The long-awaited cooperative multiplayer mode is still on course to hit Stardew Valley soon, going by what creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has tapped out on the tweetosphere. Following February’s word that it was entering testing, Barone last night offered the update: “still making good progress on fixing bugs, if all goes well it should be ready in about a month” on PC. Good, good. The plan had been to enter beta testing in spring and hell, I’m not sure we’ve even left winter yet. Read the rest of this entry »
My farm in Stardew Valley is a place of solace. It’s a shrine to quiet contemplation, a valuable retreat from the demands of sociability, a hidey-hole built just for me and my thoughts. Why would I want to invite someone in and spoil all that?
Actually, none of that’s true. I’d love to romp around Stardew Valley with a friend in tow, and I’ll soon get the chance to: Stardew Valley’s 1.3 update has entered its QA phase. Update 1.3 will bring official support for online multiplayer, along with other (smaller) new features like the signs pictured above. In a shocking example of northern hemisphere bias, dev Eric Barone’s blogpost also mentions that he’s “still shooting for a spring release for the beta” – so any time from March through to June.
Ah, life on the farm. Working with your hands in the slurry, watching the pigs wallow in the antibiotics, drinking a shot of warm, unpasteurised milk straight from the teat. What simple pleasures farming sim Stardew Valley affords us. Perhaps a few more, says developer ConcernedApe aka Eric Barone. He recently tweeted some upcoming changes, including new town events and the ability to change professions later in the game. Read the rest of this entry »
While we wait for online cooperative multiplayer to officially arrive in Stardew Valley — early 2018, last we heard — creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone has shared a little update. It’s “coming along great”, he says, and “already really fun”. I mean, sure he would say that, but it’s Stardew Valley in multiplayer so I’ll believe that. The wait continues but Barone does share a nice picture of a farm he worked on: Read the rest of this entry »
An unusual bug has been discovered in feel-good farming game Stardew Valley, and developer Eric Barone has decided that he won’t be patching it out. The good news is that it’s actually helpful, and you’re almost certainly never going to come across it unless you seek it out.
The creator of Stardew Valley [official site] has opened up a little about plans for his next game, something mysterious that’s set on the same planet as Stardew but is not a sequel. Don’t expect to hear juicy details from Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone any time soon because he’s avoiding building heaps of hype but he does say that, similar to Stardew Valley, it will likely pick up another game or genre with space to explore and take it in his own direction. Read the rest of this entry »
The first green sprouts of multiplayer should push up into cutesy farm life RPG Stardew Valley [official site] at the end of this year, publishers Chucklefish have announced. Chucklefish are chipping in with multiplayer and expect it’ll be ready to launch properly in “early 2018”. For now, they’ve explained a little more of how it will work. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul Dean spends a year in Stardew Valley [official site], ahead of the game’s one year anniversary later this month, and reflects on the work that goes into building a life, virtual or otherwise.
The farm I’ve inherited is a mess. It’s nothing more than a small house at one corner of an overgrown tract of land, set away from a tiny riverside village of complacent, mostly white people in large, embellished houses. It’s springtime and I’m a stranger. As a welcoming gift, a local passes a dog off to me that I think is a stray they have no desire to deal with. The farm comes with a big old television set, a handful of cheap tools and a stagnant pond.
I’ve abandoned a pointless desk job in some soulless town and now I have no income. I have no friends. I have decided that this is my life now. It’s how I’ll come of age.
Stardew Valley [official site] received a big ol’ update last Monday, adding everything from new farm landscapes to new farm buildings and new farm divorces. A new patch followed up on Friday afternoon and while it’s not massive, it is worth pointing out. If you’ve been considering starting a new farm on one of the new plots, see, you might be interested to hear that they’ve been fiddled with a bit. Not huge, but useful to know. Read the rest of this entry »
The sprawling Stardew Valley’s [official site] Version 1.1 has entered its beta phase, and creator ConcernedApe (Eric Barone to us normies) has a whole slew of new features to test out including new marriage options, divorce, construction and more. If you’re interested in taking the plunge, ready your bug spray and hop right in.
Stardew Valley [official site] is pure relaxation. Sure, building a farm from rocks and rubble is tough work, but there is nothing more soothing than the day to day routine; tending to crops, caring for your animals, trying to seduce your neighbors, and combing the mines for treasure. Now, Stardew Valley is bringing its therapeutic charms to Mac and Linux on July 29th, according to creator ConcernedApe.
I have spent over seventy hours in Stardew Valley. In that time I’ve cultivated my land, raised animals, got married and had a child of my own. I’ve plundered the deepest depths of the mine and ridden the bus to the desert. There’s no crop I haven’t grown, no animal product I haven’t churned or spun. Of course in a game like Stardew Valley there’s always something more you could do. I could pop out another baby, make my farm more efficient, or build another barn. But I found myself growing listless of my streamlined faming life. Money was piling up in my bank account with nothing to spend it on and I felt like I’d finally reached a plateau.
So I decided to start anew, and in a game that is all about starting anew, it felt fitting. I waved goodbye to Berry Farm and my little pink haired avatar and created Jemima. Whose hair and colour scheme is based off the Little Mermaid. Because I’m a goddamn adult and I can do what I like.
I thought I’d do things a little differently. While Holly preferred dogs, Jemima prefers cats. While Holly romanced the local doctor, Harvey, Jemima was going to flirt with the nature-loving artist Leah. Would my 70 plus hours of farming experience help my second attempt? Let’ see.
Stardew Valley [official site] – the runaway success Harvest Moon-a-like sandbox RPG from lone developer Eric Barone – is officially expanding by way of a long-promised co-op multiplayer mode. Unofficially, fervent modders are keen to grow its bounds even sooner by way of modded farm expansions. Enter Tego’s Stardew Expansion and Yama’s Desert Expansion.
The promised co-op multiplayer may be coming to Stardew Valley [official site] sooner than you’d expected. The farming/adventuring/country-living sandbox RPG is mostly the work of one chap but adding co-op is not a small amount of work so huzzah, he’s called in help! Stardew publishers Chucklefish, who also make Starbound, are pitching in to help with Stardew Valley’s co-op and Mac and Linux versions while creator ConcernedApe works on new content. Which is great, because we really dig the game.
Death is not the end, croaked Bob Dylan on 1988’s Down in the Groove. I’m not even sure that death is a possibility on the bright, friendly farms of Stardew Valley [official site] but there was an end-point of sorts. Marriage, rather than being the beginning of something wonderful, marked the end of independence, the full stop at the close of your spouse’s individuality.
No longer! A patch earlier this week improves the behaviour of spouses, allowing them to leave the house independently to go for a walk or visit town, and providing each with a set of unique dialogue. There are other tweaks as well, including a fix to “the farm rampage”. Boo! I don’t know what that is but it did really need to be fixed?
After my second nearly sleepless night, I think it’s safe to say that I’m hooked. Only this isn’t the “just one more turn” of Sid Meier’s Civilization, it’s the “just one more day” of Stardew Valley [official site], a honkey-tonk love letter to the Harvest Moon series. But Stardew Valley isn’t trapped by its obvious affections for Harvest Moon. It uses them as a foundation to expand from, to create something that is as rewarding as stepping foot outside your door to see a crop of bulbous melons ready to harvest. Here’s wot I think:
If you’ve wanted a game like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing on PC, hey, Stardew Valley [official site] came out on Friday evening and is very much that sort of game. That’s you sorted, off you go.
If those names mean little to you… Stardew Valley’s a country life sim/RPG/thing about a simpler life of growing crops, raising animals, fishing, going on adventures to duff up monsters, befriending townfolk, finding love, crafting, collecting, building and all that. It’s proving quite popular.
I don’t know when the best time to release a game about spending a lot of time toiling in fields is. In winter, many will find the idea of even a virtual outdoors loathsome. But then there are those of us who’ll be basking in front of lightboxes, longing to roam further afield. Who wants to spend summer indoors at a computer? Maybe early autumn, when people are mourning flora? Farming/country life RPG Stardew Valley [official site] is thinking February. February 26th, to be precise. Observe:
As RPS’ resident agricultural specialist, I feel that it’s my duty to inform you of Stardew Valley – but not for the reasons you might think. You see, my illustrious farming career didn’t begin with existential breakdowns among paradoxically lifeless fields. Oh no. Once upon a time, I tilled soils in far more colorful lands. Say what you will about its squat race of doe-eyed denizens and console-rooted nature, but Harvest Moon was kind of revelatory. It paired gradual, intoxicatingly tangible farm growth with human relationships to wildly compulsive effect. So now someone’s basically shoveling Minecraft’s exploration and customization on top of those things, and my mouth has morphed into a viscous waterfall of desire. Which is also the name of my upcoming Soap Opera. But anyway, details after the break.
