Animal Crossing and the architecture of shared time

Comerford’s Persona Studies article examines Animal Crossing: New Horizons through interviews and a survey of nearly 2,000 players. The paper describes how players used the game for routine substitution, social connectivity, agency, and personas during a period of social isolation. Its historical context is specific, but the design observation travels: a place can feel social because it holds traces of people’s choices between visits.

A waiting world creates a different rhythm from a match that exists only while everyone is online. The player can contribute a small act, leave, and return to a world that has continuity.

Sources1Source 1Comerford, C. (2021). Coconuts, custom-play & COVID-19: Social isolation, serious leisure and personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Persona Studies, 6(2), 101–117.

Custom play gives players a role that the rules do not fully prescribe. One person becomes the gardener, another the host, another the collector, another the person who arranges a corner for visitors. These roles are not required to finish the game, which is why they can become meaningful rather than merely functional.

This is a form of autonomy. The system offers affordances, but the player decides what kind of person they want to be inside the space. Relatedness can then grow through the stories those choices make possible.

Sources1Source 1Comerford, C. (2021). Coconuts, custom-play & COVID-19: Social isolation, serious leisure and personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Persona Studies, 6(2), 101–117.2Source 2Przybylski, A. K., Rigby, C. S., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). A motivational model of video game engagement. Review of General Psychology, 14(2), 154–166.

OutBrick is intentionally not a social feed. Still, a puzzle can become a shared object when someone explains the bottleneck, drops a challenge into a Messages thread, or asks a friend how they read the same shape. Game Center challenges go to someone you actually know. The board is a small place for interpretation.

The journal extends that space. We write about design choices so a player can see the thinking around the game, not just its surface. The goal is to make a solitary pause feel connected to a larger practice of noticing.

Sources1Source 1Comerford, C. (2021). Coconuts, custom-play & COVID-19: Social isolation, serious leisure and personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Persona Studies, 6(2), 101–117.3Source 3Sra, M., & Schmandt, C. (2015). Expanding social mobile games beyond the device screen. MIT Media Lab.

The kindest shared spaces do not demand identical schedules. They leave a trace that can be picked up later, and they make room for different levels of participation. A person can visit for five minutes, decorate one corner, or simply see what changed.

That is a useful standard for OutBrick’s wider ecosystem: every board should stand on its own, while the stories around the boards give players more ways to feel accompanied.

Sources1Source 1Comerford, C. (2021). Coconuts, custom-play & COVID-19: Social isolation, serious leisure and personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Persona Studies, 6(2), 101–117.4Source 4Ballou, N., Vuorre, M., Hakman, T., Magnusson, K., & Przybylski, A. K. (2025). Perceived value of video games, but not hours played, predicts mental well-being in casual adult Nintendo players. Royal Society Open Science, 12(3).