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New Horizons finally added something that the community has been wanting since the second everyone started playing the game. The most recent update added 100 extra slots, 50 regular design slots, and 50 pro designs for our customization needs. Now we have so many that a lot of people are either overwhelmed with what they can do or overcompensated and found too many designs to download and have, yet again, run out of space to hold the awesome creations they've found. These are problems we don't think about when we're crying about the additional features we want.
Custom designs have been a mechanic in Animal Crossing since the beginning. In the GameCube days, we were limited to just clothes and umbrellas, but it was still fun to mess around with and try your hand at a little bit of fashion design. Back in 2002, we were given eight design slots. They couldn't be applied to as many ACNH Items as we have now. And you couldn't just draw whatever you wanted and have it fit well. There were no pro designs. Just a flat 32x32-pixel square that we could try to do something with. The problem with the GameCube version is whatever appeared on your shirt, also appeared on your hat. So, if you were trying to do any specific shape, it would replicate itself onto your hat but warp into an interesting design.
Each installment to the series gave us a little bit more for our designing needs. From being able to place designs on the ground, to being able to design hats, and utilizing QR codes which allowed the pixel artists of the community to share their art with those of us who maybe aren't as skilled. Until finally we got the best quality of life improvement with New Horizons. Fifty design slots, fifty pro design slots, and nine different types of clothing design options.
While this seems phenomenal on paper, the additional mechanics and design capabilities with New Horizons have made these original number of design slots seem like not nearly enough. We finally have an easier way to place our designs as paths, can customize a ton of Animal Crossing Furniture Items, and have a ton of room to place said furniture all around our island. All of a sudden, 50 slots design slots just don't do it anymore. Any decent path takes up at least 9 slots. Not to mention your Island's flag, stall patterns, and the hundreds of possibilities for the most amazingly versatile furniture item in the game, the simple panel. These 50 slots fill up quickly. And if you share your island with other users, all of you share the same design slots. With the latest update, the developers have doubled our number of slots. You can purchase these with ACNH Nook Miles Tickets from the Nook Stop in Resident Services.
You probably have been downloading so many beautiful works of art like crazy. It's like the world has opened up. There are so many possibilities and now we are overwhelmed with what to do next. So, what do you do with your newfound, blank squares of opportunity? If you've been avoiding downloading these amazing designs because you can't justify taking up 9 design slots for this cool path you saw that one time. Or you avoid celebrating holidays with different variations because even though it would have looked cool to have some shelves in your café with gingerbread cookies, you lost the design code for the original shelves you found in the first place, so you won't be able to go back and replace them and are afraid to get rid of the design altogether. There are some well-drawn seasonal items out there. Many of them are for stalls, simple panels, or paths, but they help add some good feel to your island and match the seasonal decorations that the game provides us with.
Along with the new slots, the developers gave us new items to create designs for umbrellas, uchiwa fans, flags, and standees. There are so many possibilities with these. People have been crazy creative with the ACNH New Items. There are these amazingly drawn designs that use each item like they're supposed to be used. Wonderful umbrellas, highly detailed standees that can be a cute addition to take pictures with. And then there are the ones that are taking these designs to the next level. Artists are turning the standees into buildings, boats, trains, and custom walls. These amazing people have come up with such great ideas to help us fancy up our islands. And then there are the umbrellas. Because of the way the umbrellas are placed down, artists have used the orientation to create the illusion of a box. Doors have opened up and so many different ideas are being created. Everything from pet houses, flower boxes, GameCubes, trash bins, pretty much anything that is a cube. Someone even created the question mark item blocks from Mario Kart to add to the in-game Mario items we've been trying to naturally fit on our islands.
Many of you may have already used up all your slots. And the best you can do at this point is try not to take designs that only have one use. For example, those cool bell bag designs for your money trees. It's not necessary since you can see that they are indeed money trees, but maybe you thought it was well made and you just want it on my island. Instead, to save space, you should start to try to find designs that are versatile and can be used for multiple items like pillows, couches, bed quilts, etc.
People in the Animal Crossing community are just downright incredible. The creativity, the art, the designs, makes us excited as to what could come next, not only for user-generated content but also for the future of New Horizons and the updates the game could see. It makes you wonder if the developers know the amount of creativity the Animal Crossing community has to make these incredible designs. Did they know the back of the climbing wall was going to be used as a wall outside? Were they aware of how simple panels, stalls, and solar panels would be used to make our buildings? The level of customization with the umbrella has come so far from New Leaf. Instead of just copying the one triangle of design, they've allowed us to create every pixel the way we want. What's your favorite new design? Click Here to find more cool stuff you want to about the custom design slots in New Horizons.
