On 26 February of this year, Eric Barone, the man behind Chucklefish Games, released Stardew Valley. It’s a indie game devoted entirely to farming and getting accustomed to a farming community. It’s a free-form, go-at-your-own-pace game that allows you to stay at home and build up your farm, venture out into the world, fight monsters, make connections with other characters, and ultimately, fix the subtly crumbling town of Stardew Valley. In short, this game is literally for everyone, regardless of the types of games you normally play.
I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that I am very attached to this game.
The storyline of the game is that you character is leading a life in the city. You work at a desk job and you sit in your cubicle and don’t talk to anyone. It’s very boring and your character feels very unhappy with the life that they’re leading. We know early on that our character’s grandfather passes away and in his will, leave you his farm. So you decide that now is the time to uproot your life and start anew. You rebuild the farm and start your new life in this new town where your grandfather lived years ago. And that’s only where your adventure begins.
I only recently started playing Stardew Valley. I knew a little bit about it before I started playing, but once I opened the file in my Steam account, that was it. I have played little else since.
Initially, I was drawn in by the beautiful art that makes up the game. The settings are colorful and I like that it changes with the seasons, making the game feel entirely new every 30 or so days within the game. My favorite types of games are one where I can create the world my character is apart of. The game that I was most addicted to prior to Stardew was The Sims 3 (I know, I’m still stuck in the dark ages). The Sims allowed me to create my own character, build my own houses and connect with whomever I wanted to within the game. This is a very fulfilling type of game play for me. To get those elements in another game was almost too good to be true for me.
Beautiful art and key simulation game elements aside, I was drawn in by other elements of this game. I liked the adventure game elements-- a specific mission that was there whenever I wanted to pick up that gauntlet. I also like the flexibility of the adventure in this game. If I suddenly don’t want to try and reach the bottom of the mine anymore, I don’t have to. There are other missions for me to accomplish, like rebuilding the run-down and abandoned Community Center. And if I don’t want to do that any more, I have a farm to keep up and animals on that farm to take care of. There is something for players of all types of games and it’s hard to get bored while playing when you have so many options for what to do next.
What makes this game most impressive is that this game was created by one person. Eric Barone is responsible for the design, coding, music, etc. has been created by Eric (also known as ConcernedApe). Suddenly the game becomes even more remarkable just knowing how much work this one person put into this project.
Since the game has been out for almost six months now, there is a lot of support and information for players. There is the Wiki which can help you with every aspect of game play from figuring out where to find certain items to unlocking animals and new crops to grow to learning how to connect with other characters.
This game is amazing and you should try it too. If you’re not a PC person, this game is also available on other consoles and platforms such as PS4, Mac, Xbox One, and Linux.
