Would you buy a journal like this?

[Luca]

I've recently gotten into stationary production, and am working on getting my first journal design printed. I'm planning on making a lot more in the future, ranging from blank dot-grid journals to sketchbooks to planners for day-to-day or things like D&D games.

There's a lot of interest in maintaining journals for NH islands right now, and I thought it would be cool to make one tailored to that purpose?except it takes over a month to get these things made and shipped to me, let alone shipped out to customers, while the game comes out in 11 days, and I found out today that someone already ran an extremely successful kickstarter for their version of same idea. (They did an amazing job?over 17x their goal! Definitely check them out and buy one if it seems like your jam.)

The one thing is, their planner is working only off of pre-release info, so it has to leave wiggle room like blank lists for the encyclopedia catches, an unspecified number of villagers, etc.

I'm tentatively considering still going forwards with the island planner idea, despite being beaten to the punch, with the main difference of waiting until after the release of the game and guide so that I can tailor the contents to more concrete info. It would include things like pre-made checklists for encyclopedia catches, DIY recipes, titles, and whatever other achievements/collectibles there are to obtain?possibly even for furniture and clothing. The calendar could be pre-filled with in-game events and birthdays, and I could seek out some input from the community on what types of pages would be useful to include.

Rather than a spiral-bound notebook, it'd likely be a PU leather notebook with an elastic band closure, a la Moleskines, and the cover would feature some New Horizons-esque scenery in my pastel watercolor style.

The downside is that I likely wouldn't be able to get this ready to ship out until 2-3 months after the release of the game. I know a big part of the journal appeal is planning things ahead of time and working it into your game routine from the beginning, and given that there's another journal with the same concept releasing much sooner, I don't know if there'd be enough of a market for another.



Does this sound like something you would buy? What are your thoughts on my ideas?

 

[DJStarstryker]

I really like your art style. It's very nice!

I didn't back that Kickstarter mainly because it *is* going off of pre-release info. It especially bugged me for the fish/bug tracker pages. Unless you know all of the fish/bugs in advance, you'll end up writing them out of order and if you are going back later to catch another one for whatever reason, it makes it harder to find as opposed to some other order (either alphabetical or in order of season). I can have fish/bugs out of order by making my own journal. I don't need a professionally printed one.

I'm not saying that the Kickstarter planner is bad, it's just not what I'm looking for.

I'd be interested in your idea. I'm not even using a nice journal. I'm just using a college ruled spiral bound notebook, like the kind you might use for school. It's not very nice, so I'd be interested in an upgrade for sure. I just don't have the art skills to make anything pretty myself.

As far as thoughts, I would highly suggest you build in blank pages for holiday/update information that may not be listed even in the official guides yet though. That way your planner will not feel outdated when those come up in the future.

Another idea that might be cool is to have a little checklist reminder of the fish/bugs about to go away for a while at the end of the month. There's a Tumblr (animalcrossingus.tumblr.com) that had made some "last chance" guides like this for New Leaf that I found super helpful. I don't think you'd need to list all of the info (where/when/etc) on the monthly pages. You can save that for the fish/bug checklists themselves.

 

[nightglow]

I've recently gotten into stationary production, and am working on getting my first journal design printed. I'm planning on making a lot more in the future, ranging from blank dot-grid journals to sketchbooks to planners for day-to-day or things like D&D games.

There's a lot of interest in maintaining journals for NH islands right now, and I thought it would be cool to make one tailored to that purpose—except it takes over a month to get these things made and shipped to me, let alone shipped out to customers, while the game comes out in 11 days, and I found out today that someone already ran an extremely successful kickstarter for their version of same idea. (They did an amazing job—over 17x their goal! Definitely check them out and buy one if it seems like your jam.)

The one thing is, their planner is working only off of pre-release info, so it has to leave wiggle room like blank lists for the encyclopedia catches, an unspecified number of villagers, etc.

I'm tentatively considering still going forwards with the island planner idea, despite being beaten to the punch, with the main difference of waiting until after the release of the game and guide so that I can tailor the contents to more concrete info. It would include things like pre-made checklists for encyclopedia catches, DIY recipes, titles, and whatever other achievements/collectibles there are to obtain—possibly even for furniture and clothing. The calendar could be pre-filled with in-game events and birthdays, and I could seek out some input from the community on what types of pages would be useful to include.

Rather than a spiral-bound notebook, it'd likely be a PU leather notebook with an elastic band closure, a la Moleskines, and the cover would feature some New Horizons-esque scenery in my pastel watercolor style.

The downside is that I likely wouldn't be able to get this ready to ship out until 2-3 months after the release of the game. I know a big part of the journal appeal is planning things ahead of time and working it into your game routine from the beginning, and given that there's another journal with the same concept releasing much sooner, I don't know if there'd be enough of a market for another.



Does this sound like something you would buy? What are your thoughts on my ideas?

This sounds awesome and you should totally go through with it. You should remember that not everyone can get the game at release, plus alot of people would have to wait until later in the year to get it anyways through birthdays, holidays or even waiting until summer when school testing (and school) is over with. March may be before tests, but it is a critical time to prepare for those tests. Plus you also have those people who may start over on their island even though they got the game a month or two before because they felt like it didn't turn out the way they wanted.
Don't let the kick-starter discourage you either.

 

[KeatAlex]

Wow I would very much be interested. The main thing that turns me away from journaling is the fact that I would have to do everything myself. If I had a premade journal with just places I can fill in my own info and findings I would JUMP on it. Even if I get it late into the game. Plus your art style is so cool!

 

[zeroFLUX]

I like the idea of being built on knowledge of the game after release. I'd be interested.

 

[Xara]

i love your art style! while i personally wouldn’t purchase it as i have plans for a digital journal, i would still go ahead with this idea as like already mentioned, not everybody will be able to get the game during its release so your journals could appeal to those who get it later!

 

[Luca]

Thank you for all of the kind feedback! I won’t guarantee at this time that I can make it happen, but I’m definitely going to pursue it further. I hope that it will be a viable product, because I think it’ll be fun to make. With any luck, the differences between the two planners & the fact that the Island Companion Guide will become unavailable after the KS ends in two days will lead to just as much support for mine ��

Further feedback and support is appreciated! Is there anything that would be a make or break for you in a planner like this?

 

[AquaMarie]

From the photo you included I love your art style, it's very beautiful! If there was a lot of unique art in the journal I'd likely buy it, even though I'm buying the official guide and might not necessarily need one by that time.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen this book by Kari Fri, but I bought one long after ACNL was released, just to enjoy the aesthetics of it.

https://youtu.be/4zZ9c5OFyEE

 

[Bunlily]

I would consider buying it as long as it's not expensive (broke college student haha). I recently invested in a set of Tombows and I love collecting anything that has to do with stationery, so it'd be cool to have an animal crossing specific journal.

 

[pinkbunny]

I love the idea so much! I would buy it depending on quality, functionality and price.

 

[Azrael]

This definitely sounds like something I would back! I love the idea. I feel like it would be worth the wait if it includes a lot of information prewritten in there for you!

 

[Luca]

From the photo you included I love your art style, it's very beautiful! If there was a lot of unique art in the journal I'd likely buy it, even though I'm buying the official guide and might not necessarily need one by that time.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen this book by Kari Fri, but I bought one long after ACNL was released, just to enjoy the aesthetics of it.

https://youtu.be/4zZ9c5OFyEE

That's a super cute book, but different in concept from what I'd be doing! I don't want to make a guidebook, since an official one already exists, and doing enough original art to make it worth buying anyways would almost certainly not be viable for the amount of money I'd be able to make. Plus, if the inside was full of illustrations, it'd be hard for people to decorate their own planner spreads, which is a big part of the appeal of planners.

I would consider buying it as long as it's not expensive (broke college student haha). I recently invested in a set of Tombows and I love collecting anything that has to do with stationery, so it'd be cool to have an animal crossing specific journal.

I'd need to properly calculate the production costs, but I'll probably shoot for around $25 apiece, since that's a pretty standard price for nice yearly planners.

 

[Amilee]

i actually supported the kickstarter and will get one of those journals but i would still be interested to buy another one later for my second town :3 i love the idea that its more finished because we know more about the game. if its the same price range as the kickstarter one i would def consider it!

 

[Lavamaize]

I most likey would not since a lot of the guides have spots to check off items and things you have caught and lost important dates. In addition, I do not really like to plan or record my daily playing of games, as it makes it less fun for me.

 

[tajikey]

If it's got color by number, count me in!

 

[Luca]

If it's got color by number, count me in!

Hadn?t been planning on it, but it could be fun to throw in

 

[Neechan]

im a bit iffy on supporting this as it would need to be updated for the new bugs/fish that will be added, am all for supporting it even if I said it was iffy..just don’t want an out of date list is all

 

[Luca]

im a bit iffy on supporting this as it would need to be updated for the new bugs/fish that will be added, am all for supporting it even if I said it was iffy..just don’t want an out of date list is all

New bugs and fish? There's been no indication that they'll add more bugs and fish after the launch of the game, and they've never done anything like that before. It'd be kind of weird to have achievements for filling your whole encyclopedia if they later increase the number of entries to fill out.

 

[NicoShaytan]

I say go for it. Eventually we will fill in the space in our current journals, and we'll want another journal to continue our bujo/journaling. After Stardew Valley came out, someone actually created their own guide with a page to track your collections along with stickers to place on the page once you get that item. People ate it up. Although ACNH is going to have a guide, it probably wont give you a way to check off what you've cataloged or donated. And honestly I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your style. My main Tarot deck is watercolor; I'm very partial to it, and your art truly is gorgeous. Once I filled out the bujo I just bought I would buy yours in a heartbeat. I love that it's in the style of your typical PU leather bujo.

 

[Neechan]

New bugs and fish? There's been no indication that they'll add more bugs and fish after the launch of the game, and they've never done anything like that before. It'd be kind of weird to have achievements for filling your whole encyclopedia if they later increase the number of entries to fill out.

Sorry I meant added as in in what will be in game, example is that we’ve seen in some footage was a drone beetle, the purple butterfly and anchovy that are new catches, but I guess we’ll be filling it out?