Stardew Valley was recently released. Eight hours later, back in the real world, you begin to understand – some games are worse than drugs. Even without virtual reality can be addictive.
Stardew Valley is a successful fusion of ideas from the Harvest Moon series, Animal Crossing and Rune Factory. The protagonist is given an abandoned farm with a large plot of land. He settles down there, gets acquainted with the residents of the nearby town, gets a set of tools and gradually begins to put the farm in order.
After spending dozens of hours on Harvest Moon and Rune Factory, I still don’t understand what it is about these games that HAS to be so addictive. Game day starts with reading letters from other residents, watering crops…. And then something happens. And you catch fish on the beach. Or you kill monsters on level 24 of a dungeon. Or you’re looking for an important character to give him a freshly grown zucchini. Or mining wood and rocks to build a new building on your farm. Or.
Perhaps from the endless number of small and interesting activities is the gameplay, which is always something interesting and appropriate to the mood. Do not want to mess with the fields – you can beat the monsters. Fed up with both? You can go fishing or explore the map. And there the harvest will ripen, you can sell it and buy new tools that will open up additional opportunities. The perfect holding pattern. But, unlike F2P – all fair and without timers.
Glad that now such a strong project is also on the PC. Top-1 on Steam sales and top-20 on simultaneous players indicate that it pleases not only me.
Also want to note the developer (if I’m not mistaken, the project is managed by one person), who released two patches during the first day, and this morning the third has already come.