An Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan spent hours faithfully recreating The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's bridge to Windhelm, using New Horizon's customization feature, which allows for unique in-game builds. With more updates and design features rolling out since its launch in Spring 2020, New Horizon players continue to find creative ways to achieve their island design goals.
The Nintendo Switch's Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows players to customize, restructure and decorate a previously uninhabited island. The options for personalization extend beyond how players choose where to plant fruit trees or how to furnish their house. Using terraforming to tweak the terrain and waterways of the island, codes for custom-made patterning, and more, New Horizons players can make their islands adhere to any theme they desire — that is, if they're willing to put in the effort. This depiction of Windhelm Bridge joins other recent fan-made island designs that emulate other games, such as Pokémon gyms or the land of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
One New Horizons player recently set out to recreate the Windhelm bridge from Skyrim. To recreate this setting from Skyrim, which has a drastically darker tone than the sun-filled islands of New Horizons, Redditor JediElfQueen had their work cut out for them. While the user admitted that it took a couple hours to finish the in-game build, they said, "It was so fun to build I didn't even notice." Other redditors commented that JediElfQueen's Windhelm Bridge brought their two favorite game franchises together, and expressed their awe of the close attention to detail. To completely transform an island to fit a specific image in mind, Animal Crossing players will go to great lengths, even changing the seasons if weather is a notable characteristic of the final design. It looks like this user might have done this, seeing as the rendition of the bridge to Windhelm is covered in snow - which doesn't occur in Animal Crossing until winter months, unless players manually change the time and date in their Switch console settings.
While the customization feature of New Horizons keeps players occupied, many are eager to see what Nintendo has in store for the game's future updates. This past June, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser announced that Animal Crossing will have new content on the way, but fans are still confused by the lack of follow-ups around one of Nintendo's best-selling games. Some are looking for new features, while others hope Nintendo will enhance those that already exist. A few months ago, there were rumors that a future update could introduce an island expansion, which would be one of the most drastic updates the game has yet seen. However, these rumors still remain unconfirmed.
An island expansion could allow players to make even more impressive builds. With a larger island to work with, this player could recreate Skyrim's bridge to Windhelm and have the space lead to the actual city of Windhelm. Even with the parameters they have right now, they haven't revealed any plans to do the entire city. However, they did encourage a fellow redditor to pursue their own goal of recreating all of Windhelm on New Horizons. Whether this bridge is the final draft of this user's Skyrim-inspired island or not, it looks like the Internet could see other players busily modeling their islands after Skyrim while they wait for more Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available on Nintendo Switch.
Source: JediElfQueen/Reddit