Stardew Valley has become a massively popular Indie game since it's February 2016 release, and some may still find it surprising that the entire game was created by one person. Eric Barone, who originally had no intentions of being a video game designer, began this project as an exercise to practice the programming language C#. He fell in love with his work and spent 4.5 years trying to make a game he wanted to play. Little did he know what a huge success Stardew Valley would become — selling 500,000 copies within its first two weeks of its release and over 10 million across multiple platforms by the beginning of 2020.
Drawing inspiration from the farming simulation series Harvest Moon, Barone wanted to take what he loved from that formula and expand upon it with features he felt it lacked, like crafting and quests, to add more depth and structure. He wanted players to have multiple tasks they were constantly thinking about with different outlets to go about completing them. Barone enjoyed how Harvest Moon steered away from the violence popular in other games to focus more on relationships — something he improved on tremendously. His game feels relatable to the general public and his own ideals, as demonstrated by having the main character leave Joja Corporation for a more independent life in Pelican Town. In alignment with his moniker, ConcernedApe, the theme of Stardew Valley is consistent with Barone's take on huge corporations' impact on people's environment and well-being versus being able to follow one's own heart and embrace autonomy.
Making Stardew Valley alone was no easy feat, and Barone experienced many moments of self-doubt during its development. He's made this known in interviews with both Game Informer and GQ. Working mostly 10-12 hour days 7 days a week, sometimes Barone hated the game, but after putting so much work into it, he knew he had to complete it or would see himself as a failure. When feeling defeated, Barone tried to convince himself it would be worth it in the end and kept faith in his confidence to complete his game. He knew he had to finish it, even if would turn out to be a flop. Besides his own determination, Barone was fortunate to have emotional support from friends, family, and his girlfriend Amber, who often tried to make her boyfriend allow time for himself and his relationships.
Stardew Valley Was An Unexpected Success
Barone couldn't have expected how long it would take to create Stardew Valley, often thinking the game only had a few more months left until completion when there were still years to go. Wanting to create every aspect of the game alone, Barone held himself accountable for the programming, writing, art, sound effects, and music. He'd find himself going back to things he thought he completed months ago and redoing them.
The character portraits that appear next to the dialogue were redesigned about 10 different times, and the dialogue itself was written over and over again. He even scrapped certain aspects that he put a lot of time into, like being able to dig through walls in the mines — something he decided didn't fit in the end. Technical issues were the biggest setback that Barone constantly had to fix. All this time, he never reached out for help. He'd rather spend hours looking through old online threads and blogs for answers than feel like he owed someone else a favor.
Having complete autonomy over the game meant he was solely responsible for it, and it would be a true, pure vision of his come to life. Even after the game's completion, Barone holds himself accountable for fixing any bugs and listening to players' concerns and feedback — much of which he's already improved with updates. He was contacted by Chucklefish prior to the game's release, but their only involvement was with the initial publishing and assisting with the multiplayer net-code a couple of years after the game's release. Currently, Barone is still working on new updates for this beloved farming simulator, as well as 2 other games that are somewhat related, but not direct sequels to, Stardew Valley.
Source: Game Informer, GQ