Animal Crossing Custom Monster Villagers. Pack 1.

Xenomorph Drone

Card 1: The Xenomorph; A Drone

This was second card I designed but easily my favourite of the trio. I love the Alien universe and so when I sat down and decided to make a set of these monster villagers of course the Xenomorph was right there as one of my most do monsters. It was a really fun challenge to think about how I was going to get the design of the drone to fit with the style of Animal Crossing. Too cute and it would lack the Xeno feeling, too scary and it would lack the Animal Crossing vibe. I think making it tubby but keeping the elongated head was the right approach. I’m very happy with how this turned out. The non-conventional look of this villager gave me the idea for my second favourite of the three.

The Number 79 is a reference to 1979, the year that the original Alien film was released.

Chimera Abomination

Card 2: The Chimera; An Abomination

This card was the last one I designed and it’s easily the most out-there of the trio. After the Xenomorph turned out so well I decided that I wanted to just go for it. The idea was to create a monster that was just purely unnatural. The Greek idea of the Chimera came to mind. Traditionally the Chimera is a combination of a lion, a goat, and a snake. I considered this but I thought that a lion head, goat body, and snake’s tail would be cool but ultimately look too normal in the animal crossing style. I mean besides the snake tail in place of legs it would mostly just look like a standard lion villager. Then I thought of mixing human hands in there for its legs, a fluffy squirrel tail, and a long twisty snake for the neck and head. The initial sketch had fangs but they looked too scary so I decided to take them out in order to give the chimera a big happy looking smile. I love this design and would love to try some more really wacky designs in the second pack.

The number 23 is a reference to this year. This Chimera, meaning human hands, squirrel body and tail, with a snake’s head, was created this year in 2023.

Zombie Ghoul

Card 3: A Zombie; Mindless ghoul

This was the first card I designed. It actually started life as a doodle. Then I really liked how it started to turn out so I focused on making it into a real piece. The challenge of this whole project was combining the horror of the monster design with the comfy cosy aesthetic of Animal Crossing. Too cutesy and they wouldn’t be recognisable as a monster, too gory and they would lose the magic of Animal Crossing. It was all about that balance. When first designing this zombie I was going to have muscle, sinew, and blood visible under the torn skin but that just felt too far from the Animal Crossing vibe. I thought I still want that torn off skin but instead of blood, and muscle I’d have exposed bone. After all Animal Crossing has plenty of bones and skeletons on show. The museum is full of them and even Tom Nook sells piles of human looking bones. I think this was the right call. The exposed bone is creepy but still feels like an Animal Crossing character.

The Number 68 is a reference to the Night of the Living Dead film that released in 1968. This film was the first appearance of the modern, undead, flesh eating zombie.