Natural / wild themed island

[Cirice]

When you begin your adventure, your island is wild and full of trees, weeds... A very natural vibe.
Does anyone worked with this theme to develop their island ? If so, what did you do to keep the wild yet not so deserted island ?

This is the kind of theme I'd like to do on my island as I loved the feeling of a deserted island when I arrived. Show me your favorite parts of your island, your favorite items, ... !!

 

[JKDOS]

I assume what you're looking for would be similar to cottage core?

I did a woodsy-feel ( DA-3859-9293-1471 ) It wasn't finished at the time the dream was uploaded, but close enough.

I'm currently redoing my entire island and thinking of making it look more like City Folk. I feel like excessive pathing and fencing, while it looks nice, takes away from the Animal Crossing feeling, and makes you feel more confined. I love going back and watching this video and seeing how natural everything is

Spoiler

 

[Cirice]

No not really cottage core. When I think of that word I see a lot of flowers, white wood and all. Very detailed but with stones and all.
I'm thinking of something less "planned". I don't know if what I'm saying even makes sense haha sorry

I feel like excessive pathing and fencing, while it looks nice, takes away from the Animal Crossing feeling, and makes you feel more confined.

I absolutely agree with you here ! It's very pretty, but even to navigate on the island it can be difficult and looks a bit cluttered.

 

[Queenno]

In my opinion the "cottage core" islands don't look natural at all. I love the deserted islands as well, I try to have all my villager's houses in the same area in order to have a "residential area" and the rest of the island more natural. I don't terraform too much and I try to avoid having items everywhere. But this "technique" doesn't give you 5 stars so I don't know if I will keep it this way...

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I don't have a Dream Address, but I've tried to keep my island more "natural" looking. I don't really terraform, and my cliffs have flowers everywhere for the most part. Only one of them doesn't, but it still has trees, and a small diner on it. I'm not huge on different paths everywhere - I only use the dirt path to connect buildings and such, and then I have the stone path on the cliff where my house is, just leading to my house and the steps that go up the higher cliff by it.

I have little areas around my island for sure, but I didn't go crazy with the custom paths and all that. To me, it really does look more like a deserted island where we're all just trying to live and be happy.

 

[Sgt.Groove]

I am working on a town that's meant to feel like a forest to fish and chill. I have no dream but if anyone would like to visit feel free to shoot me a pm, right now im working on rivers o-o The goal is to have more ambient noise (cicadas, grasshoppers, crickets, frogs) and less furniture. The hardest part about making a natural looking island is making the trees look less linear. I'll snag a few screenshots to post here ^-^
EDIT: You can see where the cliffs used to connect around town hall, originally all the houses were gonna be on the first layer in little nooks (Goldies house still needs to be moved o-o) but I abandoned that for the lake (it spawns pond fish, if anyone wants tips on huge lakes send me a message, cause they are finnicky as all heck). The pic of me sitting is the town entrance (two days ago playing for the flowers ^-^), the pic with Goldie is outdated but just thought it would be fun to post XD. The last pic is a dig site that I made after seeing a thread here, wanted to make a water themed dig site since I have so much water. Outside of that allot of it's a huge wip, the town looked entirely different two weeks ago

Yes another edit XD: This town is meant to be seen in summer not fall, im just catching a metric ton of crickets rn

 

[MartyFromCherryfall]

Darius that looks chill and gorgeous.

I've not taken this theme myself but if I was going for a deserted island here is a few things I'd try:

• Place buildings in small clusters (3 is always a pretty number for presentation) connected with dirt paths to each other, but not the outside world. Avoid placing buildings in straight lines.
• Raise the middle of the island instead of the North which is raised by default. In movies deserted islands are usually low all around the edge with a mountain in the middle.
• Try placing the sand path inland to make a desert area with oasis!
• Try making coves extending from the river mouths instead of rivers, and have the rivers flow on the highland instead and waterfall into the coves.
• Avoid putting too much indoor furniture outside.

Just some ideas... none tried and tested

 

[Velo]

I love this idea and theme in general! Right now I'm just trying to get my island to 5 stars for the first time (to "complete" the game and to get some Lily of the valley myself) but after that I will probably knock down some of my more ~towny~ areas.

I love decorating with flowers/trees/weeds. I've complained several times that we get docked points for decorating with mushrooms because otherwise they'd be friggin everywhere on my island. I've never been a big path person either (mostly because I suck at them).
And those big lakes are absolutely awesome!
I think my only problem would be getting away from the items that glow at night. I just can't see when playing the game at night and none of the light producing items really seem to fit the theme.

Anyways not really helpful, mostly just agreeing this is a great theme ha!

 

[nightglow]

I assume what you're looking for would be similar to cottage core?

I did a woodsy-feel ( DA-3859-9293-1471 ) It wasn't finished at the time the dream was uploaded, but close enough.

I'm currently redoing my entire island and thinking of making it look more like City Folk. I feel like excessive pathing and fencing, while it looks nice, takes away from the Animal Crossing feeling, and makes you feel more confined. I love going back and watching this video and seeing how natural everything is

Spoiler

I love your style. When I first started playing i was going to use that dirt path until flowers grew all over it. I always say i want a natural looking island but it doesnt go that way lol. I end up covering every inch to contain flowers and weeds

 

[Sgt.Groove]

I love this idea and theme in general! Right now I'm just trying to get my island to 5 stars for the first time (to "complete" the game and to get some Lily of the valley myself) but after that I will probably knock down some of my more ~towny~ areas.

I love decorating with flowers/trees/weeds. I've complained several times that we get docked points for decorating with mushrooms because otherwise they'd be friggin everywhere on my island. I've never been a big path person either (mostly because I suck at them).
And those big lakes are absolutely awesome!
I think my only problem would be getting away from the items that glow at night. I just can't see when playing the game at night and none of the light producing items really seem to fit the theme.

Anyways not really helpful, mostly just agreeing this is a great theme ha!

You can customize mushroom wands do be different colors and place those! I wish that we could place mushrooms like weeds though :< Frog cages emit light btw (can be turned on/off) ^-^

 

[Licorice]

I love the natural islands too. Not the “natural” islands that are terraformed to death with items littered all over. More like Darius’s island. I’ve been keeping mine at five stars but honestly I’m sick of having so many decorations. I have the bare minimum for 5 stars and it’s still too much for me. I’ve been seriously considering just giving my rating up so I can start removing items and planting like 30 more cedar trees. That tree limit ugh

 

[MartyFromCherryfall]

I love the natural islands too. Not the “natural” islands that are terraformed to death with items littered all over. More like Darius’s island. I’ve been keeping mine at five stars but honestly I’m sick of having so many decorations. I have the bare minimum for 5 stars and it’s still too much for me. I’ve been seriously considering just giving my rating up so I can start removing items and planting like 30 more cedar trees. That tree limit ugh

Once you've got a 5 star rating, you've achieved your goal of reaching it. There is no use in keeping it so you might aswell decorate your island to your own preferences rather than Isabelle's.

 

[arikins]

currently my island is a rural japanese type of thing, however if i wasnt doing that id totally do this instead. i love the wilderness. i love how its easy to get lost in the trees. perhaps if terraforming wasnt a thing we would see a lot more of this

 

[Cirice]

I'm glad other people find this theme also inspiring !!

(it spawns pond fish, if anyone wants tips on huge lakes send me a message, cause they are finnicky as all heck).

I do ! Maybe others here too, because we all share the same interest ! Mind telling us ? Or shoot me a PM

I think my only problem would be getting away from the items that glow at night. I just can't see when playing the game at night and none of the light producing items really seem to fit the theme.

Right now when you talk about those I see the glowing mushroom lamps... They could give a nice fantasy feeling without feeling too unnatural. I can see some Miyasaki kind of island with this, revealing all it's magic when the sun is gone !

 

[JKDOS]

I love your style. When I first started playing i was going to use that dirt path until flowers grew all over it. I always say i want a natural looking island but it doesnt go that way lol. I end up covering every inch to contain flowers and weeds

Thank you. It definitely is a hassle to keep the flowers off my paths.

 

[moo_nieu]

thats the theme im going for although its not as wild as the game began. im in the process of reducing how many flowers i have rn i think its helping the island to feel more natural. im still working on it but feel free to check out my DA in my sig

 

[Cirice]

Thank you. It definitely is a hassle to keep the flowers off my paths.

Maybe you can put a transparent pattern on the ground ? That way flowers won't grow on it ?

 

[nightglow]

Maybe you can put a transparent pattern on the ground ? That way flowers won't grow on it ?

I dont know how they feel about it but personally i feel like the charm of the dirt path is the sound it has and puff of dust that kicks up when you run. That is lost with the transparent tiles.

 

[bam94-]

I love the idea of a natural/wild themed island, similar to how our islands looked in the beginning of the game, but I'm not sure how to strike that balance between natural and still built-up? Like I still want paths around my island. I should make them more winding instead of straight.

 

[Velo]

You can customize mushroom wands do be different colors and place those! I wish that we could place mushrooms like weeds though :< Frog cages emit light btw (can be turned on/off) ^-^

UM EXCUSE ME??
You just changed my (island) life.
That is so awesome! I just made a mushroom wand and it's actually super cute!! Granted, I do like the different styles of mushrooms we get (flat top where you at?) but seriously this is a great compromise! Thanks so much! ^o^
Also, do you happen to have any screenshots of the froggos? I don't have any frogs and they aren't around right now, so I'm curious how they look.

Right now when you talk about those I see the glowing mushroom lamps... They could give a nice fantasy feeling without feeling too unnatural. I can see some Miyasaki kind of island with this, revealing all it's magic when the sun is gone !

I do love the mushroom lamps, and I totally overuse them! Along with the Nova lights haha.
They aren't super ~natural~ but I could especially see the white version fitting the theme really well. c: