The Animal Crossing series has always had a robust catalog of items. Any “slice of life” simulation game is going to have thousands of objects — functional, decorative, a combination of both, and more. Previous Animal Crossing games have had sites dedicated to cataloguing and buying/selling/trading the in-game items and villagers. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it would take a little bit more flair to fulfill the needs of the gigantic catalog. That’s where Nookazon has come in — after publishing, it and grew into a site with 7 million daily page views.
Elise Favis of Launcher, a video game-centric branch of The Washington Post, was able to interview the creator of Nookazon, Daniel Luu, and discuss how the site came to be and how he’s worked through its growing pains. Currently, the big issue is having to navigate the site’s reliance on the chatting app Discord, as the Nookazon Discord server has hit the 140,000 max cap already.
The entire Washington Post article is a fascinating look at Nookazon’s humble beginnings, to where it is today, and what’s next for the site. (A smartphone app for easy cataloguing? Yes, please!) With over 13 million copies sold, the player base for New Horizons is massive and it proves that fan-created spaces such as Nookazon will keep the digital-island lifestyle thriving.
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Written by Jennifer Burch
Illustrator, designer, writer and big Nintendo geek, you can find Jennifer with an N3DS within reach 24/7. As the oldest of three, she has survived many Mario Party, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart sessions intact in addition to getting her brothers hooked on some really weird games. (Cubivore anyone?)
