First negative tho is something I remember from the article where he said he didn’t really like majora’s mask cuz the time aspect then laughed at the irony since he made Stardew.

I won’t tell you to like or dislike Stardew Valley, as that’s your choice alone. Now that’s said, I profoundry disagree with this assertion that ConcernedApe is a hypocrite. In Majora’s Mask you’re stuck in a time loop where you have to complete the entire game within the limit. That is far from the case with Stardew. You aren’t expected to complete much in a day, maybe a single task per day in the early game.

As for people accusing others of gaslighting, that’s wrong. The game doesn’t really open up until you get through the first season. Sure, you’re free to drop the game before that, but you then miss the parts that people love about the game. I don’t think it’s fair to call the gameplay loop poorly designed when you haven’t even seen half of it.

That being said, a season in game is about 10 hours of play time. Though I personally think the onboarding process is fairly good, it would be valid to argue that 10 hours is too much of a commitment to find out whether you like the game or not. I don’t personally think that for SDV, but I can respect it

Stardew Valley is basically a love letter to/greatest hits compilation of the Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons franchises. It’s kind of the opposite of a management game. There is a little bit of automation later on, but most productivity gains come in upgrading your tools which can either plow more soil in one whack, cut down a tree faster, water large patches of fields, etc.

I definitely see where you fell off because at first it feels like you don’t have time for everything, the clock runs no matter what, there’s only so many minutes in a day etc. Here’s the thing though: There’s no failure state, and the game repeats forever. Each day is short, but days never stop coming. So plant and water a little patch of crops, then look around the town, talk to people, explore. More gameplay styles open up as you play; it’s possible to focus on exploring the various mines or fishing or whatnot rather than farming.

Definitely do give it up for Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. It’s amazing what the man built single-handedly.

I got into Stardew Valley literally by accident. As in, I twisted my ankle during a winter vacation and got stuck indoors for a week while my family was having fun outside. All I had to entertain myself was my laptop and this farming game I recently bought on a whim.

I didn’t see the fun in it at first, but I liked the music and eventually the grind kind of clicked for me. Wake up, water plants, sell stuff, explore a bit, go to bed, repeat. It helped that my other choices for entertainment were a bit limited at the time :) But once the daily tasks become routine, you kind of zone out during that part and think ahead of what you want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe explore that cave a little more, or go fishing for that fish you need for the community center, etc.

But I can totally understand if it’s not your thing. I might not have enjoyed it so much if I wasn’t chair bound for an entire week with nothing else to do…
Erm…
That’s not the most glowing of endorsements when I write it out loud :)

What I’m trying to say is, for me it was a bit of a barrier to get through, but after that it’s such a cozy game to spend some time in. And it kind of has this nice reward cycle that makes me go “just one more day” a LOT of days :)

It’s a Dating Sim. Farming and Mining is just minigames. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) /s

Also, I am a full blown Factorio, Oxygen Not Included and Shapez player. TBH, I also never like game like Stardew Valley but after playing it for a month or so loved it. So, I can understand you and I also want to automate Stardew Valley to shit to overthrow the Capitalist Joja company.

Also feel free to come on !stardewvalley@lemm.ee if you ever try it again and liked it.

I had a hard time with Stardew at first, but I realized that you don’t have to eat to survive, crops are just for profit, gifts, ingredients, and collections. That got me out of the survival game mentality. I also learned to relax about the daily time cycle. Once I got automatic sprinklers working that was a lot easier.

Here’s the thing about SV: There’s no “losing”. No a right way, or a wrong way to play.

You have the time limit of the day, but there’s no time limit of the game. If you don’t plant a lot or make much cash for an entire in game year, it doesn’t matter. Just go fight in the caves, or fish, or go around talking to people and getting relationships or whatever. The day is in a hurry, but you don’t have to be in one.

That said; your direct complaint is “I have to do it myself?” Well, yes. There is a somewhat driving factor in the game, and that is that just like in real life, you’re trying to do work now, so you can do less work later. The driving factor of the game is completing the stories and also upgrading your stuff so the work is easier.

But again, there isn’t much of a time limit.

Also, it’s a farming game. Did you not expect to farm?

Hey ! I had the same feeling at the start. The early game is boring (you will unlock sooo much content as you play), stressfull (low energy and no automation early game) etc… But once you reach fall (or even summer) of year one everything will go smoothely from there. Remember one thing: plant a shit ton of crops don’t care about everything else

You just have to do the boring things until you automatise them (a tiny bit later in the game)

Trust me, there is sooo much content in there, it’s a sorrow that the start is so bad.

Hope you’ll give it a bit more time

my thought was, '“oh am i going to have to do all this myself?” Idk why I would want to spend my time and effort doing what someone in Rimworld does without needing micromanagement.

Not really my cup of tea either.

I don’t think that Stardew Valley is really all that similar to Rimworld. Maybe Oxygen Not Included, Satisfactory/Factorio, Kenshi, or Dwarf Fortress if you’re looking for something similar.

It took a few tries to get into it. Once you play for a while you realize how much freedom you really have at the start and can make cash and advance pretty easily. I fell in love with the mines. Worked really well since the more you mine the more materials you get to automate farming.

Also if you have someone to coop with do it. Having multiple players makes things fun and easier.

The wiki for the game is amazing and helps a lot starting out.

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Getting_Started

It’s a farming game. Farming is a big part of it. Expecting not to farm in a farming game is a little misplaced as an expectation.

I love Rimworld and Stardew, but they’re different. Rimworld is a strategy game in which you strategically plan and the NPCs run their lives until you take control of them.

You can respect a game and not enjoy it. Games are art and taste is important. I hate first person shooters for example. Don’t force yourself if you don’t want to, but expectation and comparison are thief’s of joy. If you want to enjoy something, don’t expect, just play and let it guide you and choose which parts of the mechanics you enjoy interacting with more.

It actually took me multiple trues to get into Stardew. The whole “track down everyone” quest is intimidating for a lot of people.

Up to you if you think it’s worth keeping at it, for the possibility of getting hooked later.

Honestly, looking at posts like this what annoys me most about Stardew Valley is the number of people who like the game who tell you how you are playing it wrong if you don’t enjoy the core gameplay loop. The only other type of game that is comparable in that respect are games like Souls-likes but most of those have more awareness that they only appeal to a specific type of player.