10 character island names confirmed in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, opening day tutorial details

5 years ago Justin 11 Comments

Many Animal Crossing fans have been eagerly awaiting to hear about the island name character limit for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in hopes that it may be increased over past games, and we finally have our answers today!

According to a new tweet today from the official Animal Crossing Twitter account operated by Tom Nook, the island name character limit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be 10 characters long. This marks an increase of 2 characters over the previous town name limit of 8 characters in past Animal Crossing games.

Considering we have been living with an 8 character limit for almost twenty years of Animal Crossing overseas, it’s certainly a very welcome change in my opinion, even if some fans may have liked to see an even longer limit.

Beyond confirming the new island name limit though, today’s new official Animal Crossing tweet also gave us a first look at what we believe to be the Island Warming Party that you’ll encounter during your first hour playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on March 20th!

We can see in the provided screenshot that a bonfire has begun near the Resident Services tent in the evening with our first two island villager residents next to us. Combined with the log benches, radio, and the dialogue, it would seem this is a gathering to celebrate our first night on the deserted island.

Interestingly, this means we won’t actually decide on a name for our deserted island until after we have already spent some time exploring, instead of deciding at the very beginning of the game before arriving like in past Animal Crossing games. This fits the new setting perfectly and is pretty genius to be honest!

The next question you might have is how this gathering party with yourself and your crew would look during the daylight, especially considering the bonfire on display, but here’s a little surprise — it will always be nighttime!

Based on various hands-on previews with Animal Crossing: New Horizons that were published near the Animal Crossing Direct, we have learned that the game’s opening tutorial will actually take place outside of real-time.

As far as we know, you will always arrive on the island during the daylight to spend the ‘day’ setting up the tents and gathering supplies to eventually culminate into the Island Warming Party happneing at nighttime with the bonfire. This will teach you how to gather crafting supplies.

Soon after the gathering though, the current ‘day’ will end and you will wake up to a new day that actually takes place during your real time clock. The Dodo Airlines Airport will now be unlocked on your second ‘day’ too, as the Animal Crossing Direct mentioned.

Given that the hands-on previews for the game seemed to be no longer than around 30 minutes to an hour, we suspect this whole sequence of events will take place very quickly assuming you don’t fiddle for too long on deciding your tent locations!

Here’s two quotes from both GamesRadar’s and IGN’s hands-on previews of Animal Crossing: New Horizons that explain it all:

IGN: With our homes settled, Tom Nook requested I gather sticks for a fire, and some peaches, my island’s randomly chosen native fruit. The actual collection process is the same as it’s always been and I wasn’t given access to tools, so my actions during the first day were limited. But eventually, the day came to a close and when my character awoke New Horizons had synced to real-time (it runs on its own time for the first tutorial day) and saddled me with a massive 49,800 bell debt.

GamesRadar: Of course, this is only the beginning, and once I place all three tents in suitable spots, I’m tasked with gathering supplies for an island warming party. Later, you wake up, and the clock resets to the actual time, signalling the start of the game proper.

For those of us who plan on jumping right into Animal Crossing: New Horizons late at night when the game launches digitally on the Nintendo eShop, this will be quite an interesting aspect to the game’s opening and likely very welcome so we can start off our adventure in the daylight!

Let me know in the comments below what island name you’re planning to use in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and what you think of the new fixed time setting for the game’s opening tutorial! Personally, I think this new tutorial concept is a great idea.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches worldwide on March 20th! Pre-order the game here, the official guide here, and check our release date countdown here. Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for more news as we approach the release!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons News