Stardew Valley
Developer: ConcernedApe
My parsnips are ready! Don’t be (too) concerned if you hear a new Stardew Valley player excitedly exclaim this a few days into the game. This is exactly the point they’ll first become completely invested, even if they don’t realise it. And the moment when you should accept you’re likely to lose them for hours - nay days - at a time.
Farming is a gruelling job, requiring back-breaking labour, sweaty days in the sun or soaking in the rain, and very real under-appreciation of your hard work by society at large, but put all that into a game and we’re hooked. Arguably the original popular farming sim, Harvest Moon debuted on the SNES in 1996. It was simple, engaging, and beautiful. Unfortunately, the sequels left a little something to be desired. Thankfully, a spiritual successor to the original was created, in the form of Stardew Valley.
Ostensibly the core gameplay loop is very similar - grow crops, make money. You can also engage with townsfolk and start a family. And you can stick to just that if you want, but you would absolutely be robbing yourself of 90% of the game. Whenever you aren’t meticulously watering your crops, or when you need supplies, you should venture into town. There is a wealth of interesting folk to get to know and form relationships with. You can help with little tasks, or, in some cases, massively change their lives. There are also ways of changing the town itself, for better or worse.
Beyond the town lies the mine where you can hunt monsters and find treasure, or gather ore needed to upgrade your tools and help your farm expand. There are also a few unlockable areas - the desert, which offers a couple of places for those willing to push their luck; and the tropical paradise of Orange Island, your home-away-from-home for you to explore and restore.
Stardew Valley is packed with things to do, and charming to the last. The townsfolk all have their unique personalities and goals, and there’s a lot of backstory woven in, with little nods and winks if you’re willing to look for them. Then there’s the audio and visual design. The music will lodge itself into your head forever, but you won’t be mad about it. The gentle tunes that follow you around perfectly compliment what you’re doing, and are all distinct enough between areas.
The art, of course, is what really makes Stardew pop. There are so many little details in every item on screen, in the little animations, in the lighting. The most impressive aspect, though, is the internal consistency. You can take items from one place to another and it will still fit - even areas added later. Nothing looks tacked on or rushed. Everything is in scale. Even buildings - which are all essentially a T.A.R.D.I.S, being much bigger on the inside than outside - are still all scaled with each other and items around them.
If all that wasn’t enough, let me add one more feature to the pile - co-op. Yes, the entire game can be played with friends, up to seven of them, both online or locally. You can go to the many events together, work on the farm as a group, or all go off separately. This can make the fun, albeit time-consuming, grind of the game go a little faster, and helps unlocking features easier. It works as drop-in-drop-out, with spaces reserved. Players can be swapped out by the host if they want to switch with different people.
It’s very easy to gush over Stardew Valley, as I’ve spent many paragraphs doing, but that’s because the game is more impressive than you might think. It is a colossal feat made more so purely due to it being made by one person. One person crafted the layout, the story, the characters, the art, the music - everything. Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe, is one of the indie scene’s true icons.
I’ve mentioned the unlockable areas, but there have been a lot of other additions made to the game. There have been many items added, along with new quests, some of which serve to highlight areas the player may not necessarily visit otherwise. Bug fixes and balance changes have been made throughout the life of the game. Updates have ensured that new players have plenty to do, as well as giving long-time players more reason to come back.
The much-anticipated 1.6 update released in March 2024 brought with it more content and tweaks. For a game with such a hardcore fan base, and very few secrets left, it brought a sense of excitement and discovery back, and a lot of quality-of-life improvements. In fact, one of the updates was to alter the randomness so even veterans wouldn’t know what was coming (the option to use older RNG is now a feature called Legacy Randomisation). So much has changed that Barone has gone so far as to say players should start a new game to give as much context to new features as possible. Imagine updating a game so much, and so long after release, then asking players of hundreds plus hours to start again. And yet, they have, because they have every confidence it’ll be worth it.
How much will come after this update is very much up in the air, as Barone is also working on an entirely new project - The Haunted Chocolatier. Not to fear though, as Stardew has built-in support for modding, allowing the dedicated community itself to add and expand to the game they love. And they do. Some are so large they add entirely new explorable areas to the world. It’s actually a disservice to say that fans are merely ‘dedicated’, they’re extremely passionate and supportive.
Stardew Valley expands far beyond the game world. There’s an entire board game if you want to take co-op to the kitchen table, or the official cookbook if you want to see what all those Queen of Sauce recipes actually taste like. And if you really love the music, a touring orchestra is bringing the soundtrack to life with Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons in cities around the world. Understand, these aren’t cheap products thrown out by third-parties to cash in on the success of the game, ConcernedApe is heavily involved in everything, and very protective of their IP.
For the three people in this world for whom the idea of Stardew Valley is entirely new, I hope this little insight into the game and its history has convinced you to give it a try. The core game has over 20 million sales, and can be found on pretty much anything that plays games. It is definitely a habit worth farming.
