Context & History

Animal Crossing’s origin story began in 1986, when Katsuya Eguchi joined Nintendo as a designer at their headquarters in the Japanese city of Kyoto. He remembers:

“When I moved there I left my family and friends behind. In doing so, I realised that being close to them – being able to spend time with them, talk to them, play with them – was such a great, important thing. I wondered for a long time if there would be a way to recreate that feeling, and that was the impetus behind the original Animal Crossing“.

Katsuya Eguchi

This feeling of loneliness and connection would lead to the hit social simulation game created by Eguchi with Hisashi Nogami.

The aim? The player character is a human in a village of animal neighbours. You start the game by arrive in a new place and gradually develop your village. Day to day activities include embellishing the island, making new items and finding bugs, fossils and fish. As well as finding a way to repay your house loan to local tanuki entrepreneur Tom Nook…

Sounds open ended? It is! The game intentionally has making friends, everyday tasks and the slow passing of seasons in its themes. And players can shape their village, game and playing goals in the way they see fit.

This first game was called Dōbutsu no Mori. It is usually translated into English as Animal Forest.

First released on an N64 cartridge in April 2001, Nintendo later released an enhanced version of Eguchi’s game for their new GameCube console.

Initially available in Japan, it was then translated into English for its release in the USA in 2002. But players in Europe would have to wait until the end of 2004 before the game was launched there and they could meet Tom Nook in person…

Over the years, there have been many new versions of Animal Crossing, for different Nintendo console and handheld systems. This included the 3DS, mobile phone, the Wii and the Nintendo Switch. They could feature setting up a village in a forest, a camp, or…an island!

For instance revious versions have included a variety of settings and formats, such as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, a 2017 mobile relase of the game as well as Animal Crossing: New Leaf released on the 3DS, which allowed for the character to become the mayor of their small town of villagers.

But one thing has remained consistent for the last 20 years across content and game formats:

Animal Crossing features three themes: family, friendship, and community, but the reason I wanted to investigate them was a result of being so lonely when I arrived in Kyoto.

Katsuya Eguchi

Eguichi expands on these core themes: “the reason I wanted to investigate them was a result of being so lonely when I arrived in Kyoto.” Despite its changes, at its core game was created from the co-creator’s real-life experience of arriving in an unfamiliar town.

It became all about setting up a new home, making friends and becoming part of a local community.

In some ways, Animal Crossing is an unusual videogame. It is slow-paced and much of its gameplay is based around chores like digging up weeds. But in 2020, the routines of Animal Crossing and its community of island inhabitants were exactly what many needed.