Many players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons have developed a love-hate relationship with the game's fairly open-ended but oddly finnicky terraforming feature, and one dedicated fan is looking to help players circumvent the time it takes to visualize their dream island layout with a 3D island planner tool. The type of ultra-creative players that put the average island to shame are the very same group that work to make everyone's Animal Crossing experience a little better, which just goes to show what a great community the game has fostered.
Anyone who's played Animal Crossing: New Horizons in earnest has hopelessly meandered around their island's blank geographic canvasses waiting for creative genius to strike or accidentally placed neighboring buildings on tile off-kilter from one another at points. Fortunately for them, endlessly inventive and talented creators have shared tools online and in-game to make designing the perfect island easier, ranging from exhaustive YouTube walkthroughs to precision-aiding grid tile designs.
However, Redditor coco-coco has the most ambitious plans of any Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan tool designer yet. It's still a work in progress, but they're programming a full-fledged terraforming application that emulates the behaviors and limitations of the in-game Island Designer NookPhone app. From what they've shown off to waiting users so far, it looks like it'll be an indispensable, robust tool for players with exacting standards for their island creations. It's capable of erecting cliffs, digging out rivers, laying paths, and building fencing, all of which will presumably 9maintain the subtle intricacies of connection and beveling that can be found in the actual game.
Progress on my island planner!! Hoping to have it out soon, thanks for being patient!! from AnimalCrossing
It's unknown for now when the above fan tool will become available or if it will be browser-based, but it's got Animal Crossing: New Horizons players wanting to up their island design game giddy with excitement. It'll join a growing list of helpful online apps that improve the game, and it'll be an especially great complement to fellow programmer Eugeneration's Happy Island Designer. Together, these and other external aides will help players create inspired works of terrestrial fan art that will wow visitors not only from the in-game map, but also while admiring their handiwork on the ground.
For players who feel that their island is lacking in beauty (which, if you ask most, is directly correlated with waterfalls per square foot), coco-coco's impending island planner is one online tool to keep an eye on. While such a wealth of external fan-made apps would normally signal oversights and failures on the part of developers, the vast majority of Animal Crossing: New Horizons players couldn't be happier to continue adding to and benefiting from peripheral enhancements to an already extensive out-of-the-box island experience.
Source: coco-coco via Reddit