In truth, I have no experience of playing any Animal Crossing titles, only just seen them on video trailers and from shares from friends.
So the real inspiration for this game is Harvest Moon, which I enjoyed and finished when I was young. Just switching it up with build mechanics and simplified harvesting.
As for the time, I spent the first days just creating the art assets and didn't really bother creating a prototype. For the character, it doesn't use complicated rig controls, just simple skeleton and IK for the legs were enough. I'm also a proud user of Playmaker (a visual scripting tool), making it fast, fun and less messy to program the game. Plus, I wake up early and sleep late so I could be more productive.
So I believe those helped me in making all this possible within the time-frame.
Thanks so much for checking out the game, I will also look into your game. 😊 👍