Stardew Valley - Move to Self Publish

Eric Barone(ConcernedApe) will be self publishing Stardew Valley in future meaning Chucklefish will not be involved going forward.

Hi everyone,

I've got a pretty big announcement today.

Starting December 14th, I'll begin self-publishing Stardew Valley on PC, XBOX, PS4, and PSVITA. On those platforms, I (ConcernedApe) will be both publisher and developer. However, Chucklefish will remain publisher on Nintendo Switch and Mobile platforms.

When I first released Stardew Valley, I was a complete novice to the video game industry. Chucklefish, as my publisher, oversaw the distribution, console ports and translations of the game. They set up the official wiki and helped me redesign the website, to great effect. And of course,Tom Coxon did amazing work adding network code to the game, making multiplayer a reality.

But I'm at a point now where I'm ready to move forward on my own. I think self-publishing is the end-goal of most indie developers, and I'm happy to be in a place where that's possible!

Expect some more announcements concerning the future of Stardew Valley soon… stay tuned!

-Ape

***

From Chucklefish:

We are proud to be part of the Stardew Valley story and wish ConcernedApe every success with his new self-publishing venture. We will carry on working closely together and are particularly excited to be continuing to publish the versions of Stardew Valley for Nintendo Switch and Mobile, including the upcoming Switch Multiplayer update (in submission now) and new Android version which we know many of you are looking forward to! - Chucklefish

More information.

Good for him this means more money in his pocket, but it also means more work.

A lot of people I know play or have played this one, I've not picked it up myself yet. I think he has the following to merit this decision, like Couch said above he'll have more on his plate personally to do, but he'll also reap more of the benefits. I suspect there will be a few follow-up games or expansions to this one in the future.

Wanted to check that game for one of my daughters and in the end I got it for me too. I poured dozens of hours in it

And he did that nearly all by himself .. What a guy

He just needs to hire a competent employee that's all. He-he

Originally Posted by ChatMiauleur
Wanted to check that game for one of my daughters and in the end I got it for me too. I poured dozens of hours in it

And he did that nearly all by himself .. What a guy

I have over 800 hours and I haven't even experienced the additional content he released recently!

Wish him all the best

I have zero interest in this game. It’s just not my thing.

I do however wish him all the best and hope he’s successful.

I always like to see the hardworking little guy get ahead.

Never played this game though I gather it's similar to Rune Factory. I played Rune Factory 2 (1 was a bore) and enjoyed it. Can you go into dungeons and kill stuff like in Rune Factory? Otherwise not my cup of cocaine.

Originally Posted by JackOfOwls
Never played this game though I gather it's similar to Rune Factory. I played Rune Factory 2 (1 was a bore) and enjoyed it. Can you go into dungeons and kill stuff like in Rune Factory? Otherwise not my cup of cocaine.

I haven't played Rune Factory, so can't comment on whether the combat is similar. Stardew definitely has some dungeons with "stuff to kill" but all you do is basically click on mouse to swing at the monster and that's about it.

I did a review on this a while ago, if you want to find out more.

https://www.rpgwatch.com/articles/st…eview-375.html

Originally Posted by ChatMiauleur
And he did that nearly all by himself .. What a guy

… and it took about FOUR years to finish it.

Indie devs: do remember, that you MAY have great success, but this success won't ever come easy.

Max respect for the guy for making this gem, despite the odds.
This is indie dev at its best.

Not sure about the self publish route. I think he made a grave mistake

Originally Posted by JackOfOwls
Never played this game though I gather it's similar to Rune Factory. I played Rune Factory 2 (1 was a bore) and enjoyed it.

Stardew Valley is simplified Sims 3 + World Adventures. The major difference is of course graphics/music and lack of jobs/construction. Minor differences are dungeons quality and combat style. If you liked Sims3+WA, you'll like Stardew Valley too.

I have absolutely no idea what's Rune Factory.

Originally Posted by duerer
Not sure about the self publish route. I think he made a grave mistake

Have to agree here. Unless he plans to team up with another person who's only job will be taking care of future products distribution and marketing.

Yes the game is similar to rune factory as it followed the same formula and game style. In past interviews the developer of Stardew Valley was inspired by rune factory.

Actually the Rune Factory games weren't the only series to use this formula either.

Rune Factory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rune_Factory

You also have the Harvest Moon games.

Harvest Moon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_Moon_(video_game)

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
In past interviews the developer of Stardew Valley was inspired by rune factory.

Seriously?
Make a game and in interviews be inspired by anything from EA. Then expect paying millions after lawsuit.
To mitigate it you can always pull out inspiration by some obscure title noone ever heard of.

Now go play Sims3+WA and tell me I'm wrong.

Not quite obscure, if you are a Harvest Moon fan. But, yeah, most people wouldn't know about it. Still, the game is good for chilling, when you want something relatively simple and fun to play.

It took him FOUR YEARS to finish it, and he all got out of it was $20 million. Seriously, this guy is living the dream. And he always comes across as a decent person to boot.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I have over 800 hours

800, wow! I'm happy enough to have 230 or so, but 800 is really impressive.

Stardew is such a gem of a game, and ConcernedApe deserves everything he's achieved. I've read a couple interviews about him and he seems to be a truly wonderful person as well. He's talked about personal struggles in how dedicated he was to the project. He was a pretty isolated individual for a long time.

I think he'll continue to do great things and I'm elated to see where he and Stardew are right now.

Originally Posted by Ragnaris
800, wow! I'm happy enough to have 230 or so, but 800 is really impressive.

Stardew is such a gem of a game, and ConcernedApe deserves everything he's achieved. I've read a couple interviews about him and he seems to be a truly wonderful person as well. He's talked about personal struggles in how dedicated he was to the project. He was a pretty isolated individual for a long time.

I think he'll continue to do great things and I'm elated to see where he and Stardew are right now.

Agreed

Yeah I went a bit nuts over designing different farms and sheds. I played 5 different maps, all with unique designs which added up the game hour to 800+ hours

I liked RUNE FACTORY 2 because it belied the notion that jRPGs are simplistic, puerile and easy. There was a well-hidden area right under your nose you needed to access to enter the end game that was in the form of a logical puzzle that probably stumped most people (myself included… I had to use a walkthrough). I respected that. It's western games like the aRPG Elder Scroll series that are the easy and simplistic ones. I'd like to try Stardew Valley but from what I've observed it's too much of the grow your own/find a mate thing. Rune Factory seemed just right and had action sequences and boss fights that made me think of classic jRPGs of the 16-bit era. Starview Valley seems more whack with a big mouse click stick. Not really my preferred method of killing stuff.