Animal Crossing (series)

Animal Crossing is a series of social simulation video games developed by Nintendo and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. The series revolves around a human player character living in a town inhabited by animals and performing tasks such as fishing, catching bugs, socializing with the villagers, or collecting items. Animal Crossing is open-ended and uses the system's internal clock to simulate taking place in real-time, with the gameplay changing based on the time of day and year, and special events happening on certain days in the year.

Creation
The Animal Crossing series was made by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. Eguchi got the idea for Animal Crossing when he moved to Kyoto to work at Nintendo. Speaking to Edge Magazine in 2008 he said: "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! Chiba is east of Tokyo and quite a distance from Kyoto, and 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."

Objectives
As an, the  does not have a set objective. As such, after an introductory sequence at the beginning of the games, players are free to do as they like. The only 'objective' in the game, if any, is to pay off the mortgage placed upon the player's house—but, like most activities within the game, this is entirely optional and does not incur any consequences, other than having less space to store items.

Villagers
In every town in the, the village itself is populated entirely by animals (excluding the player, who is the only human shown in the entire series). Villagers are, and as such, can speak, walk in a humanoid manner, use tools, and wear clothes. They serve as interactive characters who are assigned personalities and traits, and this affects the way they communicate with you and among themselves. Villagers are capable of conversation, have unique interests and catchphrases, and live in their own domains within the town.

Villagers will often ask the player to perform tasks for them (ranging from delivering presents to sending messages to another human player). Players can incur a reward if tasks are executed in the set time. In later games, they are also capable of playing games with the player, such as hide-and-seek. Villagers move in and out of the town regularly due to certain factors (e.g. because the player has exchanged animals with another village over ), or simply because they are not satisfied with their current life). It is said that they enjoy receiving letters, and if sent a gift, they will usually send one in return.

Customization
Although earlier games offer few options in terms of customization, more recent games like feature the ability to not only customize the appearance of the player, but also more designing options in term of interior and exterior. Interior designing aspects include wallpapers, flooring, rugs, lighting, soundscapes, and furniture in the player's home, as well as the home's exterior changes. Exterior designing aspects include the placement of either furniture, public works projects, bridges, or incline depending on the game, as well as the changes made to the town's flora and landscaping via the Island Designer Construction Permit.

Activities
Despite being an, Animal Crossing does provide some activities to pass the time and help "complete" certain aspects of the gameplay (such as completing exhibits within the museum). Some of these activities include bug-catching, fishing, fossil-hunting, and even item-collecting (the latter an objective to complete the player's catalog). Players can also interact in games of hide-and-seek with villagers, participate in festivals and town events, and generally do as they like within the game.

Other media
Various media based on the Animal Crossing video games has been released, including soundtracks, manga series, and a feature-length film.

Soundtracks
Multiple games, along with, have received official soundtrack releases.

Film
A feature-length film based on was released in Japan in 2006.

Manga
Numerous manga have been created based on the.

Artwork
The following artwork is not known to have been used to promote any specific game and is instead used to promote the series as a whole.