Stardew Valley

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JaySevenZero
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Stardew Valley

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Stardew Valley for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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KarlDaFrog
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by KarlDaFrog »

I was a big Harvest Moon 64 fan, with nothing else really scratching that itch (even the games in the Harvest Moon series), I was really looking forward to the release of Stardew Valley. I caught the tail end of the hype train up to release on Steam.

Stardew Valley feels like a game just for me, a Harvest Moon fan left out by the publisher/developer fallout. I believe I've read somewhere that this is how Concerned Ape felt, and motivated his creation of the game. How would you make a modern Harvest Moon game, with all the advancements in quality of life features and changes to the gaming industry since the initial Harvest Moon games? The answer for some people (myself included), is Stardew Valley.

Jason Schrier's Blood Sweat and Pixels sheds some light on the development of the game. While this smash hit can seem like it came out of nowhere for instant success to a mostly solo developer, it's always important not to fetishize the slow hard grind that is working on a game. Concerned Ape worked for years without any sales, and was supported by his girlfriend for most of the development. Now he has a small team working to provide updates like multiplayer for the game. That's not to downplay the incredible talent, dedication, and hard work of Eric Barone, but whenever I see stories of "How One Man Did It All...", I think it's important to remember that everyone needs a support system. And without dipping my toes too far in the politics pool, perhaps with more social support for everybody we could have more polished, niche, successful games like this one.

That being said...

Wow, what an incredible feat for a solo dev. Any individual part could be a justifiable career game dev, the pixel art, programming, the features of farming, fishing, foraging, light combat, quests, and putting together a believable little town are all wonderful successes. AND THE MUSIC! The music is beautiful and I highly recommend the piano arrangements by Pally and Matthew Bridgham and Augustine Mayuga Gonzales. It has become an instant nostalgia tickle for me.

The one thing I wish Stardew Valley would have improved more on, would be character development. Character vignettes do step out of the video game "comfort zone", tackling topics like alcoholism, corporations taking over towns, and the Mayor having a "sleepover" with Marnie in an early quest, but the dialog boxes are old school, repeating the same conversation after two chats per season, and become uninteractable after you've given your daily gift and had a chat. This is a bigger problem than in Stardew Valley. How do you simulate interesting conversation? The heart events are a step in the right direction, but they feel a little too few and far between and if you're friending a non-romanceable character, some of these are just recipes in the mail. I want to hear a "just missed the big one" fishing story from Willy, or Evelyn sharing a story about George in his younger years. This exists in the game, but I want a bit more. The cutscenes sometimes feel like a step away from this, as well. While they build the character, there is a break in immersion from the "real" daily Stardew Valley day, to the locked camera and controls of a cutscene, with a fade to black in between. I recognize this is how many games handle this, but if I was looking at how to make a Stardew Valley 2, reworking characterization and dialog trees would be at the top of my list.

Having sunk around 100 hours between my Steam and Switch game saves, I'm very satisfied with this wonderful little valley. But as always with these simulation games, a genre I love, I tend to start thinking that I should just be doing this digital labor to grow something in real life. For now, my real life farm is limited to a couple mint plants in the windowsill.
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DaMonth
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by DaMonth »

I first played this after I realized I wanted too much of an actual game out of Animal Crossing and was recommended this instead. And they were right. It was a great experience. I know there's gonna be some people in the forum who talk about how relaxing and peaceful this was but I couldn't disagree more. The clock goes by so fast and there's always so much to do and I ALWAYS FORGET TO WATER THE CROPS AND GIVE BIRTHDAY PRESENTS.

There's also no greater pain than wanting to marry your hot wife but the rain man won't show up an entire month.

But I think the best part about this game is the power trip of the second year. Going in blind, I just kept losing again and again and everyone in town hated me and no one would dance with me and that was miserable. It feels so nice to go back and succeed at it all in year 2 with a beautiful farm to impress Grandpa with

Main goal of 2021 is replaying this game co-op on some e-dates in lockdown. or not being in lockdown
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by bixer »

I was initially reluctant to play Stardew Valley as I always felt like a game with no ultimate aim would lose my interest quickly, but due to the near universal praise it seems to have everywhere I thought I owed it a chance. I played it for the first time in 2019 and while I appreciated where a lot of that love came from, ultimately I did lose interest after only 7-8 hours.

I'm not entirely sure what's changed, but I had an unexplainable urge to load it up again just last month and within no time at all I. Was. Hooked. I think the mistake I'd made in my first playthrough was that on some level I was trying a little too hard to be achieving something every day. Maybe it was just the extra free time that lockdown had given me, but this time I was perfectly content to just let the game happen and not worrying too much about doing every single thing at 100% efficiency.

I've since sunk an extra 40 hours into the game and it's one I can see myself having on the backburner for many more months to come. What an incredible game to have come from just one person.
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DeadbeatpunK
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by DeadbeatpunK »

Hard to talk about this game without mentioning Harvest Moon as a forenote. Briefly, I loved the Harvest Moon series, primarily on the Gameboy Colour. I must have left a trail of AA batteries that weighed triple my body weight. As the series went, I became less involved. It felt like the farming simulation was taking a backseat to the dating and romance elements. So I fell away from the series after being unimpressed by A Wonderful Life, but would periodically replay older titles in the series to get my fix.

Stardew Valley featured frequently on several forums during its development. Shamefully I ignored most of the buzz about the game. I bought it on early access, willing to give it a go but with zero expectations. I smashed rocks, picked weeds and chopped wood. Smiling like an idiot to be back at the virtual farm life. I ventured into town, meeting my new neighbours and getting my bearings. By the time I thought to check my watch it was four in the morning. of course it made more sense to simply stay up and go to my “real” work two hours’ later at that point.

Though the visual style has been emulated in a lot of indie titles that followed, it felt unique at the time. Especially when your avatar looked like a blue haired Crono in dungarees. The music has that quality of not becoming obnoxious despite how many times it loops. Safe to say I was won over by the little plips and plops of harvesting crops completely.

The game has great balance, which can make or break a simulation game. You will succeed at Farm Life no matter what direction you choose to go in. Fishing, Mining, Foraging, Crops or Cattle all reap great rewards. (Especially Blueberries and Cranberries before patches.) The freedom and relaxed methods of playing is a major draw. Planning out the layout of your farm gives it a brilliant level of customisation. A nice side feature of this was people sharing pictures of their farms online; something akin to people sharing their islands on Animal Crossing,

The villagers are an interesting bunch and I was glad to get to know them better as time went on. The social aspect of most farming sims is what puts me off. I was glad that spouse chasing was a limited affair. The villagers having routines and favourite locations usually made them easy to find. In later updates the characters all seemed to gain extra scenes or lines of dialogue. Deepening their characters slightly; a small but noticeable improvement. Wasted on me, as I ignored the townsfolk in favour of fishing at the beach. Night time Fishing remains to be one of the finest methods of escapism.

However, I found Shane instantly charming. Opening with “"I don't know you. Why are you talking to me?" He won me over instantly.

This game was the pipe-dream for a certain faction of niche players. The Harvest Moon we had been craving for twenty years. I love this game; recently bought another copy for a friend, just so we can start a new farm with the multiplayer update. I wish I had a transcript of the conversation convincing another person who lives in rural Ireland to play a farming game.

Hope Eric Barone makes a spiritual successor to Legend of the River King in the future.
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Alex79
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by Alex79 »

I really like this game, but I've probably played over 100 hours across PS4, Vita and Switch, and still never played to the end of year one. I really suffer from start again syndrome. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to have another go on this for a while. Wonder if I should pick up my old save, or....
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by Jon Cheetham »

I realise there are people who play this with spreadsheets (check out the Reddit to be amazed) in order to run the most efficient farming empire possible, but to me this is a game to muck about in and relax with. It's a cup of Horlicks that opens from my Switch menu. There's something very reassuring and relaxing about the lack of a lose condition. You never go bankrupt or starve to death, presumably there's always something in the cupboard of that little cottage, and there's no punishment for doing very little throughout the day. Pottering around watering some crops or something is a good way to wind down, especially when everything in the real world has such high stakes.
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by MauricioMM »

I don't have a lot to say regarding Stardew Valley other than, when not being pressed to accomplish a task in an urgent matter, I enjoy it so damn much! :) I learned the hard way on my first playthrough, back when the game was released. I missed some of my self-impossed objectives (like trying to complete the community center by year two and befriend everyone to at least 5 hearts by year one) in such a failed manner that, despite having some success in the following in-game years, I just had to quit my savefile after a while and focus on other games. I just wasn't approaching the game in the way that it deserved to be enjoyed.

Fast-forward to now, a bit after the 1.5 content patch arrived, and I'm having a dramatically better time with it on a new savefile. Granted, I still try to push myself to, for instance, make a couple of iridium sprinklers when I should be perfectly happy relying on "merely" quality ones for now, but I'm still taking it slowly on the whole and having a lovely time with it. Coffee beans, windmills, and marriage can wait, you know? :)

(Incredibly enough, I currently have some surplus prismatic shards, I kid you not :lol: )
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by duskvstweak »

Stardew Valley is such a peaceful game... or maybe that's what the music and graphics would have me believe? I spent most days running back and forth trying to get all my chores and sales done before that sunset and I passed out in a mine, or sometimes more embarrassingly, outside my own home. And yet, despite my little avatar being worked to the bone, those musical tracks and those lovely, pixelated representations of nature and the little town had me excited to wake up each morning.

Stardew Valley became my therapist in a weird way. The game and it's small world were so ideal and pleasant that it really made me start looking at my own situation and had me wondering what I wanted out of my life, why I didn't feel content or that sense of daily direction in the real world. Maybe I didn't want to own a small, self-sufficient farm in actuality, but more that sense of purpose and being part of a warm community. These days, Pelican Town might be the video game world I most want to live in.
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Alex79
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by Alex79 »

Planning on starting afresh on this tonight. Wish the show was in a couple of months now! Anyone else playing at the moment? Never tried multiplayer, so that could be interesting if anyone fancies it? I've got it on Switch and PS4.
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Alex79
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Re: 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by Alex79 »

So I've put about ten hours in to a fresh start in this game over the last week, and really enjoying it all over again. It seems to have filled a gap previously satisfied by Animal Crossing almost a year ago, just casually playing in the evening whilst watching a film or something. It's such a sedate, laid back experience, the perfect wind down game. I'm midway through summer now; my blueberries are doing great and I'm just about to buy some chickens. Trying to make friends with the villagers is fun too, finding out their likes and dislikes. It's not something I've really focused on before, and I can see now that I was missing out. You pick up so many little bits of info - for example, did you know Marnie had a thing for Clint? Yeah, that's what I heard, pass it on... The characters really have distinct personalities too. Shane and Hayley can both pull their heads out their backsides... :lol:

I'm going to stick with this a while, might even make it to the end of year one for a change!
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markfm007
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Re: Our next podcast recording (20.2.21) - 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by markfm007 »

I picked this up not long after release and quickly found myself sucked in, finding myself playing it whenever I had spare time. I think there are a few things that make it such an enjoyable experience that you want to come back to.

It's a game that gives you the freedom to choose your activities for the day without heavily punishing you for ignoring others. Different aspects of gameplay feedback on each other, so even time spent not achieving a goal is not time wasted - for example, trying and failing to catch a particular fish will still leave you with fish that can be used in recipes, for health/energy, given as a gift, or just sold. Failures are self defined, and can you can try again tomorrow.

Pelican Town has charm and individuality, it's not a typical grid based, cut and paste town. Familiarity through exploration and retreading old ground make it feel like home. The townspeople are similar, with different personalities and problems. The atmosphere is sweet and positive without being saccharine - problems exist, but there is a sense of can-do and optimism. It's a comfortable, personal experience that you want to come back to. The soundtrack is also wonderful and varied, adding a warmth and sense of fun to every moment. My personal favourite is 'Spring (Wild Horseradish Jam)', among many standouts.

My favourite aspects of the game were restoring the community centre, getting to know the townspeople and marrying, and adding to/renovating my farm. I check in occasionally to continue work on my farm and mosey around. I have a few minor complaints with the game. Mining I don't enjoy, as the simplistic combat and digging for ladders is fairly tedious. Fishing and cooking are fine but I have no motivation to engage with them. And while the dialogue and relationship events are really well done, the gift-giving mechanic is a bit limited. It'd be nice to have a deeper system there.

Overall I have a lot of appreciation and love for this game, and would recommend it to anyone both as an enjoyable game and as a genuinely positive experience. It's an impressive achievement, and the passion and hardwork of Eric Barone deserves all the praise it's got.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (20.2.21) - 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by stvnorman »

I adore Stardew Valley. I’ve meandered through dozens of hours across multiple systems, and untold evenings gone in a flash, but I’m not sure I’ve even scratched the surface. I don’t mind though - I’m more than content just planning out my day or wandering about and seeing what takes my fancy. I just love being there. One day I might forget to leave!
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Re: Our next podcast recording (20.2.21) - 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by RinseWashRepeat »

Harvest Moon is dead - long live Stardew Valley!

The best thing about this game is that there's ALWAYS something to be doing and there's enough variety that you never get bored of one aspect of the game. Tired of dungeon exploring? Today you need your harvest your crops! Bored of fishing? Now's the day you should go and forage then!

Not since Civilization has a game had that 'one more go' appeal.

The only negative I've got is that the stamina gauge hampered me a bit too much and fussing with food and drink to 'keep going' wasn't fun. I understand why it's there, but I would have felt that the time limit would have been enough of a constriction to stop player's running away with 'doing too much'.

That's about it. Loved this game.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (20.2.21) - 457 - Stardew Valley

Post by The_Pensky_File »

Stardew Valley is a game designed to draw the player into a semi-meditative state of relaxation. Paradoxically, I find it quite stressful.

While there is no fail-state driving you to maximize the output of your farm, my inner Excel spreadsheet has a very hard time playing the game and not constantly feeling like I could be doing "better". However, the game does reward the "Marie Kondo" section of my brain which enjoys decluttering and tidying, and the slow progression of abilities and items is excellently paced to keep you playing just "one more day".

I think it's a delightful game that keeps the player invested by making every day feel like an accomplishment, even if all you did was water your plants or catch a fish. But with the overwhelming number of possible activities, I personally find myself getting too wound up about missing something or not building up my farm to its min-max potential. But, of course, that's all on me.
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