Tomodachi Life Mii Ideas and Island Tools
Making one character is easy. Making forty distinct ones is the hard part. These are fan-made planning aids for exactly that.
Making forty residents that do not blur together
The failure mode of a big cast is sameness. Twenty characters built one after another tend to drift towards the same face, because the parts you reached for last time are the ones you remember. A few habits prevent that.
Vary the silhouette before the details
At the size a character is actually seen, hair shape and face shape are nearly all of the recognition. Two characters with different noses and identical haircuts look like the same person. Two with the same nose and genuinely different haircuts do not. Spend your variety budget on the outline.
Give each one a single hook
One memorable feature beats five subtle ones — the enormous eyebrows, the one bold hair colour, the glasses that are slightly too big. It also makes them easier to describe to somebody else, which matters if you are sharing recipes.
Work from real people, loosely
Basing residents on people you know gives you a natural spread of face shapes you would not have invented. Keep it loose and kind: a character is a caricature, and the ones that land are affectionate rather than accurate.
Batch the boring part
Write the list first — names and one-line notes for everybody — and only then start building. Theisland planner exists for this: planning and building are different moods, and switching between them constantly is what makes a big cast feel like work.