My favorite new thing about Animal Crossing: City Folk

I just got around to reading this Animal Crossing City: Folk interview that Leigh linked to recently. It's a discussion between Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, and a bunch of directors who worked on different components of AC:CF, including Hisashi Nogami, Isao Moro, Ryuji Kobayashi and Aya Kyogoku. They explain a bunch of cool behind-the-scenes details about the development team's goals for the new city area and wi-fi interaction, but best of all was this explanation of a new feature in the game that I didn't even know existed:

Kobayashi: Around the town, there is what I suppose you could call undergrowth. There's green grass, but underneath it, there's earth. This time, we stuck the grass on so it feels a little like it's floating on top of the earth. When a player walks on the grass, it wears it away so you can see a little bit of the earth below.

Iwata: So there is data for each square of earth in the grid in Animal Crossing, and the information about whether each of the squares has been stepped on is retained?

Kobayashi: Exactly. So as the player walks around, the grass is gradually worn away. We made it so that it starts to grow back after a day has passed. But if, for instance, you were to go to Tom Nook's store every day...

Iwata: I see! You would leave animal tracks.

Nogami: Well, the player controls a human character, so I suppose you would call them footprints. (laughs) So if a player is doing nothing but going fishing, the grass on the path from their house to the seashore or the river will be worn away. And where there's a bridge which everyone has to walk across, the grass will be completely worn away.

They go on to say it will take a couple weeks to several months to develop a well-defined path. I've only been playing the game a little bit daily for a few weeks so I'm definitely not seeing anything like that yet (plus I'm still learning all the best paths around my town), but it's definitely something I'll be looking out for from now on.

The reason I like this so much is that, while it has zero effect on what little gameplay there is in City Folk, it's an incredible contribution to the illusion that each player's town is a living, dynamic environment. It's also something that takes place over a long period of time, which perfectly suits Animal Crossing's style of play. And it's also a type of new feature that I never expected while I was brainstorming new features for a Wild World sequel.

So, while many (including myself) have criticized the game for adding seemingly little on top of Wild World, discoveries like this make me wonder what else the developers might have done to secretly improve the Animal Crossing experience while everyone was looking for new catalog items and tools.

Comments (2)

December 2, 2008, 10:02 PM

That's a good point. I think that both the dynamic environment and the illusion that it exists independently are really important...

When I came back from vacation, I found that there were new hybrids AND wilted flowers. That along with that some of the animals talked about the holiday that I missed gave me an impression that the town really did continue to go on without me while I was gone, rather than that time froze until I reloaded the game...

December 2, 2008, 10:12 PM

Also, I like your observation about the developers secretly improving Animal Crossing in unexpected ways. I was thinking earlier that they somehow added to the poetry of it, but forgot to add to the game part...

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