I never really got Stardew Valley. I’d previously played the game in my teens, but bounced off it. Then the pandemic happened. I’d sit in my room, curtains closed to block out every sliver of light, and blast lo-fi hip hop to farm to while I played hours on hours of Stardew Valley in bed. At the time, I didn’t understand what people loved so much about it. All I did was mine, fish, farm, sleep. I read every guide I could so I could maximise my in-game productivity and make as much money as I could. I was freshly unemployed when the pandemic hit and I had literally nothing else to do but play video games, and I wanted to feel like I was good at this one, not realising that wasn’t the point of Stardew.
So I grinded. And I didn’t let myself have fun. I didn’t make friends with the townspeople, I didn’t let my own interests guide how I played the game, I just worked and made as much money as I could. At some point, like with any job where you work too hard and never let yourself have fun, I burned out. I put Stardew down, and I never picked it back up. I watched my friends marry their partners on their farms in co-op mode, admired their sprawling, symmetrical farms and laughed at the names they gave their cows, but I never went back to do all that myself. It felt like too much work, instead of fun. I had ruined the game for myself.
I thought I might never go back, but news of a 1.6 update to Stardew Valley hit a few days ago. ConcernedApe, the one-man-show behind the game, recently announced that he’s taking a break from his developing his new game, Haunted Chocolatier, to work on the new update for Stardew Valley that will mostly focus on changes for modders and add some new content. This comes after a huge 1.5 update for the game, which added a new farm, new island, new items, and a ton of quality of life changes. I obviously didn’t play the game after its new update, and I’ve never played with mods, but knowing that the new version will make mods even more powerful is a strong draw.
Stardew’s modding community is incredibly vibrant, and just looking through the mods gave me an itch that only starting a new farm can scratch. There are already so many of them that would take out frustrating busywork from the game, like fiddling with machines and transporting materials to and from different parts of my farm. I also won’t have to remember as many things because I’ll have a mod that gives me notifications when important events happen, a mod that reminds me to water my plants and tells me when its too late in the season to plant a seed, and a mod that closes my barn doors for me at night.
This community has created countless mods, for everything from farm redesigns, to animal husbandry, to growing weed, to skateboarding, to new characters, to full game expansions and player-made cities. With even more liberty to make mods after the new update, Stardew could truly turn into a playground for people who want to stop focusing so much on farming and more on the characters and their stories. I can’t wait to see what modders come up with – and I might even finally go back to the game to experience it for myself.