Digital Media Concepts/Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Overview
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is developed and produced by Nintendo and the video game is only compatible with the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch Lite. This game is the fifth series of the Animal Crossing franchise and it was released on March 20, 2020. It is a simulation video game that's intended for audiences of all ages and that it consists with many other characters on a player's island. The game is open-ended and open-world as the players can decide what they want to do.

Gameplay
Generally, the game play revolves around personalizing a player's own island and doing tasks that the villagers ask them to do. The currency in the game are bells and Nook Miles in which that the player can go buy clothing, furniture, crops, mortgage, upgrade their island, and take part in certain events. A player can earn money by catching bugs, digging for artifacts, going fishing and so on. They are able to customize their house and add floors or rooms with different things inside. Not only that, they're able to change clothes, draw pictures or design their own shirts and buy furniture and decorations. It's played as the same calendar you have in real life, an hour takes an hour, the day and night cycles coincide with day and night, so different things will be available based on what season you’re in, what time of day it is, etc. There are lots of little holiday events that occur during the season and that you can attend festivities.

Players can play with friends online by visiting their islands by adding them with their dodo code. Players are able to showoff their islands to friends and just admire the scenery with each other, go fishing, have matching outfits, and a photoshoot. Also, players can trade and sell items with each other that can be valuable for their island.

Users trade and sell turnips in which that they hold high value in bells and "Turnips are basically the Animal Crossing: New Horizons version of the stock market - adorably known as the stalk market".

Characters
Each villager has its own personality traits and designs that make them special. Well known, characters in the game are Isabelle, Tom Nook, K.K Slider and Timmy and Tommy. There's only "ten villagers" that can live on a player's island and they can get villagers by going to different islands by using nook miles and communicating with them to live on their island. Different villagers can visit a player's island and some non player characters only visit on a specific day in which that each day there's a new task to take from each villager. They also have the option to leave a player's island due to neglecting them or having a very strong relationship with them. Every villager has a hidden friendship amount and when met, they're likely to request to leave. Once a player builds a strong relationship with a villager it will likely leave to let the player connect with other villagers.

Other Media
Nintendo released a wide variety of Animal Crossing merchandise including toys, clothing, utensils, pins and plushes. There was a release of a book that included walkthroughs to make a player's island perfect, tips and tricks, and extra information from the developers.

There was a Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing: New Horizons Edition which was released on March 13th, 2020.

There has been restocks of the limited edition Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing: New Horizons Edition.