I would like to introduce you to Stardew Valley. It’s a fantastic game, and hopefully I can persuade you to give it a shot. Stardew Valley is a single or multiplayer farming simulator indie game, available on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam (for Windows or Mac), Playstation, and mobile.
One of the many appeals of Stardew Valley is that it was created single-handedly by one man, Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe. It was originally titled “Sprout Valley” and was first released in February 2016 for Windows. Over 20 million copies have been sold since its release. Eric Barone was heavily inspired by the scenery in Washington where he grew up. (woah! local!) The game is charmingly animated in retro-style graphics, with 70 unique musical tracks, each for a different in-game situation. Barone was originally inspired by the Story of Seasons series (previously called Harvest Moon)1, and Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Story of Seasons, later said he was “very happy with the game, as it [had] shown to him that Story of Seasons was not a forgotten series and continued in spirit.” He also stated that the approach taken by Barone with Stardew Valley was able to retain the freedom that he had wanted to keep in the Story of Seasons series that had been lost in the later games, with more focus on animation and graphics.”
Stardew Valley is an open ended farming game, but there is so much more to it than just farming. The game starts with you leaving your depressing 9 to 5 job in the city to move to a dilapidated farmhouse and a few acres of land in the small town of Stardew Valley, which you inherited from your grandfather when he passed away. As you play, you can farm, fish, raise animals, go mining, befriend and romance the townsfolk, help to refurbish the town’s abandoned community center, unlock new areas, and much, much more! The game is structured into four seasons, each of which is 28 in-game days long. One in-game day is about 14 minutes and 20 seconds long in real life, which is 20 hours long in game. Each season has its own unique scenery, fish, crops, and festivals. As you progress through the game, you can upgrade your tools, level up your skills in various professions, expand your house, decorate your house and farm, and travel to new areas of the map (among other things). By gifting the villagers items, you can unlock new dialogue, cutscenes, and eventually open opportunities for romance. You can also date, marry, and have children with some of the villagers, and you can marry a villager of the same or opposite gender to your player character. Each villager has a unique design, personality, dialogue, and cutscenes.
Another amazing thing about Stardew Valley is the wiki. It’s not officially part of the game, but I can say with confidence that it is one of the most well organized, comprehensive video game wikis that exists. If you have any specific questions about gameplay, from “where can I catch that fish?” to “what does this villager like as gifts?”, the wiki will most definitely have an answer.
Stardew Valley is incredibly versatile, but two things can be said that encapsulate the entire experience: it is nice and relaxing, and the possibilities are endless; despite being a leisurely game, you’ll never get bored. I highly recommend trying Stardew Valley.
Sources (in order of appearance)
My brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1326529/stardew-valley-lifetime-unit-sales/
