Stardew Valley - Insanely addictive

For those who may not have encountered it, Stardew Valley is a new indie game released a week or so ago that was made by a single developer over the course of 4 years. It's in the vein of harvest moon, it's a 2D sandbox farming game but also has combat, secrets to find, places to explore.

I first encountered the game on YouTube, it seemed alright but nothing too special. Then I saw news articles on it...people going nuts in comments, steam reviews etc so I tried it out. Turns out this game is extremely addictive (and entertaining), I was hooked in the first hour.

Trying to step back and look at it objectively it seems like the biggest elements that make it interesting and addictive are the exploration/discovery and needing to constantly prioritise what you're doing to use your time/energy wisely.

It's made apparent pretty quickly that there's an enormous amount of things for you to discover and explore. Each time you find something new it spurs you on to discover the next thing. Throw in a day/night cycle with 2am forcing you to go to the next day and energy you have to manage and it makes you feel pressured to try and use your time and energy wisely. The twist is that the pressure is all created in your own mind - you really have as much time as you want. Years go on and seasons cycle, if you miss out on something that only happens in one season you just wait for the next year - you miss out on nothing in the end.

I know harvest moon had very similar mechanics but Stardew Valley seems to have pushed it up another step.

It's a very well designed game.

Anyone else have any views on it?

 

I'm in the second year in-game. Gaming pleasure aside, I think it's interesting to take notes of its designs in terms of player's progression and relative freedom.

If you were to design a new PC F2P with micro-transactions, it's definitely a case study.

 

I'm mixed. The biggest design flaw (that it inherits from HM) to me is that it lacks conflict, so on most days what I end up doing is arbitrary. I was done with the mine before the first fall was over, mainly because it seemed like an upgrade path and I had nothing else to do. This is something that new age survival games do much better, where you go out to explore now that you are stocked with plenty of food, and your base is in order, and you are properly geared for danger. Exploring is the natural consequence of having your other priorities taken care of, whereas dungeon diving in the mines is just one of a couple of activities the player can choose to do on any given day.

Yet ironically it's hard to put down, mostly because saving between days is saving just before you go do things. Working late into the night usually means you have something to do the next day, so why stop playing now that you have things to do.

 

Never heard of it. Thanks for posting. Just checked it out on Steam and it does look fantastic. I mean it literally looks fantastic graphically speaking and looks fantastic as far as gameplay. Seems to be a lot of depth to the game. I may have to grab it for the weekend.

 

The conflict to me is time. You have limited time in each day and as the seasons track by you only have so much of each one to use before it's gone. If you don't use your time wisely you have to wait a full in game year for that season to come around again so you can get those things that are specific to it.

Not just the seasons though, the 2am pass out is what I hit the most. Ran our of energy once or twice in my first summer but since then it's just been time. Always trying to squeeze a bit more out of the day, trying to get another 5 levels in the mines and then the last couple have more monsters and drags time out and I hit 2am etc.

Due to this the pressure and conflict seems to be almost entirely user generated. If you're laid back and don't mind going through a few seasons to see everything then you can amble around as you please. If you're goal orientated and want to get as much done as possible in a short time frame then you build up pressure.

As for the danger there's a bit of prep work to make sure you have the right tools/weapons before going too deep in the mines, some food for energy and things like stairs for emergencies. Once you've done a bit of setup it gets easier to manage.
That said I'm in my first Fall now and have gone fairly deep in the mines. Not sure what level it caps out at but - see spoiler

Spoiler: Spoilers

I've just hit level 100. not sure how much deeper it goes than that but the down ladder suggests there's more.

That's mainly due to the mines being a priority for me though, I want those resources. Have been fishing a lot too, and farming as needed. Haven't done any of the animal farming yet, waiting for my first winter to get into that.

 

By my definition (which I will admit is a lot more specific than the norm), time isn't a fully fledged conflict. The point of a conflict is to give the player new things that they can do (or new reasons to do something specifically) in an attempt to resolve the conflict. Issues with resolving time aside, it's only during the special events that time creates anything new for the player to do. Otherwise time is just a consideration. It impacts what the player should do, but not what the player can do or why. If you are going fishing for night fish, you don't do it because it's night time, but because you need this fish for the community center or a recipe.

Just make sure you have a silo already stocked if you do. I already had a stocked chicken coop and then bought and filled a barn of cows in winter and by spring I'm running out of hay that isn't growing fast enough.

 

I go night fishing to get some of the more valuable fish though to get more cash. Fishing is surprisingly lucrative if you pay attention to which ones pay the most.

I get that time pressure isn't really a traditional conflict but the intent of this game is that it's laid back anyway. It's a game about farming and exploring that you're meant to be able to play casually. So I guess by design it doesn't have any real conflict.

Yep, I'm nearing the end of fall and my silo was stocked to the brim long ago. I've just done my first house upgrade and am going to try get another silo built before I do a coop. Not sure if my natural grass fields will die in winter so want to try harvest another silo's worth before then.