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 dream 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

Hey everyone, a patch just went live on PC… mostly bug-fixes, with a few minor changes.

Changes since 1.3.28

• Experimental optimisations.
• Added more ways for the host to unpause the server (by pressing ESC, B, Back).
• Added alternative way to show the chat box (press right stick button on a controller).
• Added internal changes for modders (should have no effect on vanilla gameplay).

Bug fixes since 1.3.28

• Fixed slimes not pouncing correctly.
• Fixed items-crafted stat being 0 after loading a file until you craft something again.
• Fixed rabbit’s foot not affecting the breakup scene in non-English language modes.
• Fixed some rare tool-related crashes in multiplayer.
• Fixed an audio-related crash often caused when using bombs.
• Fixed Junimos dropping crops on the floor instead of collecting them.
• Fixed NPCs walking through the saloon doors.
• Fixed a few rare-ish crashes that can occur when connecting to another player’s game.
• Fixed eye color being reset to brown after reloading.
• Fixed inability to use rod / slingshot in festival minigames.
• Fixed the title menu back button being hidden behind submenus.
• Fixed inability to move after receiving a gift at the Feast of the Winter Star.
• Fixed crash when saving after the game adds Lewis’s shorts to Marnie’s house.
• Fixed crash viewing the map when another player is in certain events.
• Fixed “double sound” when using singing stone.
• Fixed a Geneva Convention violation (by replacing red crosses in graphics).
• Fixed clicks on the chatbox not being registered when the game is paused.
• Fixed players sometimes walking off in a straight line through all terrain when they get disconnected.
• Fixed babies sometimes spawning in houses that don’t belong to the parents.
• Fixed the potential for overnight events to cancel or skip a wedding event.
• Fixed a desync that could occur if a player tried to get into the casino after a different player has removed the bouncer.
• Fixed players able to simultaneously build overlapping farm buildings.
• Fixed only one player being able to get the dark talisman.
• Fixed the inability to place donated items on the bottom two rows of the museum.
• Fixed farmhands being unable to pick up items they dropped in festivals.
• Fixed Pam’s upgraded house interior event not happening.
• Fixed visual glitches caused by triggering a shared event simultaneously with the return scepter.
• Fixed softlock caused by mistaken ability to use daggers during events.
• Fixed players all receiving the same personal overnight events on the same day (e.g. spouse asking if you want a baby).
• Fixed attempting to demolish cabins of abnormally disconnected farmhands causing the cabin to be destroyed after you leave the buildings menu.
• Fixed farmers getting stuck in the fishing casting animation after picking up someone else’s rod.
• Fixed host sometimes appearing stuck using tool in shared events.
• Fixed softlock when you play the Journey of the Prairie King past 2am.
• Fixed glitched chest lid appearing when you destroy a cabin.
• Fixed duplicate songs in the jukebox.
• Fixed only one player’s glow ring working at a time.
• Fixed farmhands not being able to see each others’ bundle changes.
• Fixed bug causing some players to become married to two other players in 3-4 player farms.
• Fixed player sometimes getting stuck in bed after another player got in and then back got out.

Thanks for playing Stardew Valley!

-Ape

Hello everyone,

I hope you’ve all had a great summer and are enjoying this transition to the cooler weather of fall.

Today, I’ve got some exciting news to share with everyone – Stardew Valley is coming to mobile, and it’s actually releasing on the iOS App Store in just over 2 weeks time, on October 24th!

The mobile port is being developed by London-based mobile development studio, The Secret Police, who have been working with me for about a year. Chucklefish has been handling the business and marketing side of things. While the game will launch first on the iOS App Store, The Secret Police are currently working on finishing up the Android version, and I hope to give you more news about an exact launch date soon.

Features:

• Supports iPhone and iPad gaming, just make sure to check on the App Store page whether the game is compatible with your iOS version
• It’s the full game, not a cut down version, and plays almost identically to all other versions. The main difference is that it has been rebuilt for touch-screen gameplay on iOS (new UI, menu systems and controls)
• £7.99 / $7.99 / 8,99 € with no in-app purchases
• Includes 1.3 single player content, such as the Night Market, but not Multiplayer
• PC players can transfer their save data to the iOS version via iTunes – but make sure to always back up your save data first! Mods are not supported, and any save data transferred containing mods may cause compatibility issues.

Pre-orders are available today

I want to be sure it is clear that the development of the mobile port has had no impact on the development of the console Multiplayer ports, as they are being worked on by two entirely separate teams/companies. Console multiplayer is making great progress and I have every intention to release it as quickly as possible. For a quick update on where it’s at, the Switch Multiplayer update is coming along well, and has now gone into QA (quality assurance testing). Xbox One and PS4 Multiplayer updates will follow (all being done by Sickhead Games). I promise to keep you all updated on any news I get regarding release time frames for all the consoles. I really appreciate everyone’s patience.

That’s all for now!

-ConcernedApe

Stardew Valley 1.3 (Multiplayer Update) is now available!

This update is a significant change for Stardew Valley… Not only does it include a good amount of new content (new items, events, etc.), but it also includes the long-awaited addition of co-op multiplayer!

Several months ago, I finished working on the content additions, and turned my attention to finishing multiplayer. Progress on that front came along steadily.

Then, we started the multiplayer beta on April 30. Of course, I underestimated the number of bugs you’d all find! But over the past couple months Tom and I have worked hard to track and fix every known multiplayer bug. And now, it’s ready to go.

Credit must be given to Tom Coxon (of Chucklefish), who wrote all the major networking code himself and turned this fairly complex game into a seamless multiplayer experience! We’ve worked hard to make the co-op experience as fun and intuitive as possible.

I also want to thank everyone else at Chucklefish for all their hard work coordinating this big launch!

Below, I’ll give you a more detailed explanation of both the new game-play content and a more detailed explanation of how multiplayer will work.

First, let me share some of the new content with you. This is not an exhaustive list, and I’m purposely being vague on many aspects because I think it will be more fun to discover these things for yourself:

• A traveling festival comes to town
  • For three days in winter, a traveling festival visits Pelican Town. Unlike a normal festival, farmers can come and go as they please, and the location isn’t “locked out” at any point (there’s no setup). Pelican Town is different for a few days, and most of the townspeople’s schedules change to reflect that. The festival offers farmers a once-a-year chance to acquire unique items, purchase an original work of art from the famous Lupini, enjoy some live entertainment, and more….

• A winter mystery… and a new collection type
  • In winter, farmers might encounter a strange event… which will ultimately grant them the ability to start a new, “secret” type of collection. This new ability will surely result in unusual new adventures and greater knowledge…

• Help someone out in town…
  • Farmers who have made great progress for themselves will have the opportunity to help someone in a significant way…
• New Character Events
  • There are new character events, some of which grant you permanent bonuses. There are also a couple of “secret” events that you’ll only encounter if certain conditions are met.

• Skull Cavern Changes
  • 3 new monster types added (more powerful versions of familiar enemies)
  • “Treasure Rooms” added (rare chance of finding a room with a chest containing useful items… including two that can’t be found any other way)
  • A new reason to attempt a deep dive…
• Ability to change professions
  • If you regret your choice of profession, or simply want to try out something new, there is now a way to change your professions. It comes with a price, however…

• Signs
  • Signs are craftable items which are available to you from the very beginning of the game. Any item in Stardew Valley can be “clicked” onto the sign, and it will display that item (the item won’t be consumed).

• Decorations
  • A variety of new outdoor decorations have been added, including many that are “seasonal”, meaning that their appearance changes with each season. Multiplayer makes decorating even more fun.

• Auto-Grabber
  • An expensive item that can be placed in a barn and automatically harvests milk and wool from the animals each morning.
• Garden Pots
  • Garden pots allow you to grow any crop indoors year-round. Think of them like one-tile greenhouses. When placed outside, however, they only grow crops that are in-season.

• New Crop
  • There is a new crop that only grows indoors.
• Fireplaces are now furniture
  • This means you can move your fireplace around, and also buy a couple of different kinds of fireplaces.
• Hats on horses
  • You can now put hats on your horse. Enjoy… (this was actually an original intended feature in Stardew Valley two years ago, but I never finished it and had completely forgotten about it. Now it’s finally finished)

Now, a more in-depth look at how multiplayer works…

Stardew Valley now supports up to 4 player co-op. Co-op is nearly identical to single-player, but with 1-3 other friends playing together with you to achieve a common goal. Any single player game can be “converted” to a co-op game by having Robin build one or more cabins on your farm.

One player serves as the host, and the other 1-3 players connect to the host in order to play. Therefore, the host must be in-game at all times when the group wants to play.

The new update adds a Co-op button to the title screen. Clicking the button will bring you to the co-op menu, from which you can:

• Host a new co-op game
• Re-host an existing co-op game
• Join a new farm (provided that any of your friends are hosting and have a cabin available for you)
• Re-join a farm (provided that the host is in-game)
• Join a LAN game (by entering the IP address of the host)
• Enter an invite code (generated by the host) to join a game (this allows for Steam/GOG crossplay)

When hosting a new game, you’ll have some new options available to you:

• “Starting Cabins” gives you the choice to start a new game with 1-3 cabins pre-positioned on the farm. If you decide to go this route, you’ll have two “Cabin Layouts” to choose from: “Nearby”, which places the cabins close to one another, encouraging a communal farming style, and “Separate”, which places the cabins far apart and allows for more independence.

Alternatively, you can start with no pre-positioned cabins and instead build them yourself (via Robin).

• “Profit Margin” adjusts the profit margin of goods that you sell. You can choose between “Normal” (the original Stardew Valley amount), “75%”, “50%”, and “25%”. This is, in effect, a way to increase the difficulty of the game. For larger groups of experienced players, it might be desired. However, keep in mind that there already is some “scaling” of difficulty built into the game, since each player will need to upgrade their own tools, upgrade their own houses, buy bigger packs, etc.

• In co-op, all players share the same pool of money, and are working together on the same farm. The state of the game world, including the main storyline, is shared between all players. However, each player has their own private inventory,  skills, achievements, collections, relationships, quests, and crafting/cooking recipes.

In general, it’s assumed that co-op games are only being played with people you trust. The game maintains no real concept of “ownership”, since all players are working communally on a shared farm.

• When it’s time to go to bed, all players must enter their beds. Only then will the day end.
• Players can marry each other by crafting a “wedding ring” (An old Zuzu City tradition), and offering it to another player. If the other player accepts the ring, the couple is now engaged.
• The chat box allows you to communicate with each other… with the help of nearly 200 custom Stardew Valley emojis!

Here’s a trailer:

Also, want to let you know that the console versions of multiplayer are in development & coming soon.

I hope you enjoy the update!

-Ape

Hi everyone,

Perhaps the most common questions I get asked is, “When is Stardew Valley coming to PS Vita?”

Well, the time has finally come for me to answer…

Stardew Valley will be coming to PS Vita on May 22nd!

It will be cross-buy, so you’ll only need to purchase one copy to play on both your PlayStation 4 and your PS Vita. This also means those of you who already own the game on PlayStation 4 will now be able to download the PS Vita version too!

Stardew Valley on-the-go is a lot of fun, so I’m very excited to bring it to a great portable console like the PS Vita!

I look forward to hearing about your experiences in Stardew Valley.

-ConcernedApe

Hi everyone,

Just want to give you a quick fill-in on the status of the new update.

As you may know, I’ve always worked solo on Stardew Valley. However,  for this multiplayer update I’ve had the help of Tom Coxon (of Chucklefish). He’s done all the network coding to turn Stardew Valley into a multiplayer game… truly an impressive feat, and one that would not be possible without his talent. He deserves a lot of credit for this — Thank you Tom!

Now, here’s where we’re at:

Work on the new features is done, and we’ve sent all the new text off to be translated into the different languages. Meanwhile, we are working on bug fixes. Once we’ve received the translated text and integrated it back into the game, we’ll begin a serious QA phase involving thorough testing of all new features in both multiplayer and single player contexts. When that is finished, the update should be ready for a public beta.  I am still shooting for a spring release for the beta.

When the beta gets closer to launch, I’ll fill you guys in on more specifics as to how multiplayer will work, as well as a more complete list of the new features in the update.

I’ll also be sure to let you guys know as soon as we’ve determined a more concrete timetable for release.

For now, here’s a screenshot of the new signs in action:

These signs are crafting items that will be available to you from the start of the game. Any item in Stardew Valley can be “clicked” onto them to display. 

Thanks so much everyone for your patience while we get this update ready. It’s really going to be a “game changer” for Stardew Valley!

-Ape

Hi everyone,

I have exciting news:

Stardew Valley will come to the Nintendo Switch on October 5th, 2017

I’m very happy to see Stardew come to a Nintendo console… I grew up on Nintendo, after all! This will not only be the first time Stardew Valley appears on a Nintendo platform, but also the first time Stardew will be on a portable system.

The Switch version will be priced at $14.99 USD.

I would like to give a big shout out to Sickhead Games, who worked very hard to develop this port. They did a great job, as always, and deserve all the credit! I’d also like to thank my publisher Chucklefish for coordinating everything.

I look forward to hearing about your experience with Stardew Valley “on the go” this Thursday!

Thanks for playing,

-ConcernedApe

Hi Everyone,

Today marks the 1-year anniversary of the release of Stardew Valley.

In some ways, it’s hard to believe that an entire year has already gone by  since launch. Yet, at the same time, it’s been the longest year of my life. It’s felt long because I’ve done so much in the last 12 months:

-Game came out
-Released many patches to fix bugs and tweak gameplay
-Dozens of interviews
-Answered thousands of messages/emails
-Provided personal troubleshooting and technical support
-Made many Business/Merchandise deals
-Developed and released the 1.1 update
-Exhibited at PAX and met many fans
-Met Mr. Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon
-Flew to the UK to visit Chucklefish and collect an industry award
-Built a decent computer and got a nice big desk (No more HP Pavilion propped on a Wii U box)
-Worked with Chucklefish to make the Console ports and localizations happen

Considering that I had spent the previous 4-5 years in my own little bubble, working alone, doing essentially the same thing every day… and now suddenly to be thrust into the limelight… it was quite the change! I’m happy about it, of course. I mean… it is a weird feeling, at first, to have something that once seemed so distant, so impossible… some pipe-dream that you fantasized about in the dead of night… actually come true. It takes some getting used to, and that’s part of what this last year has been for me.

But I’m very, very grateful to have this opportunity. I’m excited about the future. I have many ideas, and I want to keep making games for a long time to come. I’ve learned so much from Stardew Valley… the importance of beta testing, how to make decent pixel art, how to use Steam, how to maintain a game after launch. And I’ve made plenty of mistakes, too. But I try to view any blunders in a positive light… fertile ground from which to improve and grow stronger.

I’m proud of Stardew Valley. I think it’s a good game. Is it perfect? No. Is it the best I can do? No… really I see this as just the beginning… I’m just dipping my toe into the water. And I’m looking forward to making the next step.

…

I figure this might be a good opportunity to share some development history with you guys.

I have some really old screenshots on my computer…

These ones are from 2012:

Bringing a dandelion to Leah’s Cottage

The farm.

The mines. 

Sebastian’s Room

The Saloon… Pam in her usual spot

Level-up menu. 

Inventory menu. There were several background themes you could choose from.

Also, the game was called “Sprout Valley” at this point:

As you can see, the “bones” of Stardew Valley were pretty much there way back in 2012.  So why did it take 4 more years to complete?

Well, you could say I was “polishing” the game during those 4 years.

I ended up re-doing nearly all the art several times. I redid the vast majority of the soundtrack. I expanded the NPC’s way beyond anything you’d see in the 2012 version. I made the map way bigger and more detailed. I added JojaMart and the Community Center. I added tons of items. I totally changed the crafting system and the mines.

In fact, at one point, the mines were going to be procedurally generated and fully destructible, with lakes you could cross by raft:

It sounded cool, but it was too difficult to make it work well. I spent a lot of time on it, and had a system working. But for some reason it just wasn’t fun. It didn’t feel right… so I scrapped it entirely.

The NPC portraits have probably changed more than anything else in the game. The very first portraits were all hand-drawn:

I drew every single NPC with 4 different expressions, scanned them in, colored them… and then scrapped all of it. Then I went through probably 6 or 7 iterations of pixel art portraits before landing on the final ones.

Stardew Valley was kind of like a big practice project, and I just stuck with it until all my skills improved to a point I was happy with.

Here’s what the town map looked like in 2013:

That was it… no Joja Mart or Community Center, and the blacksmith shop and museum weren’t off in the corner like they are now. The buildings were also a lot uglier.

Some day I might do a live stream of an old build of Stardew Valley… that might be fun.

Anyway, even back in 2012… when the game looked awful… there were people following it and encouraging me to continue. I appreciate that. To all of you who are reading this, who have played Stardew Valley and built an amazing community around it… thank you so much. The mods, the wiki, the encouraging messages, the fan art… I love it, and I’m so grateful and thankful for your support! I will continue to work hard and do my best to create memorable gaming experiences for you all, through Stardew Valley and whatever comes next!

Thanks for reading!

-ConcernedApe

Hi everyone,

I hope the new year is going well for you so far.  I’d like to give you an update on several things that are happening right now:

Xbox One / PS4 patches:

Chucklefish and Sickhead Games are making good progress on addressing some issues with the console versions. Their top priority is to resolve the issue where saved games become unload-able. Fortunately, they’ve discovered the reason this is happening, and after this next patch, it shouldn’t occur anymore. If you currently have a save file that won’t load, it will likely work once again after the patch comes out. The patch will also fix several other issues: I’ll share the full patch notes with you when the it’s been finalized.

Patch Notes (31 January 2017)

The Xbox One and PS4 updates are live! Here’s a change log:

Xbox One & PS4

• Fixed potential loss of item in cursor slot when clicking the bundles tab in the pause menu.
• Fixed crash when hatching / buying baby blue chickens.
• Fixed crashes that sometimes occur when clearing quests out of the quest log.
• Petting a fully-happy animal no longer wraps happiness around to 0.
• Animals with a deluxe product no longer produce less at higher happiness.
• Fixed a golden pumpkin duplication exploit.
• Fixed ‘Exit to Title’ causing some values and bits of world state to be ‘carried over’ between games. This affected, among other things, the availability of chests in the mines.
• Fixed crashes while saving.
• Possible fix for fertilizer boxes being placed instead of fertilizer.
• Missing heart characters have been fixed.

Xbox One

• The bug that causes crashes while looking for save files has been fixed.
• Most saves that couldn’t be loaded before should now load. In some cases there may be lingering minor graphical issues in save files that previously couldn’t be loaded.

The following issues are also fixed by the above, but may continue to affect save files they’re already present in:

• Crash when speaking to Gunther.
• Incorrect item / object graphics.
• Objects that should be interactive not being interactive.
• Crashes when walking into specific parts of the farm.
• Crashes while harvesting specific crop tiles.
• Crashes while hovering over specific items in your inventory.
• Crashes while shipping specific items.

PS4

• Share overlay image in PS4 streams has been removed.

FAQ

• Will issues affecting corrupted Xbox saves persist even after the Feb 1 patch?

New saves and saves that have previously not been corrupted will work fine and will never become corrupt. Existing saves that became corrupt and could not be loaded will be repaired and become loadable in almost all cases now. Saves that became corrupted may continue to behave oddly in some cases (Refer to the list in Xbox One patch notes about issues that might persist).

• What about the issue where PS4 Pro users have problems shutting down their console, going into rest mode and running other apps?

The PS4 Pro issues associated with Stardew Valley are a system software bug, and not caused by the game. Sony have informed us that a fix is coming in the next major system software update, but we (Chucklefish & Sickhead) haven’t been told when that will be.

Localisations (Beta test in early february):

Playism is translating Stardew Valley into Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese. Back in October, I said that these localised versions would be available by the end of the month… I was way off. After inspecting the state of the localised versions, it become clear that they needed a lot more work. Well, that work is now mostly finished. Chucklefish is doing some private testing of the localised versions, and it seems very solid so far. In early February we will do an open beta test on Steam. It will go live for everyone some time after that, depending on how the beta goes.

Nintendo Switch

Stardew Valley will not be a launch title on Nintendo Switch, but I am still planning on bringing it to the platform later this year.

Playstation Vita

We are currently investigating the possibility of a PS Vita port.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer co-op is still in development… progress has been made but it’s going to be a while yet.

Most Stardew Valley development is being done by others, now (Chucklefish, Sickhead Games and Playism)… but I do still work on the game. For example, I am currently working on making the controller easier to use (getting rid of the cursor in menus when using gamepad). That should be added to the console and PC versions in a future patch.

I hope this post answers some of the questions you may have had lately.

Also, thanks so much to everyone who put Stardew Valley on their end-of-the-year awards/lists.  I am very honored. Thank you!

-ConcernedApe

UPDATED UPDATE: The Xbox One and PS4 patches are both live!

—

Hi everyone,

An important patch for the console versions is in the works.  I will let you know when it goes live, but in the meantime I’d like to share these patch notes with you:

Xbox One:

– Performance improvements for periodic hitching and freezes.
– Fixed Junimo harvesters not path finding.
– Fixed About button (?) to be unclickable during main menu transitions.
– Fixed crash when sleeping if you built a Junimo Hut and the Witch visits you.
– Fixed a crash when sleeping that would prevent a player from advancing past year 1, day 28.
– Moved in some HUD elements that were too close to the edge of the screen.
– The LT and RT buttons can now be used to switch buildings in carpenter menu.
– The shipping menu can now be closed by pressing the VIEW button.
– The B button can now be used to close Grandpa’s letter.
– B button now goes back one page when you’re in a specific bundle of the Junimo menu.
– B button now returns a held item to your inventory in Bundle menu in the Community Center.
– Made harvesting easier by also checking beneath the player when pressing the A button.
– Cursor position will no longer affect item placement if it is currently invisible.
– We now show the ground placement indicator for seeds, like other objects.
– Fixed incorrect tool hit location in some situations.
– X button can now be held down to auto-repeat while in menus.
– Cursor will no longer interact with HUD menus if it is currently invisible.
– Fixed toolbar becoming stuck partially transparent.
– The VIEW button can now be used to advance the “Level Up” dialog.
– Fixed some cases of the game becoming stuck after using “Exit to Title”.

Playstation 4 

– Fixed crash sleeping on 3rd or 4th day when playing with OS in non-English languages (German, Portuguese).
– Fixed About button (?) to be unclickable during main menu transitions.
– Fixed crash when sleeping if you built a Junimo Hut and the Witch visits you.
– Fixed a crash when sleeping that would prevent a player from advancing past year 1, day 28.
– Moved in some HUD elements that were too close to the edge of the screen.
– The L2 and R2 buttons can now be used to switch buildings in carpenter menu.
– The shipping menu can now be closed by pressing the TOUCH PAD button.
– The CIRCLE button can now be used to close Grandpa’s letter.
– CIRCLE button now goes back one page when you’re in a specific bundle of the Junimo menu.
– CIRCLE button now returns a held item to your inventory in Bundle menu in the Community Center.
– Made harvesting easier by also checking beneath the player when pressing the CROSS button.
– Cursor position will no longer affect item placement if it is currently invisible.
– We now show the ground placement indicator for seeds, like other objects.
– Fixed incorrect tool hit location in some situations.
– SQUARE button can now be held down to auto-repeat while in menus.
– Cursor will no longer interact with HUD menus if it is currently invisible.
– Fixed toolbar becoming stuck partially transparent.
– The TOUCH PAD button can now be used to advance the “Level Up” dialog.
– Fixed some cases of the game becoming stuck after using “Exit to Title”.

Thanks for playing Stardew Valley and I hope you have a nice weekend

-ConcernedApe