This one is a backup for my guest post at tanzi-media.com :)

my favorite in-game homes

Hi, I am Ava, and Steven has kindly agreed to do guest posts on each others blogs. You can find his entry on my blog here.

Designing homes within games is something I really love. I remember first playing Sims 1 and 2 with a friend and going wild on all the customization. Of course we often made ourselves and our dream homes - we were just kids, and had almost no control over our real life rooms, much less anything outside of it. Just cheat via 'motherlode' and get all the furniture you want! I wish it was that easy in real life.

Anyway, fast forward, and player housing is actually so common in games of certain genres now. I love farming games, and cozy games in general, so I run into that more often. Due to the sheer freedom of choice in what to include in the homes, it actually says so much about us - why do we choose the things we do? - so I wanted to show the favorite in-game homes of mine and dive a bit deeper!

For the bigger homes, I will limit myself to the important areas because showing it all would probably need an entire family photo album here. :)

Palia

In Palia, you actually get an entire completely empty plot to yourself that you can design, placing buildings (almost) where ever you like. I have a main house, a little crafting area, a little farming area, a bathhouse with a secret custom bedroom under the roof, and an unfinished butterfly sanctuary. Some of them can be seen here from the view when entering the plot:

Entry of my plot

Excuse the weird warping in the shots, Palia's photo mode isn't the best but it's the only way to hide HUD.

The flower arch at the entry is actually not an in-game item, instead it's put together one by one via a glitch where you angle stone cubes with a complicated glitch mechanism you can find on YouTube. You're actually also only supposed to place things within the designated plot boundary which ends at your mailbox, but I have also used glitches to place things in front of and around the mailbox. :)

You'll see this more often in my in-game homes - if I can customize, even out of the bounds of what was intended, I will probably do it.

Standing at the arch, looking to the right to the crafting area

Outside of the bathhouse with two big frog plushies and a few smaller ones

Some of my ingame plushie collection

I display some of my ingame plushie collection in front of the bathhouse.

Here's the inside of the bathhouse, complete with the secret attic:

Inside view of the bathhouse, incomplete, as there is a sauna to the left

Secret overgrown attic with a few flowers and critters

The water is not really ingame water; it's a specific coloring of a specific table, surrounded by manually placed concrete blocks :D The attic is not officially included in the ingame house either. It's done with creating the stairs in the second floor by hand (you can see it on the top left in the bathhouse shot; the staircase on the right is included with the house) and placing floor tiles in-between attic beams. Basically also "glitched", just less severe than the arch.

Coming back to the main house instead, here are some parts of it, namely the bedroom and kitchen:

The bedroom with a fireplace

The kitchen with some of the in-game machinery to cook and a middle island with cooked items

Here's actually one thing you will see more often about my houses: There are crystals and gems displayed, if possible. In Palia, they are in my bathroom window:

The in-game bathroom

Other side of the bathroom

Sorry for the Christmas tree, haven't played in a while ;)

The most important part of my plot is the little spot to remember my late dog, Filou. It has a little lilac pagoda, a bench, a fancy chest, a little urn-like item, candles, flowers plushies and a telescope. I wanted it to be a peaceful place to sit, relax, think of my dog, and look up to the stars. It's close to the river that is on the plot because he loved swimming; sadly, the game doesn't let you build right next to it and I couldn't glitch it.

The memorial for my dog

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I started playing AC:NH on my wife's console years ago, then a year after got my own copy. I tried to recreate my house on my Switch, but it's not completely done and also some rooms turned out different, so here's some rooms from both consoles :)

My wife's console

My entry area with a little kitchen and dining area

This is what it looks like when you enter my home on my wife's switch :) a moon carpet, a little kitchen and some plants.

The other rooms are a pretty plain bathroom, a little witchy/ritual room with butterflies, a sewing room (unpictured, because I love my other one more!), a downstairs greenhouse and an upstairs mermaid room!

The bathroom. I used a changing cabin as a shower.

The witchy room with a northern lights wallpaper

The basement greenhouse

The mermaid room with mermaid wallpaper, mermaid bed, and more pink items, such as the froggy chair

Don't be confused about the date; both Switches have extensively timetraveled, oops. Anyway, the mermaid room is my favorite; it is dark, but glowing, softly pink, and the little pool on the right is adding some flowing water noises. The vinyl player is playing Stale Cupcakes by K.K. Slider from the music you can find :)

My console

The island on my switch has a few more modifications; I have lots of custom stuff so I can make cute paths. One example of an area I love:

Area with a cute pagoda, a custom path, flowers

I also have an unfinished castle.

My castle entrance. Anthymn is the island name.

My house is here:

The area in front of my house has a little waterfall, a small bridge, and the stream has a tiny island that holds a flower in a glass case. There's also lavender and pink roses

The entry area looks a bit different here, but still has a kitchen and an eating area, with a sofa now:

Entry area with kitchen, sofa area

The bathroom is more pink this time and has some better looking items. Bathroom with pink wooden wall, and a pretty luxurious looking sink area

The basement greenhouse and the witchy room are sadly unfinished here, but are supposed to end up looking like the one on my wife's Switch. I'll probably never get to it again, because I am no longer playing, but oh well.

The mermaid room looks the same and also plays the music, because I wanted to keep that exact vibe.

The room I prefer here that I didn't show previously is this one: Room with a pink desk gaming setup and a wardrobe and a big sakura carpet

Basically a computer room with a wardrobe and a big sakura carpet. The other room is similar, but only has a plain laptop and sewing machine. I definitely want this to have a sewing machine as well, though.

Stardew Valley

I actually have multiple save files in Stardew, but this is the save with the longest playtime and the biggest house that I consider finished, so I'll show this one! Starting from the top right, then going left, then going down and going to the bottom right. You'll see the bedroom, the crystal room, a cozy reading room with a fireplace and an aquarium (empty for now), a kitchen area full of junimos, a living room, and a plant room/greenhouse area with a big junimo.

Top right showing the bedroom and crystal room the most, displaying crystals on little tables

Picture focusing on reading area with aquarium and showing a little of the kitchen

Showing the entirety of the kitchen and the living room

Plant area with some crystals and a big junimo

I love this house and consider it my only real truly finished house I am happy with, I think! Wouldn't change a thing.

Conclusion

I have so many more in-game rooms; maybe I'll do a part two one day. I would also include my home in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but sadly it's nowhere near done because I only started playing a little while ago.

In general, my game homes often feature crystals, plants, plushies and something pink. I love when I can make the lighting more indirect and cozy by using some some glowing items or wallpapers, or the rooms have lots of big windows. Fits my real life home (though that one is not nearly as pink). I even have crystals on a shelf myself.

About the author

I usually write about my life and my opinions on tech and data protection law. I also share my little notebook drawings and other projects I'm working on. Other game posts I made are about finding kindness in Palia, or trying out drinks from one of my favorite games: Coffee Talk. :) I have a website that has a terminal you can play around with, too.

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Published 27 Jul, 2025