Stardew Valley - New Indie Game

Kotaku reports that the open ended farming RPG Stardew Valley has many fans already:

Stardew Valley’s Creator Has Won The Hearts Of PC Gamers

A cult fandom has already formed around Steam’s hottest farming game, Stardew Valley. At the center of it all is the game’s designer, Eric Barone. Also known as ConcernedApe, Barone is a beloved figure who is stealing the hearts of virtual farmers everywhere.

Barone made Stardew Valley on his own, and that feat plays a big part in his fans’ narrative. “One guy made this over the course of four years,” is something you will often hear from other Stardew Valley players. “ONE GUY.” It’s an observation tinged with awe and disbelief that a game as massive as Stardew Valley could be made by a single person.

I’ve been playing for nearly 40 hours and have barely scratched the surface. I’ve still got plenty of livestock to unlock, cuties to romance, fish to catch, and mines to explore. I’m on the lower end of the playtime spectrum, too. The game has actively been designed to be played for as long as the player wants, and many people are already clocking in hundreds of hours of game time.
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More information.

I watched a video of this game earlier in the week and showed it too my wife thinking she might like it. Big mistake, she is now addicted to this game and she has said how much she loves the game. She has been letting me name all her farm animals though so that's cute.

My wife isn't home, so i'm installing it on her laptop. I know i'm going to check in on her a few days from now and see her deep into this too.

Is this an online only game ?

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Is this an online only game ?

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Right now, it's a single player only game. The dev have plans to add 4 co-op later.

Caddy said:

My wife isn't home, so i'm installing it on her laptop. I know i'm going to check in on her a few days from now and see her deep into this too.

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Be prepared to not see her for a few days. On the plus side I've had time to catch up on some of my backlog of games.

I purchased it out of curiosity to see what all the fuss is about. It seems "ok" so far, but I'm only about an hour in.

My only complaint is how fast the in-game time passes. It makes me feel like I'm always hurrying to get something done before it gets dark, and I'm not liking that aspect.

I'm playing this and loving it I always wanted a simple RPG like this one. Very cute animation too, right up my alley, haha. But I agree with JDR, time does pass very quick in game.

JDR13 said:

My only complaint is how fast the in-game time passes. It makes me feel like I'm always hurrying to get something done before it gets dark, and I'm not liking that aspect.

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You are sure it is not the real time what passes fast?
AFAIK time scale is 1 hour = 1 minute.
There are various mods (yet unsupported) that change the pass of time.

BTW, the Stardew addiction cure for me has been Portal Knights addiction.

Haha Swann. So many people are saying similar things.

There are other forums that are cracking me. When one thing gets popular, a little mini-cult develops that goes overboard the other direction. So many posts about how terrible the game is, how its a rip off of harvest moon and minecraft. So funny.

You don't really have to worry about time passing to fast. You won't be able to do everything, but that is by design not mistake.

Changing the speed of time passage would seriously unbalance it to the point you could do as much as you wanted every day without having to make any choices. It is open ended so if you don't get something done in a season the previous year you can go back and do it in another season.

Game is awesome.

Wisdom said:

Haha Swann. So many people are saying similar things.

There are other forums that are cracking me. When one thing gets popular, a little mini-cult develops that goes overboard the other direction. So many posts about how terrible the game is, how its a rip off of harvest moon and minecraft. So funny.

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Nobody accused it of being a Farmville ripoff? You might want to drop those forums, they aren't even good a hating popular things.

People…
DO NOT BUY this game.

I bought it on a whim because a friend of mine… Let's not go there… But since I've turned it on at friday I was not able to let it go.
Addictive, totally.

Wisdom said:

So many posts about how terrible the game is, how its a rip off of harvest moon and minecraft.

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azarhal said:

Nobody accused it of being a Farmville ripoff? You might want to drop those forums, they aren't even good a hating popular things.

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Stardew Valley is this:

1. RPGmaker is written all over it
2. When you turn off you PC, the game doesn't progress
3. You may revert to the last checkpoint anytime (last sleep in the bed)
4. Lose mechanics exists, just not gameover (dungeon progress loss, bankrupcy, etc)
5. It's not always online and also is available in DRMfree version
6. Only one person developed it, talks to fans, fixes/improves the game fast
7. You don't have to install Flash to play it
8. You don't have to beg/spam your friends to send you a frying pan or something
9. No DLC cutouts and no season pass
10. There is no virtual currency scamware aka pay2win microtransactions!

It's not Facebook ripoff.
Haven't even heard about harvest moon and minecraft is build sim this game is not that.

Stardew Valley is simplified Sims3+World Adventures DLC. Ripoff of Sims3+WA.
Less skills to improve. No fancy graphics. No fancy soundtrack. Simpler puzzles. Decorations and additional builings are in, house constructing is not possible. It's not openworld and you can't save anywhere.
But it's 10 times less price and still same fun.

JDR13 said:

My only complaint is how fast the in-game time passes. It makes me feel like I'm always hurrying to get something done before it gets dark, and I'm not liking that aspect.

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Stop rushing.
The game won't end even after a year passes (just been there).
Tend to your energy - go to sleep before 1AM. You'll continue with whatever you were trying to accomplish tomorrow (ingame).
And please, pretty please, don't use mods.

Do we need hints thread? I have a few to share.
Just a warning for those who still didn't, don't buy this game, it'll steal your time!
Wait, I said this already.
Yes it's fun it's addictive and it's not boring nor annoying… I suggest buying some fillerbased garbage on phones and consoles instead. Or even better - buying lollypops in Candy Crush Saga.

EDIT:
RPS made a review:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/04/stardew-valley-review/

It doesn't have rpg maker written all over it as it wasn't made in rpg maker.

My wife hasn't touched it yet. However I let loose my 8 and 10 year old daughters on it and I think i've lost them to the game forever. And I know when I get home from work tonight i'll be asking them for game tips.

A farming game? Hmm, not interested.

No, no, no! Please, I'm begging you all, stop being enthusiastic! I really have more important things to do. It's getting harder every day....

It's pretty damn good to be honest.

Ah, for what reasons though?

Yep, I have the bug too. I just hit the gold levels in the mine -- finally I can upgrade my sprinklers!

I'm not feeling the love interests, though. What's with all these emo teens -- give us Linus and Marnie for those of maturer tastes.