I used to write a diary about my life many years ago, but let’s be honest – I don’t have the most exciting life, and so it wasn’t the most exciting diary. I kept one for a few years, and last time I was home I looked back to see what had changed, and naturally it was quite a lot. I won’t go into that here, though.

The idea of keeping a diary for a game first occured to me when I was waiting for Sega’s genius RPG Shining Force III on the Sega Saturn. It seemed so enormous that I’d need to create some kind of guide book or journal to help me through it, so I planned different chapters: characters, weapons, magic and a diary of the game. Somewhere I have a list of all the magic resistances, special moves and items, but I never actually wrote down a diary of what I saw and when.

Anyway, the idea stuck with me: I liked the notion of creating something to accompany a game, but few games I played seemed suited to the diary format. That is, of course, until I discovered Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.

I haven’t kept diaries for them throughout my whole playing experience, but I wrote for two consecutive (virtual) years of Harvest Moon, and dipped in and out of Animal Crossing when I got into it.

The one thing I always tried to do with my diaries was keep them authentic; although the characters obviously don’t exist, I still enjoyed writing from the perspective of the main character, and tried to keep it all consistent as though it were a real diary I had discovered. It was a lot of fun to write, and hopefully it’ll be good fun to read too!

Diaries:

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (Gamecube).

Pro Evolution Soccer 4: Landgraff United’s Konami Cup campaign

I haven’t found another site that has a Harvest Moon diary – if you know of one, please let me know in a comment. If you have a diary for another game – any game at all – please share it with me too!