Hi everyone,

As you may know, I’ve been working with Playism and Chucklefish to create official translations for Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Brazillian Portuguese, Spanish and German (and possibly Thai). I mentioned on twitter recently that these versions would be available some time this month in a free update. However, during our internal testing of the localized versions, we’ve encountered some issues, and it looks like we won’t be able to release it this month.

Making sure that everyone has a great experience with Stardew Valley is our top priority, and we all agreed that we’d rather delay the release of the localization update than risk jeopardizing that experience.

This is going to affect the localization of the console versions of Stardew Valley more than the PC version. On PC, I can release the localization update as soon as we feel like it’s ready. Releasing a game on consoles is more complex and requires submissions well in advance of the actual release. This means the console versions will only be in English at launch, and we’ll have to patch in the other languages a little later.

Multiplayer is still under development… I know it’s taking a while, but it should be worth the wait. Thanks for your patience!

-ConcernedApe

Stardew Valley 1.1 is now available!

The 1.1 update adds many new features to the game:

Changelog

• Shane and Emily are now available to marry. They each have new events, music, and more!
• Spouses now have a unique outdoor area and behavior on the farm.
• You can now choose from 5 different farm maps at character creation. Each map is focused on a different skill area.
  • Standard Farm – The original Stardew Valley farm.
  • Riverland Farm – Lots of water, good for fishing.
  • Forest Farm – Foraging opportunities and a unique weed that always drops mixed seeds.
  • Hill-top Farm – Has a small mineral deposit from which ores spawn, including a unique geode-bearing ore.
  • Wilderness Farm – Monsters spawn at night.
• “Shed” building… An empty room that can be decorated, filled with kegs, etc.
• “Mill” building… Can be used to turn wheat into flour and beets into sugar overnight.
• A new quest that can be started after the Community Center or JojaMart quest arc is complete. The new quest results in a new “magical construction” feature available from the Wizard’s Tower. The new quest is triggered when you enter the Railroad area.
• Added several new locations that are related to the above quest. “Junimo Hut” building (Magical Construction). Junimos will harvest crops within a certain distance of the hut, instantly transporting the harvest back to the hut for you to gather at your convenience.
• “Earth Obelisk” building (Magical Construction). A permanent warp totem to the mountains.
• “Water Obelisk” building (Magical Construction). A permanent warp totem to the beach.
• “Gold Clock” building (Magical Construction). Prevents weeds from spawning and fences from decaying on your farm.
• You can now move your buildings via Robin’s construction menu.
• New house upgrade from Robin that adds a cellar to your house and teaches you the “cask” crafting recipe. In the cellar, you can use Casks to age cheese and alcohol, increasing their quality.
• “Iridium-star” level quality is now attainable for aged goods, fruit, forage items (if you have the botanist perk), and animal products. Iridium-star level items have twice the value of normal items.
• NPC’s now appreciate quality level in gifts, but it only has an effect on gifts they “like” or “love”.
• Added Coffee, a spring/summer crop, and Coffee Bean. The bean acts as the produce and the seed, similar to sunflowers.
• 5 Coffee beans can be added to a Keg to make coffee.
• Honey can be placed in a keg to make mead.
• Void eggs can be placed in mayonnaise machines to make void mayonnaise.
• 2 new fish, “Void Salmon” and “Slimejack”
• You can now choose to color your chests with one of 20 color options.
• Evil Shrines, where you can make offerings in exchange for dark magic.
• Divorce. You can file from a little book in mayor’s house.
• You can now wallpaper the little hallways in your upgraded house.
• When you beat Journey Of The Prairie King, you can now start over in a harder mode, keeping your upgrades and coins.
• 2 new “Lost Books”
• Krobus now sells a “Return Scepter”… a tool which acts as a permanent warp totem to the farm.
• Giving someone a gift on their birthday will never make your spouse jealous.
• Pierre now sells a “Catalogue” furniture item that can be used for unlimited free access to all wallpapers and floors.
• Robin now sells a “Furniture Catalogue” furniture item that can be used for unlimited free access to nearly all furnitures.
• If you’ve found the Galaxy Sword, you can now buy another from Marlon. You can also buy the Galaxy Dagger and Galaxy Hammer.
• Slime balls have a chance to drop petrified slime
• Added a graphics option to display “sharper” stack number digits.
• You can once again plant fruit trees around the edge of the Greenhouse interior.
• Fences take twice as long to decay.
• Balance changes:
  • All animal products are increased in value by 25%
  • The Rancher profession now increases the value of animal products by 20%, up from 10%
  • The Artisan profession now increases the value of Artisan goods by 40%, down from 50%
  • The Blacksmith profession now increases the value of metal bars by 50%, up from 25%
  • The value of Blueberry is now 50g, down from 80g
  • The value of Starfruit is now 750g, down from 800g
  • The value of Cranberry is now 75g, down from 130g
  • The value of Ancient Fruit is now 550g, down from 750g
  • Cranberry Seeds now sell for 60g, down from 120g (The price to buy them from the store is the same)
  • Sunflower can now be grown in summer as well as fall

Bug Fixes

• Wild plums are now labeled as fruit.
• Grandpa’s Shrine should now always properly give the reward for reaching 4 candles (works retroactively if you never received your reward)
• Fixed issue where gathering an item with the “botanist” profession would fail if the inventory was full, even though the gold-level item was present in the inventory.
• Slime charmer ring should now protect against giant slimes
• You can no longer tap a stump
• Fixed Joja Warehouse graphic issue in winter
• “Check action”-mapped keys should now work to attach bait to a rod.
• Rain ambient sound should no longer play in Sandy’s Oasis under any conditions.
• Your baby should now be properly born, even if you pass out in the mines on the eve of the birth.
• Moonlight Jellies engagement crash
• Galaxy sword should now be truly unloseable
• You can no longer lose hay to a hopper because you have no silo.
• You can no longer plant fruit trees off the farm.
• “Attack” foods now properly give an attack buff.
• Clay can no longer always be found one tile above a previously discovered clay spot.
• Blue Jazz flowers in the refrigerator are now properly consumed in cooking recipes.
• Fruit that drops when you chop a tree now properly stacks with fruit that drops when you shake a tree
• Worm bins no longer continue to produce worms every 10 minutes after midnight
• Jack-o-lanterns properly glow
• Torches and other light sources held by player are now properly lit after saving/reloading
• You will now see the final Joja cutscene if you switched to Joja after starting with the community center.
• When retrieving the cave carrot for Marnie, she will only take one from you.
• Fixed strange behaviors when picking up certain items with a full inventory.
• Having no silo no longer causes your hay to disappear when placed in a hopper.
• When a bomb is placed and then the player leaves the area, the resulting debris will no longer erroneously appear in the new area.
• Watering a trough in a slime hutch will now have no effect on the troughs in other slime hutches.
• Using the rain totem and then quickly entering your house no longer causes you to become stuck in the wall.
• The stone floor now look correct in any configuration.
• Numerous minor bug fixes.
• Typo fixes

Note: The new balancing changes correct the values of a few outlier crops that were far more valuable than all others by a huge margin. I don’t want Stardew Valley to make players feel “forced” into one particular way of making money. I think it’s a lot more fun to feel like there are many different options for success. However, I do understand that growing blueberries and making ancient fruit wine is part of the Stardew culture at this point, so I’ve made sure that they are still very lucrative options. But these changes should help players feel like they have a few more options.

I hope you enjoy the new update!

-Ape

Hi everyone!

It’s been a wild weekend for me. I had a booth at PAX West… my first time ever going to a convention, let alone exhibiting at one! It was really amazing to meet so many people who appreciate Stardew Valley. The vast number of positive interactions I had is hard for me to comprehend, and when I start to think about it I get really emotional. I am very grateful to have met you all.

Some highlights of the convention:

• All the people doing Stardew Valley themed cosplay! I met Abigails, Emilys, Gunther, Shane, Sebastian, Leah, Jas, Maru, and several people who were dressed as their own in-game characters! One person had a locket with a picture of Sebastian in it. Another came with a fiberglass rod. Sebastian gifted me a potato! Very fun.
• People who brought me their Stardew Valley art, home-made jelly, and gave me hugs.
• Funny Stardew stories, like the guy who found a catfish in the trash can after his friend spent many hours fishing for one. Also the guy who listens to the soundtrack while doing yoga, and all the people who expressed their interest in marrying Pam.
• People’s personal & heartwarming stories about how the game helped them get through tough times. Thanks so much for sharing with me.

At PAX, I had one of the new features of version 1.1 available to demo, and I’d like to tell you all a little more about it.

When starting a new character in version 1.1, you’ll be able to choose from five different farm maps (including the original map). Each map is based on a different skill, and includes unique gameplay opportunities that correspond to that skill. Here’s a rundown:

Riverlands (fishing) — Lots of water, and fishing is actually viable, unlike the other farm maps. It also looks really nice!

Forest (foraging) — Forage items spawn on the west edge of the map, as well as renewable stumps. There is also a unique type of weed that spawns on the farm.

Hill-top (mining) — Lots of cliffs. There is a mining area to the southwest where ores and unique geode-bearing stones will spawn.

Wilderness (combat) — Plenty of farming space, but monsters come out at night.

Everything else in the patch should seamlessly integrate into your existing save files, but to play the new maps you’ll have to start a new character.

There’s a few more things I need to finish for the update, but it should be ready soon.

Thanks again to everyone I met at PAX for the kind words and suggestions!

-Ape

Hello,

I’d like to give you a little update on what I’ve been up to. As you may know, I’ve been working on version 1.1 (a more substantial content update) for quite some time now. It’s taking longer than I had hoped, for a few reasons. For one, I am working on the update entirely on my own. That’s the way I made the rest of the game, it’s how I like to work, and I think it would be a bad idea to change it at this point. Secondly, I have post-release “maintenance” duties that take time away from pure development. This includes writing emails, working on business stuff, trying to maintain a social media presence, doing interviews, and more.

However, to be entirely honest… the main reason the update is taking so long is that I was feeling very burnt out for a while recently, and my productivity went way down. Stardew Valley has consumed nearly every waking moment of my life for almost five years now, and I think my brain demanded some time away from it. I had taken a very small break (a few days) a couple months after launch, but it wasn’t enough. I know I said I felt refreshed, but I was lying to myself. I should have just committed to a longer break. Rather, I spent the last couple of months dilly-dallying, playing video games all day, surfing the web, and feeling guilty about the trivial amount of real work I was doing.

In truth, I’ve always had ups and downs, periods of intense productivity and energy followed by periods of low motivation. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. This time around did seem a little worse than usual, but I reminded myself that with the success of Stardew Valley, my life got very weird very suddenly. It’s probably normal to need some time to adjust. I’m not even sure if this recent funk was due to the sudden success, to my own volatile brain chemistry or simply a result of working too hard for too long without a break. Sometimes I forget that I am actually a human with the need to relax and have a little fun.

Whatever the cause, the good news is that I am now very productive again. I’ve accomplished more in the past week than I have in the previous few months, and I feel my usual level of energy and motivation. I am feeling very optimistic about the future.

Why am I telling you all this? I don’t even know, I just want to, it’s my style. I want to let you know that I’m still here and still at work, but I don’t want to craft some kind of story to fool people into supporting me. I want to tell you the truth and let you form your own opinion. Anyway, thank you for reading my message.

Here’s where I’m at on version 1.1:

Shane’s marriage stuff is completely finished.
Emily is 80% finished. I am working on her now and making rapid progress.
New farm buildings
A new upgrade option for your house
Ability to move buildings
New items and crops
More spouse behaviors

Still planning on doing:
Something I’m not ready to reveal yet, but will add more replay value to the game
more buildings
some more character events for non-marriage NPC’s
more bug fixes
???

When will this be released? I’m not sure. I made a lot of estimates during the pre-release development of Stardew Valley and was always wildly off, so I’ve learned not to do that anymore. All I can say is that the update will be ready as soon as it possibly can be, and while I want to release it soon, I won’t compromise on quality to make that happen. As always, thanks for your patience.

In other news:

I am going to have a little booth at PAX West this year. If you’re going, make sure to stop by and say hi!

Multiplayer, console versions, and localizations are all in active development.
Thanks for reading!
-Ape

The Steam build should update right away with Mac and Linux compatibility, with a direct download through GOG to follow in a couple of days!

Multiplayer, version 1.1, console ports and localization are all still in the works and I’ll update everyone as soon as more info is available.

Big thank you to everyone who helped test these builds before launch!

Hi everyone!

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that console ports were in the works, but I couldn’t give you any more details at the time.

So today, I’m pleased to officially announce that Stardew Valley is coming to the Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Wii U!

With the help of Chucklefish and Sickhead Games, I’m expecting to have these versions ready in time for the winter holidays!

It’s very important to me that playing Stardew Valley with console controllers is intuitive and effortless. I’ll be the first to admit that the current, rudimentary controller support in the PC version is far from ideal, and it will need to be adjusted prior to the launch.

I’m also excited about the possibility of utilizing special console features like the Wii U’s second screen!

The Mac and Linux version of the game are still in the works, and should be ready very soon! Still working on the multiplayer and version 1.1 updates, too, and will keep you updated. Thanks for all of your patience and support!

I’ve had a whole lot of requests for official merchandise since the game’s launch, so now you can wear Stardew Valley stuff on your walls, bodies and various household objects! Available now on The Yetee!

There’s a big map of Pelican Town, stickers of in-game sprites, and three t-shirts – including this Cave Dwellers shirt that I designed myself!

Hello everyone!

First, I’d like to thank you all so much for playing Stardew Valley. The game has been more successful than I ever imagined, and I’m very grateful to everyone for granting me this amazing opportunity. I can’t say it enough– the community that’s formed around this game is incredible… full of kind, talented people who have given Stardew Valley a life of it’s own. It’s really cool. 

The last couple of months have been pretty wild for me. I released seven patches… with bug fixes, adjustments, and some new content here and there. In addition, I’ve been keeping up with interviews, business stuff, social media platforms, and helping people who are having issues with the game. In short, I’ve been extremely busy.

Toward the end of April the launch buzz had cooled off enough that I could afford to take a short break. It’s been nice… I’ve actually played some other games for the first time in a long while, which was fun (Final Fantasy IX, Factorio, Age Of Empires II) .  I feel refreshed, and I’m ready to get back to work!

First, here is a list of what’s planned for the future of Stardew Valley:

• Version 1.1 — A substantial content update
• Co-op Multiplayer
• Localizing for non-english regions
• Mac/Linux Ports
• Console Ports
• Merchandise

Now, there’s obviously a huge amount of work involved to achieve all this… and I am just one person. I know in the past I’ve been very adamant about doing everything myself… and I still am, when it comes to game design and content. However, I’ve decided to seek outside help for some of the more technical things listed above. More specifically, I’ve accepted an offer from Chucklefish in which they will handle the porting, localization, and the technical side of multiplayer. This will allow me to focus on creating new game content for version 1.1, which I will continue to do entirely on my own.

This should result in faster overall development and reduced workload for me, while preserving my artistic control over Stardew Valley. I think it will be beneficial for everyone.

There’s no official timetable for any of this yet… Mainly I just want to let you all know that multiplayer, porting and localization are actively being worked on.

In the meantime, I’d like to give a little rundown of some things I’m planning for version 1.1:

• More late-game content
• New farm buildings
• New crops
• New artisan goods
• New advanced farming/producing mechanics
• Shane and Emily will be marriage candidates. They will also have more events and dialogue as a result.
• More marriage content for all spouses
• More events for the non-marriage NPC’s
• Improvements/Additions to mining and combat
• Ability to move buildings and other convenience features
• More bug fixes
• More secrets
• More small, fun touches to the world

(note: anything in this list is subject to change)

Well, that’s all for now. Again, thanks for all your support and thanks for reading!

-ConcernedApe

Purchase Stardew Valley for $14.99 on Steam,  GOG  &  Humble !

The official Stardew Valley Wiki is also live!

Hi everyone!

I’ve got some exciting news: Stardew Valley will be released on February 26th!

It will be priced at $14.99 USD.

Watch the new trailer below:

I’m really looking forward to sharing this game with you : )

-ConcernedApe