Animal Crossing New Leaf Message Board older than one year ago

-Participants: Ms. Kyogoku (Director), Mr. Moroeki (Director), Mr. Takahashi (Design Leader)
-Iwata notes that having 2 directors is uncommon. Mr. Moroeki says that the division of labor occurred naturally between the two based on their own specialties.
-Both supported City Folks' Director Mr. Nomura during development. Division carried over from there.
-No problems between the directors during dev time.
-Because the plot (Moving into town, buying a house, paying a loan, etc) may have become stale now the series is over 11 years old, the two directors decided to 'reset' the parts that had become usual from the start.
-Thus the initial concept was 'To create a 'new' Animal Crossing'.
-Some new ideas initially included things like 'Gold Dust digging' to go with fishing and bug catching.
-While that idea didn't get used, the idea to give players the ability to build benches and bridges in the village was there from early on.
-Giving people the ability to customize villages would also make visiting other villages more fun.
-The idea to make the character mayor was quite late. The first year this was not in place, although they were worried just being able to build items may not be 'new' enough for players.
-A preparation for a presentation for Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Tezuka forced them to come up with the mayor idea to give a more cohesive sense to the game.
-The team then realised they already had a mayor in Tortimer so they decided he would retire.
-But they found a happy place for him to live.
- Kyogoku would often come home late and find Tom Nook's store closed. They recognize that many players play around with the clock in previous titles to get over this.
-Of course, if all the shops were open 24 hours, there'd be no difference between day and night and no sense in having the game match up with real-world time.
-Once they made the main character mayor, it made sense that they would be able to alter the laws to some extent.
-Can make the stores open early, or keep them open late.
-Items in the town are paid with donations. The animals will provide some money, but you as the player will end up paying a lot of their own money.
-If you don't do your job as a mayor 'properly' no one will complain at you in the village.
-There is an initial 'hurdle' you must complete as mayor early on, but once clearedyou're free to do what you want.
-The tree planting at the beginning of the game - your first act as mayor - was included after Eguchi played the game and didn't feel like he really was mayor. This was quite late in development.
-The also added a ceremony after building your first bridge to help with this.
-You can chose not to have the ceremony if you'd like.
-The worried about including Mr. Restti again. Some people don't like being yelled at by him. Especially young girls - they have heard of some who cried while playing.
-They gave the player the ability to include the Reset Management Center as a part of being mayor.
-They're starting to run out of recognizable animals - to the point where they were looking at different breeds of dogs.
-Lisa, the owner of the Recycle Shop, is an alpaca, which have been quite popular in Japan recently. The developers consider it quite lucky.
-The try to pick animals that suit the shops they run. Reiji the Lazy Sloth owner of the garden shop was decided because sloths live in the forest and they thought a forest animal would suit that shop.
-A tapir runs the Dream Emporium because of the Japanese myth of them eating dreams (like the Pokemon Hypno or Munna), but the devs realised only Japan thinks this way.
-Some animals like Cap'n and the seagull have returned to earlier roles.
-This may be brand new stuff for people who began with Wide World.
-Because of the 3D they had to work harder to avoid crude elements.
-They are happy with the amount of furniture in the game.
-They aimed to create 1.5 the amount of items as in City Folk.
-Not just filler, but items people would want to use in their homes.
-There was a board for ideas not just for the designers, but all development staff.
-If you're not good at design, you can easily just repaint/refurbish things in a solid color.
-The team is excited to see what people come up with post-release.
-They hope that people will see other people's model homes and want to improve their own homes.
-They wanted to include a feature using Wii Connect24 for City Folk where people could visit your town while you slept, but there were limitations so they couldn't.
-However, they could do it with this game (the Dream Emporium). You upload your data to the server and then other people can come visit you easily.
-Doesn't require friend codes. Doesn't affect the other person's village.
-Good for people who don't have friends or people who play near by.
-For online functions, not only can you do stuff with 3DS friends, there is stuff you can only do with those registered as best friends.
-Best Friends don't have to be system friends. For people playing on the same cart who don't want the system code to be shared with people they don't know.
-You can exchange chat messages with Best Friends even if they aren't in your village, but they are online.
-Great for turnips!
-And fishing tournaments!
-The DS holidays were designed to make localization easier - rather than making regional events.
-Of course, holidays you are familiar with are more fun.
-They worked with localization teams to create items. Like a plate of 12 grapes for the Spanish New Year.
-Thus some items are region specific. If you visit a friend's village in that region during the right time, you can buy these items.
-They considered what animals would have what items in their homes and included items they thought would match.
-Many veteran staff of the series as well as many new staff to the series.
-They improved the graphics, mentioning the animals themselves and the museum exhibits.
-Finally, Iwata mentions the benefits of the download version.

This all came from a recent Iwata Asks, which you can find right here. No official translation yet. I don't suspect we'll see Nintendo translate this for some time.

"Animal Crossing Newsletter"

Go to "Nintendo Town" from the Dream House!

On 11/8 (Thursdary), the Nintendo themed town, "Nintendo Town" is opening its gates!

You can visit Nintendo Town from the Dream House and if you meet up with Seiichi there, you'll be able to get Nintendo and Animal Crossing related designs.

Details on how to go to Nintendo Town will be posted on this site soon.

From 11/8 (Thursday), we'll be giving away an originail DJ K.K. T Shirt! You can get it either from meeting up with Seiichi in Nintendo Town or scanning the corresponding QR code.

Details on the QR code will be posted on this site soon.

You can even get this present in Girls Mode!

We'll be sending the DJ K.K. T Shirt to Girls Mode as well.

Gracie is Expanding to Girls Mode!

Famous genius in-game designed Gracie Grace is jumping out (this is a pun) of the world of Animal Crossing and expanding into Girls Mode!

Gracie Grace's Gracie Grace total outfits brand is going to be available in Girls Mode from 11/8 (Thursday).

Thanks to Daniel for the heads up!

It seems that the screenshot below shows off online chat with friends. We'll try to get the exact translation as soon as possible.

Here's the translation, thanks to Daniel...

"I'd like to take this time to tell all my best friends out there something! Just by being best friends with someone else, even if you aren't currently visiting their town, you can chat over the Internet! So no matter what you're doing or feeling you can chat about anything! Isn't that convenient?"

"Good Morning Guys! This morning I received some fruit from my mom back home! Any fruit you grow in your town will be delicious but those fruits that are from your town come out the most delicious! You can tell them by their slightly different appearance so please keep an eye out, okay?"



"Good Morning Guys! This morning a sailor collapsed on the beach... He lost his memory due to the shock and forgot where he was headed! It seems like a kind person helped him out though he was able to find his way without incident! Glad it all worked out~!"

Thanks to Daniel for the heads up!

We had bullet points yesterday, but now we have word-for-word translations, thanks to Daniel.

Become a Regular and Get a Part Time Job at the Coffee Shop!

Become a regular at The Roost?! You can now take home Brewster's authentic coffee and if you work part time as a staff member, you can even get special furniture. Work really does pay off!

Proudly Show Off Your Merit Badges!

Do you catch lots of fish or tirelessly weed? Phineas will reward you with a merit badge for all the hard work you do. Your badges are even added to your profile so you can show them off to anyone you connect with!

Preserve Your Memories in 3D!

Whether it's the time you enjoyed a seasonal event with your animal neighbors, took a tour with your friends, or any memory you cherish, you can use the Nintendo 3DS 3D Camera to preserve those moments you never want to forget!

(Image Caption: This is an actual image. If you open it in the 3DS browser, you can see it in 3D.)

Make Original Display Rooms in the Museum!

If you add a second floor to the museum through Public Works, planning rooms and the museum shop become accessible! If you create an original display room, you can quickly give the museum your own personal feel!

Get Fortune Cookies With Game Coins!

You can trade game coins for fortune cookies at the kids' shop. If you keep the fortunes you get from inside, you can trade them for all kinds of things.

This info comes from the most recent website update...

- Take 3D in-game pictures.

- Hold original exhibitions at the museum. Build a second floor in the museum through community work to open the museum shop and original exhibition room.

- Palotini will reward your hard work with a badge. Badges include ones for catching a lot of fish, gathering a bunch of stuff from the ocean, pulling lots of weeds, etc. Badges are displayed on your profile, so anyone you streetpass with will see your badges.

- Can work part-time at the cafe if you're a regular customer or order coffee for take out. Working part time will reward you with unique furniture.

- Fortune Teller hut opens through community work. Follow your fortune and keep a lucky item with you and something good might happen.

- ID card box: Passcard given to you once you're registered as a citizen. The photo used on the card is taken in the ID card box.

- Can now look up at the sky. Can see things such as a rainbow after it rains, aurora on cold nights, cumulonimbus clouds in the summer, shooting stars, balloons with presents, etc.

- Fruit produced in your village can now have special flavors or appearances to them.

- Animals from other villages will come to visit in the camp grounds. You can play games with them such as gesture games or rock, paper, scissors.

- Play hide and seek with the villagers you're good friends with. Can get items if you manage to find them all.

- Become good friends with one of the villagers and they might send you a special letter with a photo attached that you can place in your house.

Begin your new life in Tobidase Doubutsu no Mori 3DS. Take your time and play at your own place, living a heartwarming life with the animals in your town. Tobidase Doubutsu no Mori.

Play Your Way

You've finally arrived at a new town by train. Due to a slight misunderstanding, you wind up becoming town mayor! Living here you take care of flowers, catch bugs, and catch fish while interacting with the animals of the village; you play your way.

The town progresses in real time; in the morning the animals start waking up with you. At night you can see the stars starting to come out. Depending on the season, the look and feel of your town changes as well. You can also enjoy special events during the different seasons.

Go Shopping at the Shopping Street

If you pass the train tracks and head out of town, you can visit a shopping street with all kinds of shops. You can buy daily items and buy/change your clothes like always. There are also all new shops never seen before! If you go shopping a lot, the shoping street becomes more and more popular and busy.

Build Your Town as Mayor

As the mayor, you're in charge of building your town from your desk at town hall. As apart of public works, you can make benchs, clocks, lamposts, bridges, and others. You can place them and set up your town as you see fit. What kind of town you make is up to you, the mayor! You can also set the rules in your town. For example, you can extend store hours to be longer than they normally are and go shopping even at night. You can determine the rules in your town and match your town to your time schedule.

Coordinate Furniture and Your House

There are now more types of furniture. You can have fun collecting your favorite types of furniture to make your rooms exactly as you envision. Also, at the recycle shop in town, you can sell furniture you don't use anymore or even remake it! You can even make a room like this.

Using the things you buy at Tanukichi's Real Estate (Tom Nook Real Estate), you can even change the size of your house. You can change your door and everything to your liking.

Further on than the shopping street, you can also see other player's houses at the Home Show Street. Here you can visit the homes of other players you have street passed and take your time looking around. You can also buy any furniture you see there that you like.

Go Out and Play

Using local play or the internet, you can visit other people's towns and play together with your friends.

Go to the Vacation Island

If you take a boat from the town pier, you can travel to The Vacation Island. On this resort-like island you can come across lots of bugs and fish you wouldn't normally see in town. You can even experience new things like diving beneath the ocean and seeing what you find!

If you participate in tours, you can play all kinds of mini games. Using local or internet connectivity, you can play along with your friends or even people you've never met before!

Take your time and play at your own pace, living a heartwarming lifestyle with the animals in your town. Tobidase - Doubutsu No Mori.

Also avaiable: the downloadable edition that is always with you and you can't lose as well as the 3DS Special Edition Pack, which also contains the downloadable edition.

Huge thanks to Daniel for the heads up!

- buy fortune cookies
- purchase with 2 3DS game coin
- trace the fortunes inside for rare goods

Thanks to Daniel for the heads up!

- add street lamps and benches to town
- your secretary will help you each day
- create your own museum exhibits
- have fossils analyzed at the useum
- donate them or sell them at a store
- collect fossils and turn them into miniatures