The Ultimate Game-Changer You've Been Waiting for in Animal Crossing's Dream Islands

Highlights

An enhanced feature in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that permits players to save and modify Dream Islands as templates can greatly assist those who are struggling to design their ideal island.

Several players face challenges when it comes to being imaginative in Animal Crossing. However, exploring other islands can offer inspiration and impart fresh ideas and techniques in designing.

Enabling players to download visited Dream Islands as foundational templates would enhance the accessibility of the game for beginners and would not devalue the efforts made by the original island creators.

In order to improve accessibility and enhance the community's gameplay experience, the return of Dream Islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons could greatly benefit from a simple update. Dream Islands were first introduced in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, offering players a convenient and safe way to visit their friends' towns and later islands. Furthermore, Nintendo utilized this feature to showcase their own Dream Island, incorporating elements from franchises like Super Mario in a crossover content update.

However, while players can currently explore their friends' and random islands during Dreaming, the activities available are limited. This restriction may be helpful for players seeking design inspiration, especially from overlooked Dream Islands. However, it presents a challenge when players wish to recreate the ideas or concepts they have seen and liked. Hence, the ability to save and modify a Dream Island as a template using the existing Dream Addresses would greatly assist players who are struggling to design their own ideal island.

Some Animal Crossing Players Struggle with Being Creative

For games that prioritize player customization and sandbox design, there is often a divide between those who excel at mastering the mechanics and realize their creative potential, and those who struggle to do so. This discrepancy is commonly observed in games like Minecraft or The Sims 4, and Animal Crossing is no exception. With its vast island and innovative features like Terraforming, along with the introduction of Custom Designs and regular updates, the process of creating a picturesque island can feel overwhelming for more casual players.

One way to address this challenge is by allowing players to visit other islands. This provides an opportunity to explore and learn from fellow members of the Animal Crossing community. By witnessing how Terraforming can create stunning landscapes or using custom paths to control flower growth, players can gain valuable insights from simple tricks to more complex design concepts. However, even with this assistance, players must still navigate and adapt to Animal Crossing's mechanics, which can be a daunting task and bring them back to square one.

Dream Islands Could Be Downloaded As Templates

To enhance accessibility for these players, a solution would be to allow them to download visited islands in Dreams as a starting template. By providing predetermined styles or layouts, such as a rural farmer's market, players can personalize their islands while avoiding feeling inadequate compared to others. This approach would make Animal Crossing more inclusive for novice players who may not have the time or resources to invest in elaborate designs for their islands, yet still want to enjoy the game.

Implementing this feature would not undermine the effort put into designing islands for others to use. Previously, players could choose whether their Dream Towns and Islands were private or if others could access their Custom Designs. Expanding this feature would allow players to see if their island has been saved and could potentially offer rewards as an incentive for sharing their designs. As a result, downloading Dream Islands could enhance the overall online Animal Crossing experience for all players.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.