
On October 15, 2021, during an Animal Crossing direct, it was announced that a premium DLC, "Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise", will be released on Novemalong with New Horizons's 2.0 update. Upon their announcement, some expressed concerns with the series moving in a different gameplay direction however Kyogoku noted that it and amiibo Festival were spin-offs, and don't necessarily represent where the mainline series would go in the future.

Eight series character amiibo were planned for release with amiibo Festival. The two games also have integration with each other houses designed in Happy Home Designer can appear in-game within amiibo Festival. Īmiibo were also an influence on Happy Home Designer and a sister game, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, as the development team thought that Animal Crossing amiibo would be "cute", and brainstormed new gameplay concepts for the franchise that incorporated them. Development Īnimal Crossing series producer Aya Kyogoku explained that Happy Home Designer was inspired by the internal process of designing homes for the animal villagers in the main Animal Crossing games, stating that "We had to think about, what kind of things would this animal like? What kind of life do they lead? Trying to figure out what they'd want was very fun, and we tried to think of a way we could get this kind of experience to players as well." Players are not tied to a specific budget when designing homes while the concept was considered, the development team believed that such a limit placed too much of a burden on the player's creativity. The game integrates with Animal Crossing Amiibo cards scanning cards allows their respective character to visit a home that a player had designed, and allows players to design homes for other major characters such as K.K. The game interacts with New leaf, primarily by allowing the player to unlock exclusive furniture through the Nookling Junction kiosk.


Players can also visit the homes they have created. As players progress, they will unlock additional furniture elements they can incorporate into their designs. A screenshot of the player working on one of the villager's housesĪnimal Crossing: Happy Home Designer downplays the wider community simulation mechanics of the main Animal Crossing series in favor of focusing on house designing players work as an employee of Nook's Homes, designing homes for other animal villagers based around their suggestions.
