Overachieving the Happy Room Academy Score

[@Hunter-R.]

This video is a bit late since I ran into some awful audio corruption while exporting the original video and despite my efforts trying to recover the original audio file, it was extremely distorted... So some audio here may sound a bit rushed since my entire voiceover here was re-recorded and re-spliced together to match my edits in just one day... 😮‍💨

[@kfcreviewer2310]

I was wondering, are you in need for an editor? Asking for a friend 👀

[@lemonsquish3333]

Sounds just fine!

[@Hunter-R.]

@@kfcreviewer2310 Perhaps in the future, but not at this moment. I enjoy most of the editing process myself, and I'm not currently tasked to hire/manage an editor and ensure the editing style is consistent. I'm still just operating this channel for fun as a hobby, but I'll keep it in mind if this turns into something more substantial!

[@austinpoznoski3083]

i just watched the whole video without noticing so your edits definitely worked

[@Turnip199]

losing my mind at the cartoonish "just push the walls to expand your house" glitch

[@TFSned]

"You live like an animal"? These animals have much nicer homes than mine.

[@Chubby_Bub]

Cuyler figured out the scores for each villager's home. The highest scoring villager home is Queenie with 99,644 points (she has a more-than-complete Chess Theme, and its pieces are already worth a decent amount). The lowest scoring is Pompom, with… 0. She would have 1,484 but got 1,600 points deducted for having all her furniture face south!

[@dannyboots]

HRA is Omni Man kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHrGe4Gvpq-jedEsi=eUEHA_bIgr6W7N8X

[@Most-sane-deltarune-fan]

@@Chubby_Bub Poor Pompom.

[@renakunisaki]

I'd be pretty impressed too if I saw flying Nintendos, tables merged into the walls, and objects that are somehow beyond the walls yet still inside the house.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

And even if I _wasn't_ impressed, I think I'd give them a good score anyway because I don't want to upset whatever occult creatures are causing such mayhem!

[@dizzy_eevee]

one point value joke you didn't mention: the snowman series gets 888 because 8 looks like a snowman :>

[@iamsushi1056]

11:13 "never have we seen such stunningly original interior design!" jesh, that's true

[@skyeschlueter9877]

I wouldn't exactly call it "truly a fine home", though.

[@TheIrishDino]

Another great video! I love how the HRA has a laughably poor taste in interior design. If I walked into a house with 48 copies of Wario's Woods in it I'd assume the home owner was insane. Despite the audio corruption in rendering, I still think this video was as high quality as all your others so far!

[@princegoatcheese9379]

Man, one thing I don't miss from Animal Crossing NGC is the emotional beatdown from those HRA letters.

[@Kemnekluglenbrigstert]

Were there in-game hints dropped by villagers about HRA scoring rules? Specific enough that a player could reasonably be expected to work this out without outside research? Because I remember finding these letters completely inscrutable as a kid, and eventually ignoring them. I think maybe I realised that furniture that shared a theme was good, but didn’t realise the severe penalty of going outside it? I don’t remember any villager saying “I hear the HRA loves retro gaming, better get an NES!” But maybe? As a kid, I was just so confused

[@soranuareane]

I've been addicted to getting a high score in ACNH, my current score is 509,444. Unless I discover something novel that I'm missing, I'm happy with this score.

[@HEALORDER]

not to be rude but unless there’s proof, i’m finding it hard to believe that you beat the current world record

[@soranuareane]

@@HEALORDER wait there's a record? where? I'll grab a picture from my switch tomorrow. It's like 511k right now (added another frozen set to the basement) I completely agree with your skepticism, there's absolutely no reason you should believe me without proof 🙃I'll upload a screenshot tomorrow and reply here with it.

[@user-vw4xp5nt9f]

links dont work anymore lol

[@pageclayton6850]

​@@soranuareane if you have the proof, why not submit it to the world record leaderboard

[@gabrielbetances6299]

They said that score was in New Horizons, this video discusses the original animal crossing game​@@HEALORDER

[@lemonsquish3333]

Wonderful as always, maybe someday someone will set up an algorithm and the best rooms can be calculated?

[@Hunter-R.]

Honestly, Brian's calculation for the glitchless record is seemingly flawless. I could not find a better way to improve it, and his layout utilizes a pretty perfect combination of lucky items, tables, etc. to get a high score. An external program to experiment with the HRA layout without having to do so in-game would be fun, but I'm honestly not even sure if anyone can beat Brian's score!

[@minirop]

have been asking myself exactly that after watching Brian's video. (at least for the glitchless score)

[@Ultimaximus]

@@Hunter-R. Be careful, or else when there's a new record and people say "This achievement was thought to be impossible, but that was proven wrong", you'll be that one person who had said it was impossible. Someone could also just discover some new glitch too.

[@Wulzy]

Unbelievably good video. Mad props

[@Hunter-R.]

Appreciate it! :)

[@ChaosUnown]

I loooooove hearing all these small, interesting technical bits about my favorite AC game. I do hope this can keep up!

[@KittyCatKayden]

For some reason, this makes me want to place a furniture item out of bounds in my house just to make it strange.

[@KittyCatKayden]

I tried, but failed.

[@KittyCatKayden]

Actually, I managed to do it (and change everything in the normal area back to normal since it was a frustrating mess and I had to move and remove a lot of stuff)

[@Totavier]

Pretty interesting to know this glitches, I knew the table one but only for get out in the boundaries, I didn't know that you can put items over the items and break the walls limits. Also good to know the HRA world's record for both aspects: normal and glitchy, that makes my highest record that I got in the game (153K and something in points) looks so small, lol!.

[@yosteggas]

I always get excited when I see a new upload of yours in my recommended!

[@dsouth7754]

Whoa, wait, HRA doesn't stand for _Hoarder Room Academy?_ We've all been doing it wrong!

[@kysorensen3201]

Kids wake up, Hunter R just posted :D

[@Delus1on_L]

Dude, just wanted to say, respect for the editing and time in your videos, especially for the typical 1 week upload schedule. Each video feels professional, concise, too the point, not over-the-top, and overall amazing. That, and the topics interest me (so maybe some bias lol) but yeah, it’s incredible, and you are kind of inspiring me to start doing my own videos with this kind of determination and effort with consistency. Keep it up dude 👏😄

[@Mogswamp]

Yeah the production quality and upload schedule combined are insane

[@MartyTuro]

Bro gonna make me start a save in this game again

[@snarkatryta]

Weird thing I need to state: in the mobile game the HHA is Present from memory (it might not be now)

[@ZynSays]

surely someone out there has replicated the scoring code for themself and done an automated search for the true optimal possible arrangement by now, right?

[@Frn1]

I was just about to comment the exact same thing. I mean, it seems like the obvious next step.

[@ZynSays]

@@Frn1 honestly, if I could reverse-engineer confidently enough to find the right part of the original game code, i would take a crack at it myself

[@Qvorum]

What about the reverse, the LOWEST score you can get?

[@bobbob1876]

0. I was using a character for storage and I think I emptied his house when I logged off for the day. The HRA says something like, "Frankly, we're horrified!"

[@KatJustice97]

Idk what the music you use for your intro is, but it reminds me of the jingle that plays in Dark Cloud for PS2 when you feed a character the Apple of Eden, which increases their health by 10 HP. It's insanely nostalgic every time, even though they're not the same jingle

[@Hunter-R.]

It’s actually a rendition little jingle that plays when you hover over Animal Crossing New Leaf on the 3DS main menu!

[@JamesTDG]

I think the only way this can be busted wide open is if they make an online tool to lay out furniture to calculate better scores. (And at that point, we might as well run an algorithm to attempt to find the highest possible scoring layout)

[@EeveeFromAlmia]

Do you think that in-universe that someone comes into your house like they say or if it’s just an algorithm that scores and sends the letters out? I’ve always assumed the latter: it makes sense and is just super funny. HRA also sell you home decorating books and courses hint hint hint

[@BreadCrisp]

Can you do a video on animal crossing for your next video

[@Most-sane-deltarune-fan]

That's literally what he does videos about. All of his videos are literally of Animal Crossing.

[@Bupboy]

​@@Most-sane-deltarune-fandawg it was a joke how did you not detect that 😭😭

[@Most-sane-deltarune-fan]

@@Bupboy I knew it was a joke. I was just checking.

[@GreaterJan]

This has quickly become one of my favorite channels, keep up the good work! 😊

[@supervitu64]

you can move walls with TABLES!?

[@diannakerns1404]

Great video, keep up the good work.

[@NinF37]

How do you get some of the textures to look HD? Are you using a texture pack of some sort? Would love to contribute if so

[@Hunter-R.]

It is indeed an HD texture pack, custom drawn by a very talented group of people. I added info in the description!

[@NinF37]

@@Hunter-R. thank you so much!!

[@banannie2002]

Keep up the great work man!! I love your videos!

[@zellfaze]

So wait, we know the formula to generate the scores and we know the rules of what the game allows. I feel like some software could be written to search for the highest possible glitchless score. Not sure how long a search it would be though.

[@Hunter-R.]

You can definitely program this out yourself, but it isn't too hard to calculate it yourself logically if you understand each furniture's point values. It turns out there's a fairly specific subset of items that yield the highest scores and bonuses. Thus, I'm near certain Brian's current glitchless record is the highest possible given everything listed here.

[@kingbrettpro]

Hi Hunter, can you send me your version of the AC NES Creator that you made that allows FDS games to actually work in Animal Crossing as QD files? I've always wanted to play The Lost Levels in AC.

[@Hunter-R.]

Send me an email and I can help you out.

[@kingbrettpro]

@@Hunter-R. All right.

[@kingbrettpro]

@@Hunter-R. Ok, I think I got your Email address right, hopefully you got my email. If only you had a Discord server, this would be a lot easier. Just saying.

[@Hunter-R.]

For now you can reach me through email or Twitter, since I actually use Discord for my family, personal friends, coding projects, and even some actual work related to my job. I’ll probably end up making server eventually, but for now I’d like to keep my Discord relatively private for personal use. Anyways, I don’t seem to have any message from you. You can find my email and Twitter on my channel, so if you contact me through there I can help out.

[@nicolaszarco1752]

Bro for a hot second I thought you were added to smash wtf is wrong with me 😭😭😭😭🥸

[@jeffreeds4003]

I'm here sir

[@hotchomper5259]

m

[@ProCraftGamin]

the fact that you can move walls with tables is crazy, makes me wonder how the walls were programmed, if its basically exactly the same as an item without being able to move it, or something else entirely

[@davidmcgill1000]

it's just item 0xFFFE placed on the bottom 2 layers of the house map. They surround the room except at the positions containing the map transition items.

[@Lemony123]

@@davidmcgill1000 wait, so map transition is also an item?

[@MidnightThunderYT]

@@Lemony123 Sure sounds that way.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

@@Lemony123 or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the "map transition trigger/spawner" is an item, rather the the transition itself?

[@ariel_chess]

Why make a special collision system if you can just use what you already made?

[@spontman]

My jaw DROPPED when you showed that the walls are objects that can be moved! Really bizarre that it was programmed that way, but I guess that's how game development goes sometimes. Fascinating stuff!

[@vap1777]

As someone who does game dev and game modding for a hobby, even popular games are often held together with duct tape or as we call it in game dev “clever tricks”. Lol.

[@Chubby_Bub]

@@vap1777This is especially true for Animal Crossing not just because of the way it was programmed (oddly at times, to say the least) but because it was modified so many times without any refactoring. The 64DD was cancelled so it had to be adapted for N64, then wrapped inside a GameCube program to port it while changing and adding a bunch of content, then changing/adding content again for the international version, and then again for e+! It’s kind of insane it works…

[@mouserella]

hey man, just wanted to say thanks for including subtitles on your videos. english isn't my first language and i often mishear words so it's just really nice to see it available :) great vid as always!

[@UltraHylia]

Never been too big on the HRA (just let me decorate my home in peace/without bombarding me with letters 😅), however this was a pretty interesting watch and the wall collision glitch is very cool haha

[@blakksheep736]

0:23 trying to use "you live like an animal" as an insult in the world of _Animal Crossing..._ doesn't really work, they know that?

[@SniperOnSunday]

It kind of comes off as racist NGL

[@clementpruvost8670]

The HRA is just some Twitter users council meeting at this point in this game.

[@mcrarburger]

happy room academy is not very happy :(

[@CodyAnimatez]

ima start a chain i will eat your message bc you are hamborger happy room academy is not very happy :

[@ross3695_basedhax]

The items look like they're landing on top of the room so maybe the actual tables have their own height for items on them, but because the NES won't have a set height that's probably why they go on the ceiling instead

[@renakunisaki]

Might even be that non-tables have their height set to max so there's no room to put things on top?

[@danieljansen8708]

More like crappy room academy with that scoring system ! Those room setups could never be as handsome as you are !

[@alt0248]

Ah yes, the gamification of appeasing an hoa.

[@jeasydj123]

tbh I feel like I don't care at all about hha points in new horizons due to how advanced the decorating is, I'd rather just make it look nice according to my own tastes. BUT in older games like City Folk, I actually do it properly (not to the extreme at least) and pay attention to the feng shui colour rules too. I guess because of how simple the decoration is compared to NH fuels the motivation to actually arrange the furniture according to what scores higher.

[@adamrichardlimb]

I'm surprised the AC community hasn't tried to write some code for the max points. In the world of algorithms this is known as 'bin-packing'. At the very least, I think a bin-packing algorithm could try and find the optimal solution for the glitchless category.

[@kevin-bf4ww]

the relevant items in the original AC game number in the dozen(s), of maybe 500 furniture pieces, the highest bonuses are from full sets of furniture, or from individual special items which can be placed on tables or not small sets which have tables (glitchless) or any items which can be used as tables when glitching the only thing that may not have been considered was stacking 2x2 tables from some sets in at the corners of the house, but it seems like you can only free up the lower right corner with the movable walls glitch as you cant move the top or left wall objects? so you can only use one 2x2 table per expandable room where you can glitch the walls you'd need to closer examine the movable walls glitch to find a way to include more 2x1 or 2x2 tables along the walls, or more 2x2 objects along the walls we don't see it in the footage here but presumptively they use a 2x2 arwing or such in the WR outside the corner

[@adamrichardlimb]

@@kevin-bf4ww I might do this and just focus on glitchless currently, since it's a much easier problem to solve. If I do and it works, then we can consider what is available in non-glitchless. I don't want to underestimate the challenge, but once we find the layout which maximises available space for points - we should just be able to do the same thing as with non-glitchless. There might be additional considerations for *which* 2x1 or 2x2 table we choose to put out of bounds but we can decide that before we run the algorithm. Which may add time, but we only need a good answer once.

[@novelezra]

Ain't gonna lie... If I entered someone's room and it was filled with NES games? I'd say they'd scored ; ) P.S Please do a Christmas video. Your stuff is super cozy. It would be perfect.

[@jackpumpoen]

just wanna say thanks as always for the video. recently brought you up in a discussion about video essay culture on youtube since youve got such a good ethic going of well-researched videos that arent any longer or shorter than they need to be. one thing that i do wish you brought back was those posts on your websites which had some extended notes and a list of sources used, primarily for the latter point. its nice to see a specific area for crediting things used, both for the point of intellectual integrity and ease of access for those who want to do further research. i understand thats a lot of work though so do whatever you want, ill keep watching no matter what.

[@Hunter-R.]

I honestly didn’t think many people looked at my website or notes at all, so I appreciate you checking them out! You’re right that I mostly stopped updating the website due to lack of time. Doing research, writing a script, recording footage/voiceover, editing it all, and making thumbnails and subtitles every week takes quite a bit of effort already. I also have a job working full time as a programmer, which makes these videos already somewhat time-crunching. I try to include some relevant sources in the description and within the video itself. In this video for example, I reference Nookipedia and Brian’s HRA research as the main creditors. It would be nice to have my own website post for every video with additional reading, but I’ll probably only make time to post those for truly substantial discoveries that I actually commit a lot of time to unveiling myself. More of these will come in due time and I have at least two projects of this type in the works, so I’ll definitely be making website posts about those. Maybe if I find time on a random weekend I’ll go back and make some posts/additional reading material about past videos I’ve done, but we’ll see… Either way, thank you for always watching and commenting! I’m really glad you enjoy my content and the fact that you took the time to check out my website/notes is awesome. Sorry for the long comment! 😄

[@candlewispss]

Love how the hra just breaks into people's houses to score them and no one in animal crossing canon seems to care lol

[@renakunisaki]

That's silly. They just use hidden cameras!

[@LupisLight]

I don't know if I'd call it 'breaking in', when anyone can just walk through your front door at any given time. The other villagers can lock their doors when they are out and about, but Tom Nook apparently neglects to put any kind of lock on YOUR door at any point.

[@candlewispss]

@@renakunisaki that's almost more horrifying

[@hlavco]

A few pieces of villager dialogue comment on it.

[@Ad-im1ne]

@@hlavcoYeah I think one says how creepy it is to have someone judging your house while you sleep in it… kinda sums up my thoughts on HRA.

[@CatsGoVroom]

Please never stop making videos. I've been watching them since you only had a few hundred subscribers and I'm excited to see your channel continuously growing. I always look forward to your new videos!

[@lemon_robot]

Babe wake up new Hunter R video just dropped

[@goofball236]

I legit thought the thumbnail was a smash envelope 😭

[@foxtailedcritter]

The point between gamming for fun and insanity (ie max points, glitches, time runs) is a fine line that blurs together. Glad we both share this insanity that the developer(s) didn't intend but we enjoy pushing the limits. Welcome to the nuthouse. Grab your straight jacket and hopefully your map wont spawn paper planes.

[@TheEccentricMage]

The return of the king

[@noahhastings6145]

The HRA has no cap on score? So theoretically, we could overflow the score buffer?

[@nagashiiii]

Again, loving the content - greatly put together videos and well written!

[@KatJustice97]

Aw man. I'm out of your videos to watch. Guess I'll just have to subscribe and wait for more ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@SomeplaceScary]

My AC homes always look like cursed antique stores so I always get bad scores, lmao.

[@Lunascaped]

Walls being objects is insane, great video as always!

[@HmmmmmLemmeThinkNo]

Incredible!!

[@jansenart0]

I predict a meteoric rise for this channel.

[@UltimateFunBilly]

What about other known tricks to boost your score, such as Fang Shoe?

[@Hunter-R.]

Feng shui doesn’t boost your HRA score in the original GameCube game.

[@VanillaScoopYGO]

god damn i love this channel

[@purelaziness7095]

I have nothing useful to add but I love your videos so here's an offering for the algorithm gods! keep up the good work sir

[@Pheoniex]

Something that really upsets me about the new horizons dlc is that you can just throw down the minimum items and get poki super fast and they can't tell! How come new horizons, population growing and the other games have that happy room academy be able to do that but nintendo had to be SO LAZY with their dlc?!

[@MidnightThunderYT]

Brilliant Video, very enjoyable! (Apparently, this is comment 100 on this video, which is pretty cool.)

[@idontwantahandlethough]

This is awesome bro! Love these videos :)

[@oliversmith7560]

Yaaaay more animal crossing

[@Ideabot_69]

fun fact: the original Animal Crossing has a JoJo's reference! the Moody Blue shirt has a price of 123 Bells, so it's Abbacchio's stand name and Mista's fear of 4!

[@eak8756]

do you play on emulator?

[@Hunter-R.]

For recordings I use Dolphin and an HD texture pack, but I have a 13-year save file I play with normally on my GameCube.

[@ElTaitronAnim]

You've got a really great channel, your videos are interesting, high-quality, and you have a great voice to listen to. Keep up the great work!

[@parmesanzero7678]

So why hasn’t someone given the whole list and grid to an AI and had it work out the optimal layout?

[@indignasmr7379]

I don't think there are enough variables that it calls for the full weight of an AI hammer. A GPU could probably brute force the true answer(s) faster than it could train an AI. Make assumptions about your data and you'll be fast (:

[@chadmasta5]

I always think about the joke they mede for the nook code for the lovely stereo. I'm surprised they were allowed to slip a swear in without the game's rating being affected. dhoDamnHRADoes . NotLikeMyHouse

[@hlavco]

The way the codes work, many different letter arrangements can be accepted as valid codes. They aren't individually specified values.

[@chadmasta5]

@@hlavco That's how the trading ones work but there are too many coincidences in some of them for me to think they're not intentional. Like The cabana dresser just being Playstation 1 (PlaystationonE PyaystationonE) The parquet floor (Nintendoistheb estgamecompany) The gaudy sweater saying "Dennis Miller is so damn awesome" (DennisMillerIsSokDamnAwtsqme) The tall lantern being Playstation one Playstation 2 (PlaystationonE PlaystationTwO) The regal bookcase being Nintendo GameCube are number one (NintendoGamecu bearenumberone) And the list goes on.

[@Hunter-R.]

Sorry to be the bringer of lame news, but these codes were not set this way by the developers. Rather, they were generated by players by reverse engineering the game’s Nook Code algorithms and purposefully finding character sequences that spell out funny things. This may seem somewhat unrealistic, but there are a ridiculous amount of possible Nook Codes - even more than the amount of stars in the known universe, so it’s not too surprising that some can spell out funny things and still be valid. In a similar manner, “quick” Nook Codes can be generated which are just a few characters long and are repeated for the entire password to help with speedrunning. The method for generating these codes was discovered pretty early in the game’s life, so any code you see online is almost certainly not an official one by Nintendo.

[@chadmasta5]

@@Hunter-R. I don't think that news is lame at all! I guess I underestimated just how "customizable" codes were because of the 2 bit checksum. I'm always happy to learn further how things work.