Big Ben
Image: u/andrew2047

For Animal Crossing: New Horizons' first birthday, many people thought that Nintendo would release a 2.0 update, adding much-awaited features like Brewster's café, new characters, gyroids, and more. What actually happened was the anniversary update, which added some smaller quality of life features, including extra custom design slots, new items to design, and a range of seasonal items to celebrate prom, April Fool's Day, and the game's first birthday.

But it's the design tools that got most players excited (at least, in the absence of a coffee-brewing pigeon), and we've seen a massive influx of new ideas and creative applications of art.

In particular, you may have seen the extremely cool idea of turning an umbrella into a three-dimensional box, and making it look like there are animals inside it - Animal Crossing doesn't let you have pets (probably because it would raise questions about why some animals are sentient), but this is another loophole to make it look like you do.

Of course, once people realised that the umbrellas looked like cubes if you painted them just so, all sorts of new designs started popping up.

Balloon Presents
Image: u/blehberries

But it's not just the umbrellas that have inspired creativity. The new cutout panel — the kind you might see on a seaside pier, painted to look like a mermaid with a hole for your face — has been used in all sorts of ways.

Train
Image: u/BlastRiot
Plant Truck
Image: u/Medorthophobia1
Zoltar Cutout
Image: u/broadsweetbullies
Porthole
Image: u/blehberries

Have you made anything super clever with the new design tools? Let us know in the comments!

[source reddit.com]