5 Beta Changes In Animal Crossing New Horizons - Beta Screenshots, Removed Items, Graphics & More
Beta refers to a stage in a game's development. Today we'll be taking a look at 5 of the most interesting beta changes that the game went through to make it to the point including early beta screenshots of Animal Crossing New Horizons as well as the very first trailer for New Horizons which has some very interesting details.
Animal Crossing New Horizons 5 Beta Changes
There’s no question that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a strikingly beautiful game with a unique design compared to past titles, but it wasn’t always that way from the beginning. We have now passed the 9 months mark since the launch of Animal Crossing New Horizons, the community surrounding the game is constantly grown too which is great news because it means new players are joining in every day. ACNH went through a lot of changes during development, with the game looking entirely different earlier on. With so many interesting changes, removed items and so many graphical details that have changed, here are 5 Animal Crossing New Horizons beta changes you didn't know (shared by famous Youtuber Crossing Channel and Mayor Mori).
1. The Game’s Early Graphics
This screenshot currently is fascinating because it shows off a very different and early New Horizons, the graphics resemble something much closer to Animal Crossing New Leaf though it does seem like some of the main models like the player character, villages, trees, mostly resemble what we have in the final game. Some of the buildings like the town hall almost have an intentionally basic vibe. This screenshot paints an incredibly different New Horizons, one that might have ended up looking a lot more like a port of Animal Crossing New Leaf. If the style had continued on from that game thankfully the graphics received so many overhauls and ACNH looks that much better for it.
2. UI Elements
In this screenshot, ACNH was originally going to go over much more traditional clock design that was similar to the one in New Leaf. In fact, it's pretty much the exact same in the final game. We have a much more simplistic design which fits alongside some of the other elements of the game, this clock design from New Leaf and the amount of personality and connection has with past AC games. This most likely was just a place holder until they figured out what kind of look they were going for the game. So it's most likely never intended to be in the final game. You could probably say the same about the mini map in the bottom which is very different from the final game too. As you can see by this mini map it appears like the island the team are playing on to take these screenshots is really unfinished most likely just filled with a bunch of test objects to help the game's development forward. It'd be fascinating to know what other new features were thought of this early on especially major ones like terraforming. We can see from this scene that furniture outdoors was already thought of at this point which makes sense as this was introduced and used in happy home designer and also pocket camp, the team likely took inspiration from those games and wanted it in a mainline Animal Crossing game.
3. E3 2019
E3 2019 marked the very first time we got a look at ACNH, ever we knew the game would be happening due to a teaser back in 2018 but we didn't have any gameplay footage. But when we got our second trailer for the game in September a few months after E3, one change was abundantly clear the grass. The game didn't really change too much from this first trailer until release but this one change is super noticeable. Due to the short amount of time between this and the next trailer where the game looks practically identical to the one released in March, it certainly paints an interesting picture of how the development team kept striving to make this game look better and better. As the months went by this first trailer also shows off a very interesting element that was also removed later on.
4. White Picket Fence
Another interesting feature that was seen as late as the teaser trailer originally streamed during E3 when they revealed ACNH was the white picket fence which is clearly shown around this village's garden area as the player runs past it. Now, as everyone who uses a variety of fences around the island will know the white picket fence isn't actually available in the game and seems to have been removed from the public release. Furthermore, if we take a look at this screenshot of a very early beta version of New Horizons, we can see an even earlier concept of the picket fence which isn't too dissimilar to the fantasy scene around the houses as far back as the original Animal Crossing. So it seems that through the entire development of ACNH, they were going for a more traditional look. But at some point late in the development while transitioning from a beta to a public release, the white picket fence was removed or replaced with the simple wooden fence. It's a subtle change.
5. Dirt Patches
If we take a look at another screenshot from a beta version of New Horizons, we can see quite a significant change that isn't too familiar. If you look closely at the grassy areas, you can see a handful of what appears to be dirt patches. Now dirt patches are an iconic aesthetic from the original version of Animal Crossing but later became what's known as grass deterioration which is a mechanic where the grass would deteriorate over time, the more the grass is used revealing the dirt underneath with it being a beta version or earlier the lack of detail is to be expected, but it appears for some time during the development dirt patches which included a nice texture pattern were going to be included, but for some reason they were removed before launch. Another possibility is that these dirt patches were an early concept of the path tool or what became the path tool but like the picket fences were adjusted or replaced for the public version of the game.
These are 5 beta changes in Animal Crossing New Horizons, hope you enjoyed this article!
