While Animal Crossing games traditionally cast the player as little more than a wandering vagrant, beachcombing and shaking trees for money, Animal Crossing for Nintendo 3DS will see you as mayor. Yes, Mayor Tortimer's reign of tyranny has ended, and players will get to make a few changes around town. You'll probably still end up shaking trees for money, though.

"You can add things like benches and street lamps to make your village look pretty and add character," director Aya Kyoguka revealed of your mayoral duties in a new video roundtable discussion (via Eurogamer). Like much of the tinkering in Animal Crossing, though, developing your town is optional.

As mayor, you'll have the support of a secretary, though Kyoguka jokes, "She's a little clumsy, so I'm not sure how good of a job she can do."

You'll be able to customize the outside of your house more too, changing your walls, fence, and mailbox. Inside, customization has spread to changing furniture, with the ability to, say, change the design on cushions.

If you want a whole new house, the dastardly Tom Nook has set up a model home showroom, with houses collected through StreetPass. We'd recommend, of course, that you carefully read any of his contracts before signing.

The roundtable also has talk of having separate tops and bottoms for clothes, gentlemen wearing skirts, and the performance of a new K.K. Slider song, so do watch: