Animal Crossing is a social simulation game in which the player interacts with virtual characters in the game socially like they do in real life. The players get a virtual avatar of a character who is new to a rural village. The residents of the village are humanized animals who live in civilized a manner just like us.
The virtual world in the game is open-ended. There are no predefined objectives of missions to achieve. They are encouraged by the players to spend time in the village. They may be given small tasks to perform and do activities like collecting items, planting, catching bugs, fishing, and socializing with other residents and helping them in their daily tasks.
They are played using the game’s inbuilt internal clock and calendar. The time passes in the game according to the season and time in real life in some of the events such as vacations, or growth in trees or fruit ripening are reflected when a certain period of time has lapsed or a particular season has started.
The most attractive feature of the game is the ability given to players for customization. This affects the final result of the game. The character in the gameplay is both given a name and a specific gender in the early stages of the game.
Players can customize the looks of their virtual avatars in Animal Crossing by buying the features, clothes, accessories, changing the hairstyle, the colour of eyes. etc. players can also furnish their house, upgrade it to include new features, do interior designing with the help of Tom Nook. The look of the house can be changed by moving the furniture to another location in the house. The wallpaper and flooring of the house can be changed as part of the upgrade.
The terrain of the game, location of the building and initial residents that appear for the first time to the player as the game begins are created randomly by the algorithm of the game. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, players can choose to begin the game with any of the four previously designed towns. Similarly in New Horizon, players can choose to stay on any of the four given islands. The name of the village and its song or anthem is designed by the player. He can also suggest what catchphrase is spoken frequently by a character in the game.
Animals Crossing is all about collecting items and players can find these according to the demand of the task given at various locations of the town. These could be fruits hanging from trees, seashells, abandoned things, nuts bolts, etc.
All the objects can be sold inbuilt currency known as bells. Players have to collect the objects for collecting as many bells as possible to pay off the debt by Tom Nook. Players can refurbish their homes, buy new clothes for their avatars and change their look. Some educational things such as fossils and paintings can be donated to the local museum.