i thought it would be nice to record how i developed everbloom’s lore, alongside just enjoying ac as a game lol.
i played new horizons pretty religiously for 2 years. my sanity was sooo dependent on NH during the pandemic, and i stayed fixated on it for a good amount of time thanks to the world i’d created around my island. i understood the criticism the game got for mostly being a decorating game, not having enough dialogue variety, etc, but was mostly fine with it, because of the way i played it.
i liked that there was a lot i could build on, based on my experience of the characters and playing the game. it might have been coincidence that the flaws of the game worked with what i, as a fan, enjoyed. i’m more a custom loreteller than a collector or completionist or speedrunner… i like using the game as just the foundation for something more — the fun is in coming up with shit.
so here are some ways i maximized the game for myself. my target audience for this page is mostly me (i like to archive my phases), but i imagine this might help other people come up with ideas for making an experience of any canon media their own thing…? who knows!
conceptualizing everbloom
island
the concept of everbloom came about maybe… six or eight months into playing the game, honestly. i was just having fun talking with my cute villagers and occasionally setting up a cute area on my island at random. but i saw other players on twitter start to come up with cohesive themes for their island and, being me, decided i wanted to do that too.
i looked through some other people’s concepts and used that to help me come up with stuff i liked and wanted to put on my island. the things i tried to narrow down were:
- features i wanted to build (stargazing point, flower field, post office, etc)
- items i wanted to use (bicycles, birdbaths, valiant statues, etc)
- custom designs i wanted to use (cherry blossom paths, fake packages)
- villagers i wanted to keep (most of them were cute boys)
- colors i liked for my items (white, pale pink)
i think it was equally, if not more, important that i also thought about what i did not want or need on my island.
- i didn’t want a bunny day area, or builds that just made use of furniture i had made or gotten. i would simply not build that furniture, or i’d just sell/store it.
- i didn’t need any of the amusement park items.
- i didn’t need every single floor path pattern known to man.
- i liked many of my villagers, but they didn’t all seem like friends-friends (at least in the way i, a deranged person, perceived them), and i wanted the ones who i kept to have a reason to stay on the island for a long time.
- i didn’t want to put just any item that was pink – it had to be a specific pink lol.
- i did not want the tedium of redecorating my island for holidays.
i thought hard about what sort of theme could include most if not all of these things i wanted, and would help me avoid the things i did not want.
the two most decisive factors, i think, were 1) the fact that my villagers were mostly boys and 2) the flowery, classy theme i’d been working towards in my mini-builds across my uncoordinated island.
i made a couple of mental jumps from that all the way to a host club-style island of pretty boys! i think if i were to have made a moodboard of everbloom’s design inspo way back in 2020, it would have included ouran high school host club and boys over flowers.
i guess i also tried to make the theme match my island’s name…? but i didn’t go into it with that in mind! the name “everbloom” is just a combination of two concepts i’ve been drawn to for most of my life: royalty and princesses (”ever after”, that sort of thing) and flowers (”bloom”). everything i make kind of comes back to the same theme anyway.
villagers
personalities
staff
mei and mimi and avery
other guys
i know lots of people already have come up with lore for the NPCs (or special characters, as they’re known canonically) so i subconsciously set them aside as guys i didn’t care to make up stuff about. but for some reason i also became deranged about isabelle + redd and celeste + flick… oh well.
playing animal crossing
stuff i did that made it super fun, besides coming up with lore
- kept a diary/logbook. i also tracked turnips and which guys i saw, what KK songs i had, etc.
- haley
- trading
- reddit items, giveaways, villager trades, turnips
- hanging out with other friends
- twitter also helped me make friends w other ppl who drew stuff
- they got into my story and lore
- set goals
- drawing lol
goals
from my original notebook
- unlock the able sisters
- bring in KK
- design a town flag
- design a custom dress
- get kidd
- reach 10 villagers
- finish paying off the loan
- pick almost all weeds
- get all fruits
- 3 star status
- 4 star status
- 5 star status
- get a lily of the valley
- terraform
- get bubblegum KK
- unlock customization
- unlock all reacts
- see celeste
- A+ stalk prices
- host a giveaway
- get a cranky boy
- furniture wishlist
- host a catalog event