I spent way too much time making this yesterday. Of course I could've just waited until I unlocked the QR code machine, but I'm stubborn.

My night of watering flowers has paid off! My first decision as fully-fledged mayor?...

The Night Owl ordinance! Never again will I get mad at Nook closing up his store at 10 pm. Though I probably shouldn't be playing video games half the night. Butistillregretnothing.

Moving on to today.

Before I got the game I was like "I want to have a frog in my town, they're so cute!". So, Gigi moved in yesterday. Diva is moving in tomorrow. 

If this game had a face, it would be the trollface right now. 

Still, though, at least they're all moving in in nice places, not blocking the way or anything. Most of the houses are along the cliff, including mine (to make sure nobody moves in in front of me).

I also unlocked the tropical island! I spent like forty minutes running around in circles hitting rocks I mean going on island tours to earn 50 medals for this. And I haven't even used it yet, so I'll be in for a surprise, I bet.

I'd say that's pretty nice for going to the island for the first time.

The island is also the prime bell grinding place of New Leaf, of course.

I didn't even know it was the elusive golden stag until I actually caught it. I thought it was much easier to scare them off. Sad I only managed to get my hands on one. I didn't do hardcore money grinding, but it was enough to pay off a bridge. Almost enough to pay off another house loan, but unfortunately someone closed their store at 10pm.

What? Why would he think that? Can't possibly be true, right? 

...

...Right?

(That was an accident, I swear)

Now I'm off to catch some more bugs. so busy

Chickens in space

I have to say, I love how the night sky looks in New Leaf. Unfortunately my character's expression kinda ruins the picture...

I went on kind of en evening stroll yesterday. I caught Egbert snoozin' in his house and... holy hell, I did not expect such decor from him. Do you work for NASA? Are you a space-flying chicken? Are you an alien spying on us?

I feel ya, buddy, I feel ya.

On to today's happenings! And continuing Egbert's story, I guess. The space chicken asked to visit my house today and I happily agreed, even though my house right now is kind of run-down.

Ever the joker. Later, he asked to visit AGAIN. Geez, he must've really liked it in there (what's there to like?). I had to politely decline, as I was getting a bit creeped out... Still not giving up on that spying alien theory. 

We have a new neighbor moving in tomorrow! I could not resist the temptation to look up Gigi on Animal Crossing wiki.

Um. I did want a frog neighbor. But I wanted a cute frog...

...

No, you don't have to kiss me hello please don't

It's always such a sad thing to see a balloon floating in your town when you don't have a slingshot yet. But not today. I'm not letting you escape today, mr balloon. 

Gotcha. I chased it all the way to the cliff, with Static trying to sell me his cicada on the way. 

The balloon chair doesn't fit in my house. At all. But then again, at this stage it is just a mix of random furniture. I could sell it, but I'm a hoarder. I have a feeling this is going to come and bite me in the ass in this game. There's only so much storage space after all. 

I also caught this beauty. Whenever I catch something rare I always have a dilemma: sell it or donate it? This one got sold, which helped a great deal in getting my second house loan paid off today.

So tomorrow we'll be coming back to a much larger house. And then the island we'll unlock. And thus any money problems will be gone forever.

It's time for the morning coffee and I can hear the doorbell

A courier dropped this off at my house earlier today. It's something that I have been waiting for for quite a long time. I mean, I ordered my copy of the game only a week ago, but I have been eyeing it since before the release (American release - 9th June). Wow, has it really been almost a month? 

This isn't my first contact with the Animal Crossing series. About three years ago, I think, I got my first console ever - a Nintendo DS. That's when I found out about Animal Crossing: Wild World and I was quite excited to give it a try. But while I really liked the idea of the game, I found myself bored with it fast. 

However, after a month or so of reading and watching videos I found myself wanting more still. So here it is. 

Everyone starts off pretty much the same in New Leaf. You arrive in your town, you get mistaken for the mayor, pick a place for your house and plant a tree. The only differences at this point are pretty much the chosen names, the town fruit you get and the town residents you end up with. 

Speaking of the names, I'd like to explain mine: the name of my character, Rain, is something I ended up calling my playable characters in the past, whenever there was an option to (Pokemon, for example). It's uncreative, I know, but I like rain and it kinda grew on me. 

The town name, Yuanyang, could mean two things - either a mandarin duck or a Hong-Kong beverage, a mix of milk tea and coffee. I basically wanted to give my town a coffee-related name (I love coffee) and that was the only thing that I thought sounded cool enough.

As for villagers, so far I share the town of Yuanyang with Rhonda the rhino, Static the squirrel, Egbert the chicken, Carmen the bunny and Coach the bull. Having not played the previous Animal Crossing games, I don't really have any favourites or anyone I wish would move into my town. I'm not too fond of rhinos and bulls as animals, though both Rhonda and Coach seem like nice enough... people? Coach calls me "ladybro", what's not to love? So far, my favourites are the cranky Static and the peppy Carmen. 

Fortunately in New Leaf it's much easier to pay off your first loan than in the previous games... Living in a tent is kinda cosy, though.

If I had a tent this big, I would actually like camping. 

Unfortunately you won't be able to unlock anything in the game if you don't upgrade to a house, so tomorrow  I'm gonna have to say bye bye to the tent!

I basically ended up going on a giant shopping spree. I bought almost everything Timmy (or was it Tommy?) and the Able Sisters had for sale. Including this... whatever the hell this is. Looks kinda like the Oculus Rift?

In the end, there isn't a whole lot to do on your first day in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. And yet I still spent a good 2.5 hours playing, collecting fruit, fishing, talking to villagers, planting fruit... I'd say this is a promising start.