Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is a farming simulator with role-playing elements, an open-world sandbox with an isometric camera and visual style reminiscent of '90s arcades. Inheriting a neglected farm, the player begins to restore the lost paradise, rebuilds, and makes their plot even better. Get ready to grow crops, raise animals, chop wood, create new tools, build structures, and do much more to create the perfect farm. Later on, there will be an opportunity to team up with fellow villagers to fend off the greedy mega-corporation "Joja." You can engage in all of this solo or in a company of up to 8 people.

Developed by Eric ConcernedApe Barone and since its release in 2016, it has received more than 600 improvements, including new content, NPC dialogues, cosmetic items for decorating a cozy estate, game mechanics, maps, modes, balance fixes, and support for user modifications.

The world of Stardew Valley is an alternate reality that combines magic and technology to bring more enjoyment to players without trying to tie everything together or explain it. For example, by watching TV, you can learn the weather forecast, news, and useful tips. There are quite modern and handy gadgets for farming (recyclers, sprinklers, mayonnaise machines, farm computer, etc.). At the same time, there are fantasy elements: wizards in pointed hats, dwarves, mermaids, goblins, and others. Each type of creature has its own story and role in the world.

The game's action directly affects only a small part of the world—a place called "Stardew Valley" or simply the Valley, located in the Republic of Ferngill. It is here that the protagonist inherits their grandfather's plot and integrates into the life of a secluded rural community.

In the center of the Valley is the town of Pelican Town, where you can find shops, a market, a town hall, and other important places for the player's base development. South of the town is the Beach. To the north are the Mountain, Mines, Adventurers' Guild, Railroad, and Quarry. As you progress, you can learn about and even visit other locations: Zuzu City, Castle Village, Grampleton, Fern Islands, and Prairie Island.

The lore of Stardew Valley is a bit deeper than it seems at first glance. From the stories of the residents, you can learn about the Gotoro Empire, a mysterious evil state that has been at war with Ferngill for a long time. Although the war remains off-screen, its influence is felt. An additional layer of mystery is added by the religion, centered around the ancient guardian deity Yoja. Part of the lore is occupied by the mega-corporation "Joja," striving for dominance in the Valley.

The open world of Stardew Valley is organized as a two-dimensional grid with square cells. Inside the cells are tiles—pixel blocks. Each block has its own set of parameters and textures and forms various environmental elements—land, wood, water, stone, etc. A cell can contain several tiles stacked on top of each other in different layers. For example, one cell can have a land tile (bottom layer), a plant tile (middle layer), and a decoration tile (top layer).

The final landscape is formed using many cells that, when combined, create an environment corresponding to reality. For example, you can only plant something on soil, whereas nothing will grow on sand or stone, which are unsuitable tiles. Soils are also divided into subtypes, which affect plant growth and yield, and it also "absorbs" water, allowing plants to grow upwards.

The locations in Stardew Valley are diverse: the player's farm and homestead, the town with buildings and paved roads, meadows and forests, rivers and lakes, beaches and islands, underground caves (dungeons), and even the crater of an active volcano with boiling lava. The cell size may vary for specific locations. There may be more cells on the farm than in the town or cave, and even more in the greenhouse than on the farm. This implements the scale and nesting of locations and scenes within each other.

There is a change of time of day, weather, and even four full-fledged seasons. They affect not only the appearance of the world but also the gameplay. In winter, when everything is covered with snow, nothing grows; in summer, the world is full of bright colors, and in autumn, they are replaced by golden harvest fields. Sunny and rainy weather affects plant growth, and the time of day affects the activity of characters.

Despite its two-dimensionality, Stardew Valley has a simple physical model that provides for the calculation of basic actions and gravity. Interaction with objects—digging soil, harvesting, building, and communicating with characters—is implemented with a simple button press, bringing immediate results, occasionally with simple QTEs, such as in fishing.

Having inherited from his grandfather, the protagonist continues to work as a clerk at "Joja" until he feels that corporate life is suffocating him. Then he quits his career and moves to live in the countryside. Over the years of neglect, the farm has fallen into disrepair: everything is overgrown with weeds and trees, the homestead is collapsing, and how to engage in farming is unclear. The premise of the Stardew Valley story is simple, but there is still a narrative.

The protagonist arrives in the Valley with hopes for a fresh start, natural relaxation, and relationships with the community. Fortunately, the gameplay allows participation in town events and even exploring the mysterious corners of the Valley, uncovering its secrets and legends. The player can choose to become the guarantor of the Valley's prosperity or opt for the path of corporate exploitation, adding depth and a moral aspect to the plot.

At the time of release, Stardew Valley was a total farm simulator. Cultivating the land, sowing and tending to crops, harvesting, searching for where to sell it at a good price, raising animals, fishing, resource extraction, expanding the farm to build new buildings, cultivating new fields, and other tasks typical of the genre. Health and energy determined the period of activity during the day.

The game started tough: you had to scavenge for food, comb the forests for resources, and somehow earn gold. Gradually, the protagonist mastered different mechanics. He started fishing to get food for each day and gather ingredients for crafting. He mastered cooking and could restore health and energy. He learned to produce seeds, fertilizers, and tools for farming.

The inventory, limited by the number of slots, allows you to take only the most necessary items; everything else will have to be stored in chests on the farm. In this regard, crafting is implemented through a separate menu in the interface, so there is no need to drag everything into the inventory or onto the workbench. Initially, the player knows ten recipes, and the rest can be obtained as they level up, develop friendships with town residents, or purchase them in the store. Items and their components are divided by quality level—normal, silver, gold, iridium.

As updates were released, the interactive and exploratory aspects of Stardew Valley grew. A storyline for developing relationships with local residents and finding a soulmate among them appeared, along with the ability to participate in various events and festivals, give gifts, and spend time with NPCs. Separate quest chains could lead to abandoned islands. Dungeon farming added an element of adventure and risk. Festivals (mini-games), random events and much more were introduced.

Stardew Valley offers both single-player and cooperative (up to 8 participants) game modes. In both, the core gameplay does not change, but the level of participant involvement does. In single-player mode, you have to do everything yourself, while in multiplayer, each player decides what contribution they will make to the farm's development. Some may focus on growing crops, others on fishing, others on dungeon farming, and others will establish relationships with NPCs.

For performing any actions in the game, the character receives experience points in the corresponding skill (farming, mining, foraging, fishing, combat). When enough experience is accumulated, the skill level increases, unlocking new crafting recipes and improving efficiency in that area. For example, it increases the amount of harvest obtained from each plant in farming.

Each skill has 10 levels, and at the fifth and tenth levels, the player must choose one of several possible professions. There are more than 50 in total, providing huge variability in the main character's build. Leveling continues even after reaching the maximum level in all five skills through the mastery level system. Mastery points are equivalent to "extra" accumulated experience points.

In Stardew Valley co-op, each player levels up their character independently; experience and skill levels are only yours and do not affect other players. However, the balance allows for play between characters of different levels and does not restrict anyone's activities, but a more developed character will be more efficient.

The player who created the world is designated as the "host," and the others become "farmers." You can enter such a world through a split screen, local network, or online server. All saves remain with the host, who can continue playing solo. If the host is not online or the farm is not open to other players at the moment, they will not be able to access the world or their characters in it.

An active modding community creates and updates mods for Stardew Valley, which change or improve the interface, graphics, game mechanics, and add new content (crops, animals, buildings, and tools). The 5 most popular mods are: