// Articles // 9th Mar 2022 — 3 years ago // By Violet Plata

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Event Challenge #2

Welcome back to another entry of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Event Challenge! This month we have a bunch of spring items with tiny themes — such as giant poppies — to work with. When I first saw this was the theme set for the Gardening event I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, especially considering I managed to do last month's challenges, which were out of my comfort zone. Well, I was wrong, and it took me six hours in total to find something I was comfortable with and liked enough. Now, before we begin, I wanted to mention that I will put a list with links to all the items I used from the collection I’ve acquired throughout the years at the end of the article, so feel free to check that out if you find something you like (as much as Marshal loves his honey)! As for anyone interested in a video showcase of the camp, you can find it here.

Onto the challenge — this time, I tried two designs: a garden at the very back that spread out to the sides in a maze-like fashion, and a maze with gardens in it. The problem with the first one was that the maze and garden ended a bit abruptly, leaving me with more than half the camp without a connected design to the rest. Aside from that, I couldn't find where to place half the items in a way I felt wasn't just cheating out the event, as they were placed aside or in very hidden areas. Once I had saved and could safely try again, I felt a bit more confident and deleted everything so I could start from scratch. This time it clicked as I focused more on the maze theme of it and less on the garden aspect, giving way to play around with the different elements that they gave during the event.

The main issue with these items were the giant poppies. Their design is awkward as they don't really look good (to me) in any of the directions, and they are a 2x2 item, which makes them difficult to put in little nooks and crannies as I was trying to place them; I like hiding such big flowers so they look like part of the environment, not so much a centrepiece in the design. I ended up leaving them as the last item to place as it was difficult enough with the different coloured patches of flowers, which were causing a disparity in the colour palette of the items.

That being said, the rest of the design was semi-easy to make once I got the maze theme down. I ended up having to make about 10 more of the hedges I used to fill in all the empty spaces enough and mixing-and-matching a few other furniture pieces at the bottom of the camp area to fill in the blanks. This time around, I had to use way more items from my inventory as everything I got from the event was more of a side item than an actual base for a design. I appreciated it as I am always happy to find excuses to use the things I've collected.

All in all, I am satisfied enough with what I was able to design off the event items; however, I do wish I could have chosen to buy more of the hyacinths as they are one of the prettier rewards for the event. I also feel a bit sad I wasn't able to put as many little hints of a tiny world as I usually do in these types of campsites, such as placing ginormous items like the Cable Spool.

Well, that is all for the Gardening event items of this month! Did you like my maze garden design? What did you design yourself? Feel free to tell me in a comment below, tweet at me, or even join us in the official GameGrin Discord! Don’t forget to check below for any items that might have caught your eye.