Hey, I know it’s been a while since the last update. The main reason is that I’ve been working on stuff that really isn’t that interesting or suitable for sharing (e.g. writing character dialogues).  But development  is still progressing as usual!

I know earlier this year I estimated that the game would be done before 2014. Well… I have to say that I will probably not be able to meet that estimate anymore.

I’ve always been a little uncomfortable giving release estimates for Stardew. It’s stressful to build up hope for a specific release date, knowing that I might have to disappoint everyone by pushing it back. And i’m definitely guilty of being a little too optimistic about development timetables. Ultimately, though… I think most will agree with me that a slow-cooked, polished game is better than a rushed, quick release.

Now it may seem, from previous updates and screenshots, that Stardew Valley is very polished and ready for release. The truth is that I mainly post screenshots of things that I am proud of, which usually happen to be things that are mostly finished already. I typically don’t post screenshots of things that look incomplete… things that still require some development time. This, of course, will give the impression that the game is more complete than it actually is.

How complete is the game? Well, there are still a couple of  features that I haven’t even begun yet… but, they all should be relatively minor in terms of development time. Other than that, there is a lot of polish and fleshing-out to be done before it’s ready. There are also some technical (i.e. not involving actual in-game content) things which I *might* need to do before release.

So, while the game is definitely “mostly done”, there are still plenty of things that need to be finished before I am comfortable releasing it. I am still working as fast as I possibly can without compromising on the quality of the game (and also while maintaining my own sanity, for those of you who saw me playing Terraria on Steam recently :p ). Thanks to all of you for being so patient, compassionate, and supportive during this process… I really do appreciate it!

Anyway, enough with the boring stuff!

Here’s a quick look at all the characters you can date/marry (minor spoilers in the form of character bios ahead):

Abigail 

Abigail lives at the general store with her parents. She sometimes fights with her mom, who worries about Abigail’s “alternative lifestyle”. Her mom has the following to say: “I wish Abby would dress more appropriately and stop dyeing her hair blue. She has such a wonderful natural hair color, just like her grandmother did. Oh, and I wish she’d find some wholesome interests instead of this occult nonsense she’s into.” You might find Abigail alone in the graveyard, or maybe out in a rainstorm looking for frogs.

Haley

Being wealthy and popular throughout high school has made Haley a little conceited and self-centered. She has a tendency to judge people for superficial reasons.  But is it too late for her to discover a deeper meaning to life? Is there a fun, open-minded young woman hidden within that candy-coated shell?

Maru

Growing up with a carpenter and a scientist for parents, Maru acquired a passion for creating gadgets at a young age. When she isn’t  in her room, fiddling with tools and machinery, she sometimes does odd jobs at the local clinic.  Friendly, outgoing, and ambitious, Maru would be quite a lucky match for a lowly newcomer such as yourself… Can you win her heart, or will she slip through your fingers and disappear from your life forever?

Leah

Leah lives alone in a small cabin just outside of town. She loves to spend time outside, foraging for a wild meal or simply enjoying the gifts of the season. She’s a talented artist with a large portfolio of work… yet she’s too nervous to display it to the public. Maybe you can give her a little confidence boost?

Penny

Penny lives with her mom, Pam, in a little trailer by the river. While Pam is out carousing at the saloon, Penny quietly tends to her chores in the dim, stuffy room she is forced to call home. She is shy and modest, without any grand ambitions for life other than settling in and starting a family. She likes to cook (although her skills are questionable) and read books from the local library.

Sebastian

Sebastian is a rebellious loner who lives in his parents’ basement. He is Maru’s older half-brother, and feels like his sister gets all the attention and adoration, while he is left to rot in the dark. He tends to get deeply absorbed in computer games, comic books, and sci-fi novels, and will sometimes spend great lengths of time pursuing these hobbies alone in his room. He can be a bit unfriendly to people he doesn’t know. Could a charming new farmer cultivate the wasteland of his heart? Who knows?

Josh

Josh loves sports and hanging out at the beach. He is quite arrogant and brags to everyone that he is going to be a professional athlete. Is his cockiness just a facade to mask his crushing self-doubt? Is he using his sports dream to fill the void left by the disappearance of his parents? Or is he just a brazen youth trying to “look cool”?

Elliott

Elliott lives alone in a cabin on the beach. He is a writer who dreams of one day writing a magnificent novel. He is a sentimental “romantic” with a tendency to go off onto flowery, poetic tangents. When he can afford it, he enjoys a strong beverage at the saloon. Could a humble farmer such as yourself be the inspiration Elliott is looking for? There’s only one way to find out…

Harvey

Harvey is the town doctor. He’s a little old for a bachelor, but he has a kind heart and a respected position in the community. He lives in a small apartment above the medical clinic, but spends most of his time working. You can sense a sadness about him, as if there’s something he’s not telling you…

 Sam

Sam is an outgoing, friendly guy who is brimming with youthful energy. He plays guitar and drums, and wants to start a band with Sebastian as soon as he has enough songs together. However, he does have a habit of starting ambitious projects and not finishing them. Sam is a little stressed about the impending return of his father, who has been away for years due to his line of work.

Skills

As you perform various tasks in Stardew Valley, you’ll gain levels in 6 different areas:

Farming, Mining, Fishing, Foraging, Combat, and Luck

You can gain up to 10 levels in each skill area. For most skills, each level-up grants you new crafting recipes, cooking recipes, or other abilities. At levels 5 and 10, however, you’ll have a chance to choose one of two different talents. Talents grant you small perks related to the skill area. Depending on which talent you choose at level 5, a different set of talents will become available at level 10.

Below you’ll see a visual example of the farming talent tree:

As you can see, your choice at level 5 will set you on a path to being slightly more animal-oriented or slightly more crop-oriented. You’ll still want to do a little of everything if you want to be a well-rounded and successful farmer, but talents will make your favorite activities a little easier and satisfying.

Other new stuff:

Some new fishes and some new dishes:

Crab pots (put bait in them and wait overnight… you can catch all sorts of things!):

Tappers that you can attach to a tree for syrup collection.

Polished the look and layout of town a bit:

Thanks for reading!

-ConcernedApe

Here’s another long overdue development update!

Fishing

The most recent thing I’ve been working on is fishing. I’ve added:

• Fish-catching “minigame” that requires a little bit of skill to succeed at, as well as provide more purpose for fishing equipment.

• Variable casting distance (fishing in deeper waters can net you better fish…) that you can improve by upgrading your fishing rod.

• Baits that entice certain fish, get fish biting faster, and more.

• Bobbers that affect the way the minigame work… making your job easier and increasing your chance of catching difficult fish.

• Improved the look of the water quite a bit.

• A Fishing Shop and a fisherman NPC.

• Fish length… bigger fish sell for more, and your biggest catch for each fish species is recorded!

• More fish.

Here’s a video sneak peek:

You’ll also notice a new on-screen display in the upper right, which includes a snazzy new money dial to make your profiteering a bit more satisfying (sparkles, coin sounds, flying profit/loss indicators, you name it).

I’ve also added item quality (for select types of items), fertilizers, sprinklers, wells, little indicators when a “maker” is ready to be harvested, and the ability for your bee houses to produce flower-specific honey if they are close enough:

Fertilizers can increase the quality of your crops, make them grow faster, or retain moisture so you don’t have to water the soil as often.

Contrary to what one might think based on the low update frequency, I am working hard on the game every day. It’s just a lot of work for one guy, and my main focus is on developing… so unfortunately the updates get neglected sometimes. Anyways, thanks for reading!

-ConcernedApe

I’ve been working on farm animals:

More Info

Some animals (e.g. Dairy Cows) are intended to be kept only for their milk/wool/etc, some (e.g. Hogs) only for their meat, and some (e.g. Chickens) for both!

You can “inspect” animals to see info about their mood, hunger, affection towards you, etc.

Keep your animal happy (and maximize production) like so:

• Pet once a day
• Make sure she has enough food
• Let her outside if the weather is warm
• Make sure she is secure at night
• Purchase a heater to counteract the unhappiness of being inside all winter

Happy animals produce more valuable products!

I’ve also been working on some secret “farm events” that I won’t reveal!

Thanks for reading 🙂

-ConcernedApe

Fruit Trees:

Fruit trees are a long-term investment for your farm. They don’t need to be watered, but they are expensive to buy, need a lot of space, and require a full year of growth before they’ll produce any fruit. However, once it’s established, your tree will provide you with juicy morsels every day during its fruiting season!

What will you do with your new fruit?

Sell it?

                                               Cook with it?

               Give it to your sweetie?

Throw the pungent little thing into an oak barrel and spend the winter guzzling strong wine? (don’t do that)

I’ve added new areas and expanded some other ones substantially… including redrawing everything on the beach and adding seagulls & flowing water!

Here’s a couple new screenshots:

These pumpkins don’t actually come from space but it looked compelling anyways—> 

Grow flowers on your farm:

They make great gifts, and bees love them!

<– Sunflowers can be harvested for seeds, too.

I’ve also redrawn a bunch of the animations and tools:

And expanded the world a bit (gotta have some unlockable/secret areas!):

Rings – These rare trinkets will grant you special powers when worn. Equip two at a time to customize your ability!

Boots – Boots are all the rage in Stardew Valley… But true adventurers prize them for their protective qualities. You’d be a fool to go too deep in the caves without a sturdy pair.

Minerals – Geologists from around the continent know that Stardew Valley is a wonderful place to find geodes… heavy eggs of stone that sometimes contain minerals in their hollow cores.

The local blacksmith, Clint, is happy to break them open with his hammer for a moderate fee… revealing the glittering treasures within.

When you collect artifacts and minerals, you can choose to sell them or donate them to the local museum. As a way of saying thanks, Gunther (the curator) is happy to let you arrange the artifacts as you see fit. He might even give you special gifts or museum decorations as you work towards completing the collection.

Slingshot – After getting your hands on a slingshot, you’ll have a handy ranged weapon at your disposal. Load it up with stones, ores & more. You might have to practice a bit to get your aim down… just try not to hit Mayor Lewis on the nose!

Other things I have been working on recently:

• Fixing bugs & unintended behaviors
• Drawing more character portraits
• Menus
• A new building
• Player character blinks occasionally

Things I will be working on soon (they are all started but not entirely finished):

• Farming
• Tool upgrades
• Seasons

Of course, that’s not everything… there’s still a lot of content that needs to be added before I am happy to release this… as well as finishing multiplayer, which is no trivial task. But I am not slowing down, my virtual body is moving at generous speed and will continue!

Back to work… thanks for reading, everyone!

-Ape

Here’s some of the stuff I’ve added recently:

Mine Elevators

These can be built in the mines. When you use them, you can quickly travel to any other mine elevator platform you’ve built. Build a network of these and make mine travel a breeze.

Dungeons

As you explore the mines, you might encounter a dungeon entrance. If you can make it through in one piece, you might just leave with a pocketful of golden souvenirs. These dungeons are procedurally generated to keep things fresh. They are also totally optional for those who prefer to avoid combat!

Also:

• A new dungeon-exclusive monster
• Ladders that lead to and from each mine level
• More or less finished the different mine biomes
• approx. 10 new mine-exclusive “decor” items
• (stuff I won’t spoil)
• A couple of new deep mine songs
• Back-end file IO stuff that keeps the mines persistent

Stardew Valley has been greenlit and will be available on Steam when finished!  I will do my scientific best to get this game into your hands as soon as possible, without skimping on making it as fun and feature-rich as I can (within a reasonable time frame). I still can’t give an exact release date, it is very hard to predict and I don’t want to make an empty promise. However, you can be certain that I am working hard every day and making continual progress!

 <(Thanks again to everyone who voted on greenlight to make this happen. :3)!

I promise this is the last solely-about-graphics update for a while! I’ve been doing a big “month and a half of graphics”, and I’m finally about done with it. A lot of what I’ve been doing has involved redrawing or touching up older sprites that I wasn’t happy with. The old stuff was passable, but I am so much happier with the new, and I think it really does help breathe life into the valley. It’s funny how a seemingly trivial graphical detail can excite the imagination and evoke a sudden thrill, drawing you into the game world on a much deeper level. I know I’ve experienced it and loved it, and it’s something I’m hoping to achieve with Stardew Valley.

Here are some of the things I’ve done recently:

• Completely redrawn, taller Player Character and NPC’s.
• Player Character customization (As shown in Mini Dev Update #2), clothing, and hats.
• Redrew nearly everything in the mines, and raised the height of the mine “diggable walls” to fit the taller character.
• Added several new types of mine level (some with suspension bridges spanning across deep ravines).
• Redesigned and redrew much of the exterior landscapes, including some better looking buildings (not completely finished), taller cliffs, trees, flowers, and a few little touches here and there. (Screenshot below)
• NPC portraits, each with at least 4 expressions. (not entirely finished, but staying on schedule)
• Intro sequence (not really related to graphics but I did it anyway). The intro is part cutscene, part interactive, and include a couple of new country ditties. I will eventually add the option to skip it altogether.
• Redrew and redesigned nearly every interior in the game. (Screenshots below)

(click to enlarge)