{What I Love!}
Hello! I’m Scruffy, and today, I can’t help but talk about a recent gem of a game that has offered
players fun, nostalgia, and solace, in a cute, customizable little package. I’m talking about
Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Personally, it’s my first Animal Crossing game, but I can already
sense palpable love put into making gameplay flow, allowing several layers of customization,
and keeping progression fresh while rewarding patience. That meticulous care extends to the
game’s sound design, and I’d like to spend this video just pointing out a few good lessons to
take from listening to the game’s wholesome soundscape. Maybe you’re trying to craft an
experience that feels welcoming, warm, cute, or otherwise widely accessible to an audience,
and you’re wondering how that’s supposed to sound. I’ll start pretty broad and then get meticulous,
and I’ll do my best not to spoil any part of the island-building progression,
except on the last item. I’ll warn you of spoilers before that one.
Number 1: The world is full of calm noise. Everywhere you go, there’s a soft,
consistent wash of noise beneath any other sound effects. Next to trees, you get the sound of
wind through the leaves. Next to a river or a waterfall, you get trickling or rushing water,
respectively. By the shore, the music hikes down to enunciate the calming waves. And even indoors,
you find an indoor hum associated with domestic heating and ventilation. It’s
honestly exaggerated, but the soundtrack is intent on never leaving you in silence while you see the
game world. Not only is that more inviting than, say, an absolutely silent house, but it means you
constantly have something non-threatening to listen to. Any time you wish, you can just sit
down and take in the soundscape, and there will always be some consistent ambience to fill the
void. Not to mention, this design justifies all your actions being scored with cartoonish, whistly
sound effects and loud footsteps. Those grab your attention, then the background soothes it.
But you have some control over the ambience, don’t you? Let’s speak about speakers.
Number 2: In-game speakers are diegetic: they exist within the in-game space. What I mean is,
sound or music that comes from a speaker gets put through sound filters not only based on
what kind of speaker it is, but where it is. If you head into your residence and place down
a stereo system, and play some music on it, the music will reverberate around the room
differently depending on which way the speaker faces, relative to the camera. So you can simply
rotate the camera around your living space and hear this difference. Like a real speaker,
you get more of the direct high end of the sound when you face the speaker,
and you get a more muffled sound where lows still propagate when you’re behind the speaker.
The room is virtual, it doesn’t come with the physical ability to reverberate sound,
so this is a deliberate use of sound filtering to make the room seem more physical. New Horizons
really likes making its toyish world sound like a physically plausible toy.
By the way, I discovered this while collecting some musical instrument items in my home:
they’ll all harmonize to whatever song is playing on speakers. That means audio
coming from the speakers is definitely adaptive: during the time spent on each chord in a song,
pitched instruments receive new inputs about what notes are allowed
to sound if you interact with the instrument. Pretty amazing stuff,
and a classic move for a Nintendo game. And how about another signature Nintendo move?
Number 3: every element and action in your user interface gets a unique little sound.
In Animal Crossing, they’re all soft, tiny pops, clicks, chimes,
which are certainly responsive, but again non-threatening. They sound like working
with miniature arts and crafts. And what’s more, I was impressed by how many there
are. Just take a moment and focus your ears on this custom designing session.
[various little noises play from the custom design UI]
There’s so much character added to these actions through sound effects. The sound of moving the pen
gets lower as the pen gets bigger, and the sound of creating a line gets higher as the line gets
longer, as though it’s getting stretched taut. UI is seldom meant to distract someone’s attention,
and these sounds eventually do fall into passivity. But these fun little
details attract and retain our enjoyment and satisfaction at least a little longer than
having a small handful, or even no UI sounds. And let’s go the extra mile for just a moment.
Number 4: You’ll need stereo speakers or headphones to hear this in the game,
and in this video. In your pocket in Animal Crossing, the sound of selecting an item is
panned according to your cursor’s position. If your cursor’s on the left, the sound is panned
left. If it’s on the right, your sound is panned right. It’s such a small, remote detail, but after
I found it, I wondered why more games don’t try it, or perhaps why I’ve missed it in other games
by not wearing headphones. Definitely the mark of an expertly crafted, satisfying experience.
Now, there’s one more broad thing I want to talk about, but it involves parts of Animal Crossing:
New Horizons that happen several days and even several weeks into the experience.
If you don’t want to be spoiled on what happens, then feel free to end the video
here, and thank you for watching! Otherwise, here is my last point:
Music in the game is a series of discoveries that rewards
curiosity and diligence to the game’s progression
I believe that sums it up. I’ve noticed this soundtrack often functions as a reward for
progress. Previous Animal Crossing games came with outdoor music that changed on the hour, creating a
24 hour stream of varied music. In New Horizons, that stream doesn’t come around until your new
Resident Services building is completed, at which point it can chime the hour. Before that, you have
an all-day song that, while still in the Animal Crossing style, doesn’t change periodically. It
does undergo small changes as your town grows, though, the guitar chords become more rhythmic
and played more confidently, until eventually, your island is ready to be a full-fledged town.
There are other examples of music that you get to uncover as a reward for progression,
such as the different variations on the very simple museum motif, one for each room in the
museum. But so far, I’ve encountered one tune that isn’t a reward for progression, more of a reward
for perseverance, or perhaps curiosity. It occurs once you’ve built the shop, Nook’s Cranny, and
you enter 10 minutes before they close at 10 PM. It’s a very sweet piece of music, fully recorded,
and I can’t do it justice by arranging it in this video, so I advise you to hear it in the game.
One more piece of music as reward. Long-time Animal Crossing fans may know this already.
This comes from my dear friend and collaborator on this video, DavoGato, to whom I express my kudos.
A staple of the Animal Crossing series, or rather, any game on which Kazumi Totaka has worked,
is throwing in his secret song, eponymously named. There are two ways you can listen to
it in New Horizons. It can appear for purchase in Nook Shopping’s special goods selection,
so you can play it from any speaker. Or, you can get it performed live by the famous animal
musician himself, K.K. Slider. At a certain point in creating your island community,
he visits your plaza, and after 6 PM local time, you can ask him to play your request. If you input
“K.K. Song” exactly as it's written here, he’ll play it for you live. It’s fun to track Totaka’s
song hidden throughout various Nintendo games, but this actually seems to be one of its least hidden
iterations. Rather than rewarding diligently scouring a game, this iteration rewards a
long-time fan of the series for dedicating serious time to their new Animal Crossing experience.
And that wraps up this video. I really appreciate the experience this game has given to everyone,
especially in otherwise trying times. Please stay safe out there, and in the meantime,
I’ll continue to make content for you. I’m Scruffy, and thank you very much for watching.