With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
With what she has coined the “kubocore” concept, California-based Filipino Anna Natividad created an island inspired by everyday scenery in the Philippines.Screenshots from Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News
MANILA -- With the pandemic and the limited options for mobility, many people have found refuge in the island life simulator game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with the quarantine driving up demand for Nintendo Switch consoles as people worldwide looked to find a way to socialize and get creative while being locked up at home.
With the game’s wide range of customization options, players have made their own islands their oyster -- taking after various concepts such as citycore and cottagecore themes, among others.
A California-based Filipino took this opportunity to create an island reminding her of the Philippines with "Hilaga"
With what Anna Natividad dubbed as the “kubocore” concept, Hilaga has various urban and rural structures taking after the Filipino slice-of-life, with furniture items that can be purchased in-game, or through trading online.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Natividad said doing a Filipino-themed island wasn’t an idea she had at first when she bought the game in April 2020 -- a month after the game’s release. Both the theme and the name were suggested by her fiance, Lawrence Folsom.
She was hesitant at first, but was later on inspired by the existence of popular, oriental themes seen online such as Japanese and Korean islands to make a unique island of her own.
"At first, I wanted to try an anime-themed island," Natividad told ABS-CBN News.
She added: “I started to do the [island] with Japanese items but even if i try to make it nice I felt like I wasn't giving it justice so [and so I asked my fiancè] ‘What i can do to make it? Parang I want to make things more enjoyable pero nahihirapan ako (I am having a hard time) to come up with something. Tapos sabi niya, ni Lawrence, na 'since your island's named Hilaga, why not try to make your island like based on the Philippines?’”
Natividad started by recreating tourist sites, like the Banaue Rice Terraces using the forced perspective method -- commonly done by ACNH players to create illusions of landscapes with furniture items sold or acquired in the game.
For the rice terraces, Natividad used cardboard standees of hills, and made "improvised" bahay kubos with home-shape trophies acquired through Happy Home Academy -- a point-based system which awards the players with trophies or furniture every Sunday depending on how good they decorate their homes.
Later on, she was able to come up with other ideas that would make her island look more-Pinoy themed. For instance, she decorated Nook’s Cranny -- the in-game furniture and supplies store -- to make it look like a sari-sari store. She has also made a jeepney-inspired figure.
Some parts of the island also have very common urban-rural themes such as a road-side karinderya (eatery), riverside houses by the entrance of the island's airport, a barangay multi-purpose hall, a basketball court by the shanties, apartment-styled cemeteries, and and a panaderia, which she calls “Pan de Hilaga.”
She has also made three houses, with the help of her fiance, and with the support of her parents back home. The first house was inspired by her home back in the Philippines. The second house, which was Folsom's house in the game, was converted into a bed-and-breakfast hotel.
The third house, which had a character named "Andres," is Spanish-Filipino-themed; however, she has already converted this house into a recreation center, with a makeshift courier office as of writing.
She also found a design inspired by telecom loading station posters usually found strewn across stores and jeepneys and used it. Eventually, she was able to come up with her own designs, like the capiz windows found in a portion of her island inspired by the bahay na bato.
With the new update released late-March 2021, she was able to make item illusions out of customizable umbrellas, decorating it to make it look like a balikbayan box patterned after the ones distributed by a known Filipino cargo company, as well as seasonal fruits in baskets.
Creating the first version of the island took 2 months, she said. And it took another two months for her to build the second version of the island.
When the game added a feature allowing people to visit through “dream addresses” even if the island owner is offline, it was when she showed her island to the public. It has since been visited a thousand times by many people who have grown inspired by her island, according to Natividad.
With the pandemic, Natividad, who migrated to California in 2015, said she wanted to recreate memories she had back home with her island, and hoped for people to admire her work.
“It makes me think about all the things that makes me miss home, friends, places, memories. So right now every post talagang I really want to recreate and do justice... I know we miss going pero for now, reminisce na lang tayo (but right now, we could only reminisce.)” she said.
Her posts on Facebook and Instagram, paired with facts about the sites she recreates, also became very popular among enthusiasts, and has also inspired fellow ACNH gamers to take after the kubocore concept. Among her most popular posts is a reenactment of a vendor serving taho using buckets and a pole vault that could be crafted by the player in the game.
"Seeing the numbers like how many people have visited and I was like super naiyak ako, sobrang natuwa ako na there was like a thousand visits which is good. I think it's so I just took the taho picture and I didn't expect a lot of people would ano like it talaga especially pinopost ko lang sa Pinoy group kasi alam ko lang na, it’s like you're creating something na we all grew up with in the game,” she said.
She has since received messages from fellow Filipinos saying they were inspired and feeling nostalgic about seeing her island. With her island, she hopes to share more about Filipino culture to fellow countrymen and non-Filipinos alike.
“People would tell me na parang 'Thank you Anna for posting and [they] always make me want to go home.' it reminds them of their childhood, ‘yung iba sinasabi thank you [for] always educating everyone about our culture,” Natividad said.
(People would tell me 'Thank you Anna for posting. [They] always make me want to go home.' It reminds them of their childhood. Others also say “thank you for always educating everyone about our culture.”)
“And there are some people na sinasabi (saying) they were inspired by my island so they made their own Filipino island, so and at the same time like gusto kong i-share na (I want to share that) the Philippines has a very rich culture and talagang Animal Crossing is such a good outlet for us to showcase what we grew up with,” she added, thanking her parents and Folsom for their help while she created the game.
As of writing, she is working on the third version of her island, which now focuses on everyday Filipino life and leaning less on landmarks.
She reminded her fellow Animal Crossing players to not feel pressured with other people’s islands, as the game was meant to destress.
"You shouldn’t rush into things; you play it for you and you build things based on whatever [you feel like] And not just to make people like them. Kasi if would make things a game an obligation talagang you (you will definitely) just keep collecting like, that puts a lot of pressure on you,” Natividad said.
Animal Crossing gamers may visit the second version of Hilaga through her dream address (DA-2507-3852-8447) or look at Hilaga's Instagram account (@hilaga.acnh).
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