Background: In the game “Animal Crossing New Horizons”, your character develops an island and builds up his/her house using a currency called “Bells”. Bells allow you to upgrade your house and buy many items in the game. You can make Bells by selling things like fruit, seashells and various other items. One feature of the game that lets you earn Bells has to do with “Turnips”. Basically, every Sunday, a character called Daisy Mae shows up to sell you Turnips. You can then sell the Turnips at the Nook’s Cranny(store). Throughout the week, the selling price of Turnips will keep changing. If you manage to sell the Turnips you bought for more than what you spent on them, you make a profit. You will have a starting capital of 5,000 Bells to begin your quest to 1 million in 20 weeks.
Mechanics: • Buying Turnips – Every Sunday, Daisy Mae would visit to sell you Turnips. Each week the buying price would randomly be different. She would sell them to you for a minimum price of 90 Bells and the maximum price of 110 Bells. You can only buy Turnips in stacks of 10. So if you buy 1 stack at 90 Bells, you’d be spending 900 Bells. You can buy as long as you have bells to spend. You may also choose to not buy at all. • Selling Turnips – You can sell your Turnips at Nook’s Cranny(store). The buying price randomly changes each day. Try to sell your Turnips for more than what you bought them to make a profit. You are not allowed to sell Turnips on Sunday. You get to decide how many stacks to sell throughout the week. You can only sell in stacks! You are not allowed to sell individual Turnips. If you no longer have any Turnip stacks during the week, the days will skip forward and you will not be asked if you want to sell.
Figure 1. Daisy Mae visits every Sunday to sell Turnips
Figure 2. Selling Turnips at Nook's Cranny
Images are screenshots from the Nintendo Switch game “Animal Crossing New Horizons” • Day Cycles – The week starts on Sunday(Day 1) and the last day of the week is Saturday(Day 7). Each day, the new price will be displayed and the user will be asked whether they want to sell turnips or not. After the action is completed, the day ends. • Turnips Going Bad – If you have any unsold Turnips before the following Sunday arrives, it will spoil and can no longer be sold. So if you don’t want to waste your Turnips, Saturday is the last day you can sell. The player will be notified if any Turnips go bad. • Weekly Price Trend – Each week the pricing in Nook’s Cranny will be influenced by this. The trend for each week will be random. This will be hidden from the player. There will be 3 different trends: o Average Trend – The pricing for the week for this trend will have a minimum of the 80 Bells and a maximum of a 5% increase of the Sunday price. o Awesome Trend – The pricing for the week for this trend will have a minimum of the Sunday price and a maximum of 300% of the Sunday price. o Bad Trend – The pricing for the week for this trend will have a minimum price of 20 Bells and have a maximum of the Sunday price.
• End and Goal – You only have 20 weeks to make 1 million (1,000,000) Bells. The game will end after the 20th week whether you complete this goal or not. A message congratulating the player will be displayed if he/she makes the goal, otherwise display a try again message before the program ends. The game will also end if you do not have enough Bells to buy at least 1 stack of Turnips(10 Turnips).