Stardew Valley

Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) wrote Stardew Valley alone over four years: programming, pixel art, music, game design and dialogue. The game came out in 2016 and by 2026 had sold 50+ million copies (26 million on PC, 7.9 million on Switch). All updates are free, and there is no paid DLC at all, which is the developer's firm position.

You move from the Joja Corporation city office to your grandfather's farm in Pelican Town, a town of 30 residents by a mountain range, with the Star Drop Saloon, mines and a forest with druid statues. The game is not a relaxing farm: it is a complex system with several parallel progression branches: farming (5 soil types, 4 seasons of 28 days, 80+ crops with different ROI), fishing with a skill-based mini-game, mining in 120-floor mines, crafting and foraging, and a combat system (5 weapon types, 110 monster types).

The main choice is the Community Center or Joja Corporation. If you restore the abandoned Community Center, you collect Junimo bundles for the forest spirits called Junimos, who in thanks repair the bridges, the minecart tracks and the greenhouse. If you pay the corporation 30,000 g, you get the same result but lose the forest spirits. This is not cosmetic: achievements, NPC reactions and access to the endgame location Ginger Island branch depending on the choice.

There are 12 romance options, 6 for each gender: Sebastian (a gamer and programmer), Abigail (a goth adventurer), Shane (an arc about depression and recovery), Penny, Leah, Elliott, Harvey, Maru, Haley, Emily, Alex, Sam. Each has 10 heart events; at 8 hearts you give a bouquet (commitment), at 10 comes the wedding, and then you can have children. In update 1.7, Clint and Sandy will become new romance options (14 candidates in total).

Update 1.6 (March 2024 on PC, November 2024 on consoles and mobile) is the largest since release: the new Meadowlands farm type, the Mastery system (progression after skill level 10 with distinctive perks), the Book of Mysteries, the three-day spring festival Desert Festival and hundreds of small improvements. The current version is 1.6.15. Update 1.7 is in development: Eric Barone works on it two days a week alongside his new project Haunted Chocolatier.

The endgame location Ginger Island opens after the Community Center is restored (or for 1 million g at Joja). It has 130 hidden Golden Walnuts, tropical crops, fossil digs and Qi challenges, the hardest tasks in the game, including a speed run through the Skull Cavern. The Skull Cavern in the Calico Desert is a set of procedurally generated floors with no depth limit, and the top endgame activity for farming iridium ore.

Co-op mode supports up to 8 players on one farm: the host invites through Steam or a code, progression is shared, and each player can court an NPC or marry another player. Localization is full: the interface and all dialogue of 30+ NPCs are translated into Russian. The game has no voice acting at all: dialogue has always been text bubbles, which is a deliberate decision by the developer. All mods are installed through SMAPI; Stardew Valley Expanded is a fan expansion with new NPCs and locations, a must-have after the first playthrough.

Stardew Valley is a well-known farming simulation by a single developer, Eric Barone (ConcernedApe). You inherit your grandfather's farm in Pelican Town: farm crops, fish, descend into the Skull Cavern, restore the Community Center or sell out to Joja Corp. Romance one of 12 NPCs, grind Ginger Island, play with up to 8 people in co-op. Full Russian language support.