Hello, and welcome to my Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Blog. I'm Jeff, and many of you already know me from my New Leaf, City Folk, and AC GameCube blogs. I'm also jvgsjeff on Youtube, where I've been uploading Animal Crossing videos since 2006.

This Happy Home Designer blog will be a bit different from the others, however. Since the game does not run in real-time, each blog entry will usually cover several "game days." At the bottom of the page, you'll be able to find links to all of the entries.

Day 1

At long last, release day is here! I picked up my copy of the game at Best Buy. Each physical copy of the game comes with an amiibo card of a random special character; I got Luna. She may be dreamy, but she's not exactly my favorite character. In fact, she often puts me to sleep. But for a free card, hey, I'll take it!

As soon as I started up the game, it urged me to connect to the internet for an update. Already? I went ahead and performed the update. Fortunately, it only took a minute or two. I was happy to discover that the picture-taking ability (pressing L and R at the same time) even works on the title screen!

I soon found myself in Nook's Homes, with Tom Nook himself welcoming me. I was able to choose what my character looked like. After picking my face, eye color, skin color, and hairstyle, my character started to look a lot like my New Leaf mayor!

After Tom Nook introduced me to Lyle, Digby, and Lottie, I was asked to go upstairs to change into my work uniform. Once I was ready, Lottie started a tutorial, where I was shown how to place, rotate, and move furniture. I was also shown how to change wallpaper and carpeting. Everything uses the touch screen and the system works very well. I hope this improved method of designing rooms is incorporated in future (regular) Animal Crossing games too. I couldn't resist the urge to move Lottie around too! Red Bull gives you wiiiings!

Anyway, Lottie asked me to design this room with a cute theme. I used a lot of lovely furniture, and I also included a marshmallow chair at the center of the heart rug. The ability to place things halfway between spaces is quite helpful; it allows you to center things better than you could in previous Animal Crossing games.

Once I was done, the game showed a montage of the room from a variety of angles. Lottie told me she can't believe she gets to live in such a lovely room. Wait, she told me this room was for a client! She lied! Oh well. Enjoy your new home, Lottie!

Lottie warned me that my first real customer job comes tomorrow. She showed me how to save my game by sitting at the desk on the left and writing my daily report.

Day 2

As I started my second day on the job, I found Goldie in Nook's Homes. She told me she'd like to find a place where she can enjoy quiet days in the countryside. She loves reading, so she wants to be surrounded by books. (Couldn't you have books in any home?)

I figured a library wall would be a good choice. She can feel even more surrounded by books than she already is! Just be careful lighting a match in this place! I also gave her a cream sofa, which should be a good place to curl up with a good book (and I know dogs love to curl up in comfortable places). I also gave her a claw-foot tub in case she wants to read while relaxing in the bath. And of course, I gave her plenty of reading materials. Hopefully this will lift her spirits.

At the end of the day, she loved her new house! And I learned my first emotion, joy. By tapping the emotion icon on the touch screen, I can now express my joy. I don't even have to listen to Dr. Shrunk's annoying "jokes." Good deal.

Day 3

On my third day, Lottie called me over and handed me a red book. It's a client list that contains information on our customers. There wasn't anything going on at the office, so Lottie told me I should go and visit Goldie! By clicking the appropriate icon on the touch screen, I was able to open up the client list and visit her! Once I arrived, she asked me to take a picture of her house.

She also asked if I had any Animal Crossing amiibo cards. I said yes, and she told me I'm able to use it to invite people over for a visit! Even though she said I didn't have to use it right now, I decided to give it a try anyway. When the game prompted me, I held up my Luna amiibo card to my New 3DS screen. (If you have a regular 3DS, 3DS XL, or 2DS, you will need a separate NFC Reader to read amiibo cards).

Luna showed up for a visit, but I was unable to actually talk to her. When I went up to her and pressed A, she would only respond with an emotion. Maybe she's too busy daydreaming. One other thing I noticed is that when I went up to the reading materials, I was able to pick them up and read! Nice touch, Nintendo.

But sadly, there doesn't really seem to be anything else to do here. I soon left out the door and went back to work. I found myself on Main Street, able to roam around for the first time. All of the buildings are closed off, and the fountain doesn't even have water in it. I'm sure this will change over time, and fixing up Main Street will be a goal I'll be working towards.

After going back in the office, Lyle came running in. He said one of his clients just ran off. It was my job to go out and see what the problem is. I met up with Lopez the deer, and he asked me to remodel his home! That's what I'm here for! I'm not sure why he ran away from Lyle, but it's completely understandable for a deer to be scared by a guy that yells "Bang!" all the time!

He wanted a comtemporary, stylish room. Out of habit, I tried dragging his modern table...and it worked! Even though the touch screen is by far the best way to move furniture, you can still pull, push, and rotate items manually like you could in the older games if you wish.

I decided to give him a skyscraper wall and steel flooring. I put in a flat-screen TV and a pinball machine for entertainment. He seemed to love the minimalist bed and lamp as well. I put a cup of coffee and a ducky on his table. He really seemed to enjoy my work, even calling it a perfect house! Of course, he might just say that regardless, but I'll take the compliment.

He taught me a new emotion: surprise. Before wrapping up my day, I went out to Main Street and saw Pecan and Muffy. Maybe they will be potential customers for tomorrow?

First Impressions

After three (in-game) days of designing, I can say that the game is moderately fun to play...for now. Even though HHD isn't as open-ended as a typical Animal Crossing game, there's still no real challenge. You place furniture where you want it, and that's basically all there is to it. I can imagine this getting quite repetitive after a while. But for now, I am looking forward to designing some of the public buildings like schools and restaurants and improving the appearance of Main Street. There is surely much to be unlocked, and probably some surprises along the way. I don't have a specific posting schedule just yet, but I will likely be updating almost every day (at least for a while). I hope you'll come back and follow along with my adventures! Thanks for visiting!

Are you enjoying the game? Which amiibo card did you get with the game? Feel free to leave a comment below!

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