Welcome to Capeside (My Animal Crossing Island)

In early 2020, the newest game in the Animal Crossing franchise was released for the Nintendo Switch console. New Horizons dropped at the perfect time, when people all around the world were locked in their homes in order to flatten the curve of COVID-19. Nintendo Switch’s flew off shelves during this time, and the cozy island life became a place for people to disconnect from reality and de-stress.

The game was a best-selling hit from launch day and became the most successful Animal Crossing game to date. New Horizons is no doubt a roaring success, selling more digital copies (five million) in a single month than any other console game in history and over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide (as of 2022).

Over the course of mid-late 2022 I spent hundreds of hours working on my charming island of Capeside inspired by some of my favourite tv shows such as One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls, and Hart of Dixie. All three of these shows are set in a small town with lots of quaint charm, small town folk and lot of random festivities. I really wanted to encapsulate this energy on Capeside – after all it was named after the home base of Dawson’s Creek, although that show didn’t serve much inspiration for builds on the island.

Designed to be a peaceful small town with lots to do, I really wanted Capeside to reflect various aesthetics so it would distinguish each area, and give each of my villager a place to call home. Each villager’s house has renovated interiors which extremely fun and creative as we all know the villager homes are truly hideous. I also really enjoyed the facilities and vacation homes on Happy Home Paradise this time around and out lots of time and effort into them.