Digital Media Concepts/Stardew Valley

[|thumb| Stardew Valley's title Screen]

Overview
Stardew Valley is an indie game that was released on February 16, 2016. The game was initially released exclusively for Microsoft Windows and later in the year ports of the game were released for the following: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Mac Os X, and Linux. For fans that wanted the game to become portable were pleased when a Nintendo Switch Port came out on October of 2017, and a Playstation Vita port came out May of 2018 The game is a farming simulator that is heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon Series. The game also features some dungeon crawling aspects that lets the player fight monsters in order to collect loot. The game has gotten critical acclaim over the past few years and has garnered numerous awards and nominations for various videogame awards and as of January of 2018 has sold around 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Development
Stardew Valley was made by a lone creator, Eric Barone also known as ConcernedApe. It took Eric Barone nearly half a decade to finish and release the game. Barone had never made a game prior to Stardew Valley and his main goal was to create a version of Harvest Moon that he could be happy with since he thought that the popular Japanese series had "lost its touch". The art design, sound design and game design was all done by ConcernedApe himself and his budget for the game was whatever he earned from his day-job. Eric worked 12 hours a day, composing the soundtrack, writing storylines, tweaking gameplay mechanics for four and a half years straight. Barone refused to release the game as an early access title instead opting to finish the game before the world got their hands on it. Steam's early access program had been notorious for games that were never finished and Barone did not want his game to end up this way.

Story
The story revolves around the player as he/she takes over their late grandfather's farm in Stardew Valley. The story begins right after the player creates their character in the game and it starts off by showing the player working a dead-end job for a faceless company named Joja. The player then decides the opt in for a change and then heads out to the abandoned farm in Stardew Valley, thus beginning the player's journey. The player then has free range of what they choose to do to write their own story. The game also includes a pretty in-depth relationship system that the player can have with the other residents of Stardew Valley. The player then will strive to make as much profit as they can and the player can even choose to get married to the same or opposite sex. Much of the storylines happen as the player progresses through the game and some developments even come quite spontaneously.

Characters
Stardew Valley features a lengthy cast of NPCs that the player can interact with in the game. The player has a total of 10 NPCs that they are able to court and after upgrading their house and if the player has accumulated enough "Friendliness Hearts" the player can choose to marry that NPC. Further upgrading the house lets the player and their partner have a child. The non-marriage NPCs still play a vital role in the game as they provide overarching storylines that the player can participate in.

Bachelors

 * Alex
 * Elliott
 * Harvey
 * Sam
 * Sebastian
 * Shane

Bachelorettes

 * Abigail
 * Emily
 * Haley
 * Leah
 * Maru
 * Penny

Other NPCs

 * Caroline
 * Clint
 * Demetrius
 * Evelyn
 * George
 * Gus
 * Jas
 * Jodi
 * Kent
 * Lewis
 * Linus
 * Marnie
 * Pam
 * Pierre
 * Robin
 * Vincent
 * Willy
 * Wizard
 * Gil
 * Marlon
 * Gunther

External Link(s)
Stardew Valley Wiki