With what i have said before its just that i would not try to replicate it in my own island. I do like all your islands but due to personal preferences i like more ones than others

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[Matt0106]

I REALLY live for an island that is relatively simple in its pathways. I know that the winding paths are really trend now, especially with cottage core islands, but I tried replicating that on my island near my house and I got sick of it so quick. I'm a firm believer that you can have a beautiful and natural looking island, even without winding roads!

I really don't like clutter though. I've tried seeing some nice islands with Luna, and oh my, it was lag fest central. Was not living for it one bit.

 

[Pyoopi]

Just reading this thread makes me feel like we need a dream resetti rescue copter when navigating the densely decorated islands.

I'm interested in any type of island even if it's not going to win internet points. I'm intrigued by other people's brains, lol. I sound like a mad scientist.

However, what agitates me the most is when I'm forced to follow only this particular path. I understand there are instances in other games but snaking on a tiny path is frustrating.

I also find the giant mish-mash of different custom designs (like flowers, stone, another kind of stone and sparkles) littering the ground makes my eyeballs scream.

 

[Your Local Wild Child]

I forgot one other thing that I heavily dislike on dream islands: huge swathes of land covering in unnatural paths. Usually these areas coincide with a large number of moving items (which cause lag). I once went to a neon-color-themed island and while I could tell a lot of heart went into it, the choppiness and lack of more natural areas kinda ruined the experience.

 

[CJ8080]

The most important thing for me is how well it works, the cohesion and everything. For example a town flowing into the country side really well makes the whole island super interesting

 

[Auntie]

Cohesiveness, beautiful gardens/well planned use of flowers and clear, easy to navigate paths always make me stop and admire and island.