Update 28th July: Ninten Talk is back at it again with a new ACNH challenge Rags to Richies. New ways to play the game are always welcome when trying to fight burnout. So check it out and let yourself be inspired by other ACNH players.

More popular than the newest instalment of the Animal Crossing franchise is the Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH for short) burnout. If, like me, you have been playing the game since launch (or close to it), you probably know what I’m talking about. I mean… You probably found this post because you are trying to cure your burnout like the rest of us. So please join me as I try to ignite my passion for this game again.

I’ve seen countless videos and read countless posts about “how to fix ACNH burnout”, and here you won’t find any mention of “decorating your island”. If that motivates you to pick the game again, then go for it, and I’m happy for you. Although for me, that doesn’t work. As much as I don’t want to, ACNH is a decorator simulator. That’s the core of the game. It’s to decorate, decorate, decorate. But that’s not a game I want to play. What I want is to go back to the early game experience.

What I enjoy about the game

While trying to find the motivation to turn on the Switch and press play on Animal Crossing, I thought very hard about what motivated me in the beginning. About when I was really happy playing the game. And I realised it was all the goals and the quests.

When starting a new island, there is so much to do. The home loan to pay, getting those terrible 30 iron nuggets to open the Nook’s Cranny (I never time travelled, so I got them the hard way: in multiple days and mystery islands), getting Ables to open the shop, set up the museum, growing the collection, finding all the fossils… There is so much to do. So many new things to experience, to see. But on the other hand, all these things are quite easy to accomplish, especially if you play for at least one hour every day. And soon, what it’s new and exciting, suddenly isn’t anymore.

I understand why this game is so easy-going. It’s about relaxing on an island, building your paradise, and enjoying the easiness, Although I miss the grind. I miss the time it took me to get those 30 iron nuggets to build Nook’s Cranny. It was a goal, an objective, a quest that I had to work towards it.

Right now, my home is fully paid for, and I have all the buildings updated. Harv’s island is done. I believe I’ve visited every single mystery island (at least once). I have all the fossils and bugs. I’m only missing a couple of fish and sea critters. I’m going to ignore the art section of the museum because it’s so slow to build (ironic since I’m complaining about how easy everything else is). I’m still decorating and terraforming my island, but that will always be a work in progress. There is nothing to work for. Despite my island not being fully decorated, I could say I finished the game. Although I don’t want that. I want to find a reason to go back.

The inspiration

What recently made me pick up ACNH again was Stardew Valley. I had a few days of obsessively playing that game and started to miss fishing in Animal Crossing. I’m not comparing both games because they work very differently. What matters is my motivation to pick up the game again was starting to sparkle. Although I wasn’t going to let this opportunity be a one-off situation. I needed a plan.

One thought I had a long time ago when crops were finally introduced to ACNH was how sad it was that they weren’t seasonal items. That is one big theme of Animal Crossing to play throughout the seasons. And crops should be like that as well. Pumpkins in the fall, tomatoes in the summer. And so I thought: if the game doesn’t do it, then maybe I could. Nothing stops me from manipulating the game to fit the gameplay I want (and I’m not talking about modding!).

And it begins taking shape my set of rules and conditions to transform ACNH into a game I would like to pick up more often. I even searched online for ACNH challenges, and after pushing aside everything design-related, I found a great video by Katie on Calla Cove and the Hard Mode challenge developed by Ninten Talk. Even though I don’t take any rules from it, it helped me set my own and see how I could bring the grind back to the game.

The game plan

Let’s start with the crops. Seasonal growth. If I want to grow the crops seasonally, then I need to set a calendar. There are 6 crops (not counting the different coloured pumpkins) and 12 months in the year. Easy. Deciding which months to grow which not so easy. Most are Spring/Summer crops, so I had to nudge here and there. But who cares? This is a virtual game, the seasons aren’t real, and the sun sets always at the same time (I guess they never heard of daylight saving time). Anywho, here’s my crops calendar:

• Wheat – February and March
• Sugarcane – April and May
• Potatoes – June and July
• Tomatoes – August and September
• Pumpkins – October and November
• Carrots – December and January

And, while I’m at it, I should do the same for the fruit trees. Maybe this will make me interact with them more. Differently from the crops, I’m overlapping the growing of fruit trees, which allows me to build an orchid with two rows of fruit trees (excluding the coconuts). In the months I only have one fruit tree producing, I’ll occupy the rest of the space with hardwood trees to chop down for wood. I wanted to keep all the fruit trees, but once they start producing, there is no way to stop it, only chopping them down.

• Oranges – December to March
• Cherries – April to July
• Coconuts – May to August
• Peaches – May to August
• Apples – August to November
• Pears – October to January

There will be a lot of planting, chopping and throwing away with the change of each season, and while that is laborious and expensive, at least it’s a way to give me something to do every day, a reason to visit Leaf, and to spend bells. I have so many, but so many bells. Not trying to flex, just your regular bells hoarder.

And speaking of bells, why not set up a fish and a bug market? Although it has a very different purpose than the ones you can find on Pinterest. They obviously decorate the island, but the primary reason to have them is to have a place to “store” all the fish and the bugs I find to later sell when CJ and Flick show up on the island. Another rule I’m setting: can’t sell bugs or fish at Nook’s Cranny. This at least needs to make me pick up the game to see if any of the boys are in town so I can clean the market.

Going back to the video I mentioned, Katie on Calla Cove talks about creating your own events and celebrations. While I found it an amazing idea, it does have some limitations. My first thought was to do a flea market. Maybe every month display some furniture items I don’t want and let my villagers decide what they want, and I’ll gift them to them. Although villagers’ interactions with objects are limited. And I wanted some of the decisions to be out of my hands. I like some unpredictability in my games. For the characters to make some decisions for me even when I don’t like them (which is why since the beginning of the game, I always let my villagers go if they asked to move out). But I’m not letting gameplay mechanics stop me from running my own celebrations. And then I remembered food festivals.

Here in Portugal, the summer months mean sardines over charcoal grills. It’s the time of the year that fish is most celebrated. But the same thing happens all year throughout the country with different fishes, meats, fruits, mushrooms… And since I’m now growing crops and fruits seasonally, then I could tie in with food festivals, giving me a reason to cook some recipes and set up a table for all my villagers. I still need to set a plan as well as create a space to host the festivals. So currently, it’s an idea still in development.

Another thing I’ve been thinking a lot about doing is adding another player. Your ACNH island isn’t limited to 10 villagers and an island representative. You can have up to 8 players on the same island, meaning I can still add 7 more houses to my island. Adding another house or keeping it as a tent is fun, but not all why I’m interested in it. Each new player means a new collection to fill, a home loan to pay, new recipes to learn… And I can do their houses in whatever way I want. And I already know who’s going to be the first player I’ll add to my island: an archaeologist. Mostly because I want to do something with the fossils other than just selling them, and having a themed house should be a lot of fun to play with.

And one final rule that I’m slowly making my way through is not hoarding materials. Woods, stone, iron nuggets, gold nuggets, sticks, clay and shells can’t be saved unless it’s towards a recipe, except seasonal materials. I currently go to Nook’s, see what’s the hot item, go to my storage, grab the materials, craft a bunch, and go sell. I don’t want to change this. What I want is the grind I had to do to get those 30 iron nuggets in the beginning. I want a reason to go to Mystery Islands. Did I hit all my rocks and still need stone? Go to mystery islands to have four more rocks to hit. Need 30 hardwood? Then let’s hit every tree. Not enough? Then let’s fly.

My thoughts on restarting

I thought multiple times about restarting my island. And other than the fact that I would lose that precious flower cart that took me ages to find, I’ve always pushed that idea aside because it wouldn’t fix my feelings towards the game. I know the day I restart my island, I will be in love with the game again. I will be obsessed with it again. Although I will go over all those goals to develop the island, K K Slider will come, and I’ll be back to the same feeling I have right now: there’s nothing interesting to do. So I need to change the way I play the game, even if that means creating rules and restrictions that don’t exist in the game.

The cure for ACNH burnout

As much as I would like to have a straight answer to this, I don’t believe one exists. But one thing I’m sure is if you are looking for ways to save yourself from burnout, it means you care about the game. At some point, the game kept you interested. And my biggest advice is to think really hard about what that was. What was your favourite moment of the game? When were you really excited to play the game? And that answer probably will tell you exactly what you need to do to overcome your burnout.

I’ll already begun implementing my game plan, and right now, I’m motivated and excited. I can’t say for sure this is the answer to cure my burnout forever, but for the time being, it’s working, and that’s what matters. I’ll probably reach a time when I’ll stop playing again because that’s my relationship with most games. Although what matters is having something to go back to.

Other than being excited about ACNH, I wanted to write this post to maybe help another player who, like me, is struggling to find reasons to pick the game back up. Most of what I mentioned here, I didn’t find it anywhere else. I had to come up with it. And if these ideas interest you, then please steal them at will. If not, then change them, and make them your own. The biggest takeaway is: only you know the game you want to play. We are all different gamers and we all look for different things in the games we play. Take this post as an inspiration, take it as a rule book, or ignore it and stop playing. I did that for months, and now I’m motivated again to the point of creating a bunch of imaginary rules to spice up my game. Only you know how to solve your ACNH burnout.