When Stardew Valley first got here out in 2016, it was positioned as a Harvest Moon-like. The comparability was the one method on the time to explain a low-stakes farming simulator with a village of locals to satisfy and maybe marry. It’s tough to do not forget that now, in an period the place “cozy gaming” has taken on a lifetime of its personal and “healthful” video games have their very own showcases with tons of of hundreds of viewers, however Stardew was launched into a unique world. After which it made this one. Its newest main content material launch, the 1.6 replace, is a testomony to the sport’s longevity within the style that it formed.
Stardew Valley was an enormous success when it launched; it offered one million copies in two months, and as of 2024, that quantity is 30 million. Reviewers on the time loved the satisfaction of its duties, and the way they constructed towards one thing larger: permitting you to flee the each day grind of life by placing your arms within the smooth filth and making connections together with your group. Stardew was additionally considerably forward of its time when it got here to depicting same-gender relationships, permitting gamers to this point and marry any of the romanceable NPCs no matter gender.
Every of those parts has been critiqued through the years — the sport’s anti-capitalist framework belies a grinding chase for revenue that doesn’t raise up anybody else in Pelican City, and its playersexual NPCs solely spotlight a scarcity of variety extra broadly. However it’s, to place it merely, good to have the ability to really feel as when you’re sticking it to Joja Corp. and its real-life equivalents by making a satisfyingly clear and environment friendly wine manufacturing line and kissing your homosexual girlfriend (Leah, when you’re questioning), regardless of these imperfections.
This core to Stardew Valley has by no means modified, and neither has its enchantment. The truth is, its runaway success has solely accelerated. Because the area of interest it as soon as crammed alone grew to become saturated with tons of of different indie farming video games and adjoining AAA titles like Harvestella, it started to loosely coalesce beneath the comfy gaming banner. Though the label is nebulous, and might cowl video games that don’t contain farming or different Stardew staples, they’re nonetheless included because of their recognition, and the everyday overlap with an open-ended, low-stakes, outdoorsy vibe. And Stardew’s affect within the house by no means waned — it’s all over the place, from the comfy video games subreddit’s banner to the highest picture of a significant newspaper explainer.
However changing into the tentpole of a microgenre isn’t the one factor bringing new and returning gamers to Stardew Valley. Over the previous eight years, developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has been including main updates to the sport, protecting issues recent and resurfacing it to potential new farmers. In accordance with SteamCharts, the sport acquired an inflow of recent gamers in November 2019, coinciding with its 1.4 replace, and January 2021, with its 1.5 replace. Each instances the common concurrent participant counts jumped, after which stayed greater. And 1.6, too, has damaged Stardew’s earlier report for concurrent Steam customers.
This big patch was closely anticipated among the many group, and but, they have been nonetheless pleasantly shocked by simply how a lot it added to the sport: a brand new space, festivals, NPC dialogue, the power to have a number of pets, dozens of recent objects, visible updates, and so forth. Barone invited gamers to start out a brand new farm to see all of it, maybe on the newly added, livestock-focused Meadowlands Farm, in order that’s simply what I did.
Meadowlands is the eighth farm sort, which will help you tailor your particular expertise whereas enjoying the sport. It’s right here for the farmers who need to preserve animals greater than plant crops, and comes with its personal two starter chicks. It’s additionally coated in blue grass, which is outwardly a favourite of cattle. The precise mechanical bonus right here isn’t clear in-game, however that performs proper into Stardew’s power. At its core, it’s a enjoyable, vibesy addition, and you’ll be glad that your chickens are having fun with themselves. If you wish to get into specifics, you possibly can dive into the fan-kept wiki and discover out precisely what it does, and spend hours deliberating over learn how to construct the easiest attainable farm. This has at all times been the case in Stardew, however it solely will increase with each replace because it accumulates extra options and a wider group. 1.6, with its laundry record of additives and tweaks, exemplifies this.
Picture: ConcernedApe by way of Polygon
It’s been lengthy sufficient since I began a brand new farm in earnest that I used to be capable of re-experience one of many earlier appeals of Stardew: There’s at all times one thing to shock you. That is maybe the factor that has made modding the sport so well-liked. Mods like Stardew Valley Expanded explicitly attempt to seize “the magical feeling they’d after they first performed Stardew Valley” and are extremely well-liked for doing so (Expanded lately handed 2 million downloads).
The identical goes for Stardew’s 1.6 replace, which has had the group buzzing with new discoveries, whether or not they’re from individuals who averted studying patch notes and social media posts or individuals who discovered new Easter eggs. These moments are paradoxically simpler to identify on a later save — leaping again into my late yr 3 farm, I had a deluge of letters, guests, and cutscenes telling me about new issues I might do. The replace is sure to make the sport richer for brand new gamers in addition to preserve issues recent for the hundreds-of-hours membership.
However the core of the sport continues to be simply Stardew — and it’s that that has stored the sport going for eight years. I already had about 100 hours — rookie numbers by many accounts — and leaping again into it, it’s instantly apparent why. That core sport loop is unbelievably good at protecting you hooked; there’s at all times only one other thing you need to do, cascading into one other and one other till you’ve been sitting and clicking away at crops, animals, and ores for a complete afternoon.
1.6 doesn’t flip Stardew Valley into a brand new sport, and the truth that it completely didn’t have to be is perhaps essentially the most attention-grabbing factor about it. Stardew got here out eight years in the past and nonetheless dominates the style that all of it however created.
Launching into a niche, it instantly attracted an underserved viewers, stored them entertained for years with an irresistible loop, and frequently refreshed its inventory of surprises by way of main updates like 1.6. Nothing is prone to disrupt that dominance anytime quickly.
It’s unclear whether or not there’ll be a large 1.7 replace sooner or later. Barone has been growing a unique sport, Haunted Chocolatier, since 2020, and whereas that’s at present on pause to get 1.6 bug-free and accessible throughout platforms, certainly in some unspecified time in the future Stardew Valley might be left to its personal units. However even when it doesn’t get any extra main updates, its unshakeable core, lengthy tail, and rooted group imply that it’s sure to remain on the middle of the ecosystem that grew up round it for an extended whereas to return.