Still getting used to your rugged island life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Well, you’re definitely playing the game as intended!

In a recent interview with The Verge, the game’s Director Aya Kyogoku touched upon why her team chose to set the game on a deserted island instead of the usual town with existing shops and villagers. As she puts it, the development team wanted to shift the player’s focus to the nature around them – as opposed to just the villagers:

“When we thought about changing those relationships between the user and the animals, we thought, ‘Well, what if we take away the village?’ Putting the player on a deserted island is the solution we came up with…we thought the users would be able to have a new relationship with nature.”

The same line of thinking factored into the Nook Miles system. According to Kyogoku, having players complete small objectives gives them incentives to do more than just grind for the most valuable objects like in past entries:

“We did realize that a lot of the fans who started playing Animal Crossing for the first time with Pocket Camp may have difficulties jumping into titles like New Horizons…Nook Miles is just a way to facilitate the discovery of ways to play.”

“I’m always about paying back the loans, so I want to try to make as many bells as possible. So I tend to go for more expensive insects and ignore common butterflies…All of a sudden, critters like common butterflies will have a different value added to them [with the Nook Miles system].”

What do you think? Are you enjoying how New Horizons mixes up the traditional Animal Crossing formula? Feel free to discuss your thoughts below!