"I Don’t Want To See It Fizzle Out” - Stardew Valley Creator On Why He Can't Give It Up
"I feel like I could work on it for the rest of my life"
I don't think it will ever fizzle out. I do a playthrough of it at least once a year and I've convinced at least 7 other people to buy it or I've bought it for them. It's honestly timeless and has been since I bought it day one. Even without the updates and added content it would be and has been my favorite game and I've bought it at least 10 times for different platforms and for friends. It's the kinda game that somehow makes you feel nostalgic from the first time you play it to the fifteenth. Even talking about it makes me wanna go play it again even though I'm in the middle of Ghost of Tsushima.
For sure. The pixel graphics and great soundtrack alone mean it will age beautifully, I can see myself playing it 20-30 years from now. Not to mention mods, Skyrim survived that long thanks to those and stardew's modding community is super active!
It's the warm blend of its cozy art style, ambient audio, and the unparalleled soundtrack. You go through the grandpa intro and observe his strangely thin bed all over again. Then the Jojamart corporate hell scene. You open the letter and reading it even for the fifteenth time gives you an immediate sense of peace and relief, because you know you're going back to the valley. It's all good vibes from here.
The music fades away and you're greeted with a quiet scene in the mountains, watching a grumbly coach bus speed past the sign, and you're left with a moment between you and the countryside. There are a few trilling birds and one lands in the sign. You arrive at your stop and immediately that uplifting little song starts playing and Robin's cute-ass face appears, probably with wood shavings in her bangs, and she still has that voice you crafted for her in your head after all these years. The mayor will too. She's an old friend.
She ushers you away to your first long view of the farm. Now, you've already been here several times in the last decade, but that music. That warm, orangish pallete. That overgrown little cabin on that rugged patch of land. The music grooves on and right away you get butterflies in your stomach over the prospect of getting to be here everyday, cleaning it up and carving your own little life and operation. There is a sense of joy and freedom, and a million possibilities laying under that brush-strewn mess that used to be a field. It never fails to bring you right back and feel that magic again.
It's like the developer perfectly captured our most innocent human desires in a tiny bottle.
I've installed stardew on nearly every mobile device I've owned
You convinced me to buy it for my PlayStation and I'm loading it up now 😂
Stardew Valley is a beautiful love letter from Eric Barone's soul. I don't want to see it fizzle out either. I'm a straight male but I would marry that man based purely on the gift he gave us.
I literally never even played it but what a cool project that guy has. (after reading article)
It’s really worth playing and often available for a very reasonable price. I don’t think it’s a genre that ever seemed like something that would appeal to me but I’ve found it very enjoyable.
Very cheap price for such a good game and available on all platforms too. Like wtf. It's too good to be real. But it's real.
I don’t think it will ever fizzle out. It’s an amazing game with a simple premise.
I do worry that the desire to not let a game be done could lead to burnout from the audience though. I left minecraft behind because every update added less and less of substance, and asked me to come back and do something that didn’t really enhance the experience of my “completed” survival world.
I understand that minecraft has not slipped in popularity for the masses, but for me it’s enough of a pain that I don’t play any more.
Stardew Valley is great, and the updates we have received add a lot of content to the game, but it’s all stuff that makes an 11/10 game… still an 11/10. I would love the effort to go into Haunted Chocolatier, or other great projects.
Yeah, stardew will be remembered as a great game irregardless of its updates. Even if it was left at the release update people would still think of it the same way in my opinion. Look at how many people before stardew still went back and played early harvest moons to play them yearly.
In fact for me. I've not played it in a long time I think purely because I'd rather start a new game with all of the new content. But new content keeps coming out so I wait.
My wife has played it through 6 times and still going dam auto-petter!
Me and sibling are playing it again, and the very first chest I found in the skull caverns was an auto petter, we went off when I found out! I wish your wife all the luck finding many auto petters!
