The life simulation video game series Animal Crossing, created by Katsuya Eguchi and first released in 2001 by Nintendo, features an assortment of recurring characters. Titles in the series follow the player character as they live in a village populated by anthropomorphic animals, with gameplay that proceeds in a nonlinear fashion and in-game events that occur in real-time. As of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the most recent release in the series, there are over 400 animal characters that can potentially populate a player's village. In addition to these villager characters, Animal Crossing features characters that appear in the villages of all players; these characters typically serve a particular gameplay function, or appear at a specific in-game event.