Category: Stardew Valley

Old-fashioned graphics, simple and effective gameplay, developed by one person. This might look like an old-school title description, but it’s not. In fact, this game was published in 2016 under the name of Stardew Valley. This is the creation of Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe. He is a game designer, and this was his answer to the modern gaming world. Another proof that even one man can reach the heights often too high for a group of developers. It was released on all major platforms despite being a Windows PC game at the beginning. The popularity jumped high, and the demand greatly surpassed the audience of Microsoft’s operating system.

ConcernedApe aimed to create something that would continue the tradition of Harvest Moon, but soon the project grew much larger than just farming simulator. Besides the obvious features of farming, Barone was also inspired by other titles, and soon the Stardew Valley included features like quests, crafting system and even combat from a wide range of games. After the author saw the true scale of the project, he used Greenlight to announce the title and began working on the game full-time, using the assistance of interested gamers as guidelines for his work. Soon Stardew Valley was packed with features that correlated with most of the fans’ desires. No wonder that shortly after the release more than a million copies were sold worldwide with the number growing daily.

The base system of the game is obvious and simple. Once you discover that you have inherited a small farmstead in Stardew Valley, no clear objective is given. You are allowed to do farming, grow livestock, tend to crops and so on. However, the gameplay is not limited to those actions. A player can and should expand the small farm into a bigger industry. In order to do so, one is encouraged to interact with a nearby town, gain resources that are needed for expansion. Speaking of resources, a player can use his own hand to gain some. This means mining, of course. While exploring a mine, one can find a number of resources, which can be extracted. However, enemies are also present, and the player will often have to fight the way through to get that purse of ore back home.

The other attractions are also fairly developed. Besides farming and herding, the player can relax while fishing or cook himself a meal. Many of the NPCs can be interacted with. These interactions would often lead to the next conversations, leaving a feeling of progression through the story, though there is none, in general. The player can get a wife and kids through some fun dialogue options and make the farm a family house.
Of course, there is something to keep the game playable and give it a sense of purpose. Once the two in-game year pass, the overall evaluations of the player’s actions will emerge. Statistics, analysis, and all that funky stuff. However, the game does not stop after that, and the player is allowed to proceed for an indefinite amount of time.

This complexity and depth were not left unnoticed. The reception from the fans was expectedly brilliant, but the critics were not late with the analysis as well. The overall reception of the game was brilliant. Some critics gave the game a solid 4 out of 5, others went into beast mode and told it was the best of its kind.
Overall, Stardew Valley is a very nice and artistic way to get back to the roots of gaming. The graphics, the soundtrack and the gameplay, all give the chills of nostalgia. Features, incorporated from other successful games only add to the immersion and allow high replayability. Stardew Valley has kept us stuck to the computer for days. Did it do the same for you?