AI Animal Crossing Hack Turns The Villagers Against Tom Nook

In this article, software engineer Josh Fonseca has created an AI hack for the original Animal Crossing game on GameCube, which turns the villagers against Tom Nook, the raccoon who controls the local economy. Fonseca initially tried to use a single live language model AI to write new dialogue for the characters, but this approach failed. He then set aside one AI program to handle the dialogue, while another program directed its in-game presentation. The hack introduces modern elements, including news about current events, and instructs the AI to depict resentment towards Tom Nook, which grows into unrest among the villagers over time. Although there is no endgame conclusion where the villagers confront Tom, it is a humorous turn of events for these gentle creatures. The article also mentions that Animal Crossing almost had another name that was ultimately rejected, and that the most recent game in the franchise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, received a Switch 2 update earlier this year.