When I originally heard about Stardew Valley I kept hearing the game being played by kids so I got the impression that it was very much a kids game. That was until I decided to kick the tires one day and loaded the game and started to play it. Now at the time of writing this I have almost 100 hours in, and while I do not have a lot to say about the game, I do have a way different view after playing.
The game starts off with your grandfather giving you a gift, but with the rule that you cannot open that gift until you are so tired of your city life and get back in touch with nature and people.
Sometime later, while at your desk job, you snap and open the letter to find that Grandpa left you the deed to his old farm… That you decided to move to.
It is a very simple story concept, and one that I think most adults can get behind, while being kid friendly. The game gives you a brief how to play and then sets you loose to build your farm, it is in need of a bit of work to clean up the rocks and weeds...
The game loop is simple, you grow crops and raise animals …
Craft things for your farm …
Including machines to make products (like cheese and jams) to sell …
The game has a sort of 8-bit cartoony art style with a day / night cycle – you do not want to stay out too late though, or you might just sleep wherever you drop when your fatigue hits zero. Farming and tending animals is the majority of the game, but there are other things to do like fishing, cave exploration, and the yearly seasonal system means there are holiday celebrations in town to attend and participate in. The game also supports adding mods too, on my game I have added a weekly market day for more options to sell things that I make. `
The requirements to run Stardew Valley are not so high either (as noted by the Stardew Valley Steam page) –
- OS *: Windows Vista or greater
- Processor: 2 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 mb video memory, shader model 3.0+
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 500 MB available space
All in all this all makes for a very chill game and I highly recommend it, especially if you are into sandbox style games and it supports multiplayer if you want to bring along friends for the fun.`