Update, May 1: Now that I’ve had some more free time and gotten far enough in the game, I’ve uploaded each of my Penn State designs (as well as a few Phillies caps) to Animal Crossing’s creator portal.

To download them for yourself, head over to the Able Sisters’ shop on your island and fire up the kiosk in the back of the store. From there, enter my Creator ID (MA-1250-2607-5371, as found below) and pick your favorites to download!

Original Story: In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, a little game called Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken the world by storm ever since it was released on March 20.

Like previous games in the series, New Horizons sends players to their own desert islands to build a town, meet neighbors, and take advantage of the world around you in order to move up in the world. Typical tasks include fishing, hunting bugs, buildings homes, and crafting furniture items.

New Horizons also grants players the ability to customize textures and use them as patterns and designs on clothes and furniture. You have complete creative control over what you make, so long as you can make it!

Naturally, as a Penn State student sorely missing Happy Valley, its people, and its iconic style, I took it upon myself to recreate classic Penn State outfits that remind me of home.

After countless hours in the game’s Custom Designs app, I achieved peak Charlie Kelly energy and descended into a term coined by my father: pixel madness. I now see life in pixels. I have become one with the pixel. The pixel is me and I am it.

Without further ado, here’s what I came up with.

Classic Chipmunk Logo

The first design I set out to make is an absolute classic, a staple if you will: the Nittany Lions’ athletic logo. It’s incredibly tough to draw on paper, but the transition to pixel art wasn’t too bad despite the logo’s complexity.

The biggest challenge is the Nittany Lion’s many curves, which are tough to create using square pixels. While it’s nowhere near my favorite design I’ve made, I felt I couldn’t truly create a Penn State wardrobe without it.

Penn State Letterman Jacket

Ever wanted to rock one of those sweet Penn State letterman jackets? Now’s your chance! By designing your very own letterman jacket, you can match the impeccable drip student-athletes ooze when traversing around campus in these bad boys.

Featuring just a giant white S and a few buttons down the side, this was perhaps the easiest design I made. It’s a nice subtle nod to Penn State without getting all up-in-your face about it.

Blue Band Uniform

As a self-proclaimed washed-up drummer and lifelong Blue Band groupie, I couldn’t help but recreate the Blue Band’s iconic uniform in New Horizons. I paired the sweater with a baseball cap featuring the band’s iconic logo and a saxophone to tie the ensemble together.

The trickiest part of this design was the interlocking P and S. I just didn’t have enough physical space to faithfully recreate the logo. However, I’m pretty damn proud of this one!

Penn State Football Jersey

Look, I couldn’t make a line of Penn State outfits without including a football jersey. That’s just the way it is, folks.

Naturally, I selected Saquon Barkley for my first jersey and a Nittany Lion on the collar, a Nike swoosh on the shoulder, and an authentic jersey tag in the bottom corner fully authenticate the design. I did not, however, include the ugly patch celebrating college football’s 150th season. That’s gross.

An Extremely Funny Tailgate Outfit

Did you miss being the ironic guy at tailgates who thought he was soooo funny by wearing one of these beauties? Now’s your chance to reclaim the throne, King.

It’s simple and even somewhat boring, but unexpectedly elegant. A classic “Penn State Grandpa” t-shirt oozes finesse, and I’d be remiss not to include it in my wardrobe. Now that you can have your very own, round up your villagers and retake your title as Funny Tailgate Guy.

THON 2020: Journey Together

Believe it or not, we’re just weeks removed from THON 2020, which raised $11,696,942.33 for the kids. And although I’m still on that post-pep rally high, I didn’t get a chance to pick up a shirt during the weekend and set out to create a digital version instead.

This was perhaps the toughest design to piece together from scratch. Although I did have a logo to look at while working, it’s tougher than you’d think to draw two astronauts standing on the rings of Saturn on a 32 x 32 grid. Now that you can have your very own virtual swag, it’s almost as if THON never ended!

New Student Convocation Shirt

While we’re all sitting at home, it’s hard not to think back on the wonderful memories you made up at Penn State. Why not take a trip back to your first? That’s right, baby. I’m talking about New Student Convocation!

You know the drill. Each student receives a t-shirt featuring a specific color and logo pertaining to their respective academic colleges. Naturally, I created my own featuring a bold red hue for the College of Comm.

This was the first design where I really set out to utilize lighter and darker colors to emphasize shading, and I think it really helped to flesh out the lion and bring the logo to life. I’m definitely proudest of this design.

Onward State Hoodie

A shameless plug never hurt anyone. And in this business, if you’ve got a good logo, you’d be an idiot not to flaunt it at each and every opportunity.

I set out to do just that by faithfully recreating Onward State’s logo from scratch. Complete with his striped scarf and goofy grin, the Lion looks especially fun on this Onward State-themed hoodie. I mean, who wouldn’t want to rep the world’s most-followed student media outlet on their desert island?

The Willard Preacher’s Sweatshirt

Last but not least is the Willard Preacher’s iconic red sweatshirt. Gary Cattell reps this bad boy quite often when speaking at his stoop outside Willard Building throughout the year, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s weird seeing him without it on.

Although he’ll be offering virtual sermons this spring while students are stuck at home, donning the Preacher’s iconic hoodie might help you feel a little more at home in the coming weeks (months?).

---

After a few days of experimenting, I realized there’s truly no limit to what you can create in New Horizons. Hopefully, these outfits will help bring a small piece of Penn State home with you while you’re away from Happy Valley.