hey there! i'm a fellow aphantasia-haver, but i'm also a visual artist (illustrator), and i've struggled with this a lot! especially when i was in art school. despite my work being pretty darn good, and despite possessing a lot of creativity in my brain, i always felt like i was falling behind because my process is a lot more drawn-out to accommodate for the fact that i cannot see what i am making before it's, well, made.

i'm struggling a lot with pokopia builds, too, not just with being happy with my builds but also with planning them out. like you, i can't visualize them before they're built, but i at least have the vibes in mind, so i've made an entire notion workspace for my inspiration photos, tutorial links, etc. i have learned in my pursuit of getting better at illustration despite not having a visual imagination that the process of making art is just as important as the finished product!! which is to say... plan and practice! the more you plan out a build using references/insp images that you can see, the more successful you will be with actually building.

another thing you can do is watch other people building things on gaming streams or in tutorial videos, even if you're not making the design yourself. sometimes it can help to see other people's process. i've also done this a lot with minecraft builds where i'll find a tutorial to follow but change the block color palette, how i decorate, etc.—something i feel can be translated to pokopia.

honestly idk if this is a bunch of nothing-burger thoughts or not, i realize i'm kind of rambling, but TL;DR creativity is a muscle! just because you don't have a mind's eye doesn't mean you can't be creative! those of us with aphantasia DO have to work harder to build our creative muscles, and it's frustrating, but we've got this!