Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is an utterly unique video game that begins with a train trip to a charming country village populated by animals. Here your character gets a job and a house and begins an absorbing round of quaint activities, including fishing, running errands, planting crops, digging up fossils, playing music, and interior decorating. Some events only occur at certain times of the day or days of the week, with familiar holidays only at certain times of the year. This promotional site assumes the form of a newspaper, The Crossing Guardian, complete with distinct sections: Style, Play, Travel Nature, and Create. The design of this dynamic database-driven site blends the best of newspaper and lifestyle magazine formats. Just as the game immerses players directly into an imaginary world, so too does the site with all articles and features written from the voices of personalities in various fictional villages. Articles provoke reactions for polls, and inspire new ways to play the game, while mini-games offer fun opportunities to learn more about the Animal Crossing video game. The Nickelodeon-meets-USA Today style of layouts have a fun, cartoon-like treatment to accommodate the jam-packed features which are easily and dynamically swapped without customization. Some visual design elements are derived from the stylization of the interfaces in the game, while others simply reflect the spirit of the Animal Crossing world.