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Many years ago, Nintendo unleashed a hugely addictive game called Animal Crossing. Its appeal came from getting to know, and befriend, your fellow villagers, collecting artifacts such as bugs, fish and all manner of things to pass to the museum and, of course, pimping out your little house. Stardew Valley is all of that, and more, for Linux, but from indie developer ConcernedApe (and published by ChuckleFish who brought us Starbound).
The basic story is that you inherit the deeds to the Stardew Valley farm and decide to cash them in to get out of the horrible job you’re in. So, you move to the farm and it’s a mess.
It’s up to you to get things in order by, initially, clearing some land, planting some crops, and sell what you don’t need for some ready cash.
But there’s more. There’s finding minerals, and all those trees give you wood that you can use. Yes, there’s crafting. Don’t worry about trying to remember recipies as once you’re given the plans for something, and you have the bits for it, it’ll be highlighted in your inventory as ready to build. If you have a pile of wood then you can use it to make some fencing to keep your crops safe.
It’s not farming 24/7 though. Each day starts at around 6am and by 1am the next morning you need to be in bed. Otherwise you’ll pass out and it’ll cost you money when you awaken at home. Early mornings and late nights will also cost you in health as the next day you’ll start with less health and need to keep eating to keep your health up. Yes, you need to eat to keep your strength up. Chopping down trees and smashing rocks takes its toll on you. As does owning farm animals which is also possible
Those days are required to grow crops. When you buy seeds it’ll tell you that these will take X-number of days to grow, and you need to water them daily. This also comes into play with the changing of the seasons. If you’ve planted summer seeds near the end of the summer season then those seeds will die off when the next season comes in. And certain seeds will grow only in certain seasons. This all takes planning!
And speaking of planning: you can even court the singletons of the village. Items can be given as gifts and, through time, maybe you’ll even get married!
Gameplay
The look of the game is, like Starbound, a pixelated (almost) 8-bit look. Which is more than sufficient for this as the game is a blend of Animal Crossing, an RPG (as you’re given quests), and a farm sim.
Controls are quite simple. It’s the usual WASD for moving your character with the mouse controlling the pointer that you use for picking up items or for use in the inventory screen.
The map is pretty big, but not too big that you spend ages running and little else. There’s always something in each section. Whether it be the main square with some shops, or out at the beach for some prime fishing.
There’s a dungeon too. It starts off quite simple and you go down ladders to new levels. As you progress downwards you’re given shortcuts, via a lift shaft, to get to those levels again. Die in there and the shortcut is forgotten and you’ll need to redo several levels.
Conclusion
There is a metric ton of stuff in this game, so I couldn’t possibly cover it all here. If you’re the sort of person who wants to have collected everything, then this is the game that will drive you nuts. There’s collections of fish, bugs, minerals, plants, you name it. And not all are available at all times. Some are available only within certain seasons. So, yeah, best of luck with that.
Within Stardew Valley, you need to grow (and look after) crops and farm animals. Then there’s the aspect of befriending the people you like. There’s plenty of story and quests available to you.
Then there’s the side of things where you can upgrade your tools, housing, and farm.
Take into account that each day isn’t all that long (in real life), and it’s a race to get your crops grown in time.
If the game has one downside, it’s that the intro story doesn’t really explain how you craft things. It took me a while to realise that the inventory was tabbed and that’s where the map and crafting is done.
This is definitely a great little game that’ll keep you amused for hours. It becomes a case of ‘just one more day’ and, before you know it, a real day has passed!
Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/413150/
An excellent guide which MAY contain spoilers: http://www.redlacegaming.com/content/guides/stardew-valley-indie-guide-v1.1.0.pdf