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[HaRyu]

If you go fast I read the train drops some items.

The train doesnt drop items all the time though. So only go if you have the time, don't go out of your way to get to it.

 

[Seil]

The more I look at the store page, the more I'm getting tempted to buy it. But I'd rather play it on 3DS, Vita or mobile on the go/while watching TV/etc. Are there any plans or do I have to cave in?

If you wanna play it even remotely soon, you'll need to cave. There are no official plans for ports of any kind, though ConcernedApe has shown interest in porting to other OS's and consoles. Plus there's still multiplayer as a planned big feature which will probably eat a good chunk of time after launch bug madness has subsided.

https://twitter.com/ConcernedApe/status/705807290394238976

It's a one man team, though he's also said he might consider having others do porting or whatnot, as he prefers content creation over the "technical" stuff.

 

[Falk]

Here's how my first day went.

- Watched TV
- Went outside to check things out.
- Cleared out the area around my house.
- Oh shit, I'm getting exhausted.
- I can still use the hoe tho.
- Crap, now I'm too exhausted to plant any seeds.
- Slowly walk back inside to find some food to eat.
- All I got is wood and rocks
- It's only 2:30, too early to sleep. Don't want to waste the day. What do?
- Wander out to the bus stop.
- Wander into town
- Hey it's a clinic. They can help me right?
- They closed at 3:30.
- Wander into a store.
- Introduce myself to a woman there.
- Wander into some kind of church area.
- Pass out from exhaustion

TLDR: Showed up to town, got rocks and wood, went into a fugue state.

Removing the first sentence that mentions "game", this is hilarious out of context.

 

[N° 2048]

The train doesnt drop items all the time though. So only go if you have the time, don't go out of your way to get to it.

Thanks! Good to know

 

[Ladekabel]

If you wanna play it even remotely soon, you'll need to cave. There are no official plans for ports of any kind, though ConcernedApe has shown interest in porting to other OS's and consoles. Plus there's still multiplayer as a planned big feature which will probably eat a good chunk of time after launch bug madness has subsided.

https://twitter.com/ConcernedApe/status/705807290394238976

It's a one man team, though he's also said he might consider having others do porting or whatnot, as he prefers content creation over the "technical" stuff.

Thanks for the respond. Will probably soon give in.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Is there a lot of stuff to do in this game? In other words, could you play this year-round like Animal Crossing with tons of collectibles and events or is this a "play straight through" kind of game? I'm not familiar with this genre too much.

 

[TimeEffect]

Is there a lot of stuff to do in this game? In other words, could you play this year-round like Animal Crossing with tons of collectibles and events or is this a "play straight through" kind of game? I'm not familiar with this genre too much.

There's a lot to do. You can mine, fish, grown relationships (includes story choices), and the dev wants to improve post-marriage content

Mods are already trying to add things like butchering, challenges, etc

 

[Seil]

Is there a lot of stuff to do in this game? In other words, could you play this year-round like Animal Crossing with tons of collectibles and events or is this a "play straight through" kind of game? I'm not familiar with this genre too much.

There's a ton to do, but it's not explicitly tied to real time like AC. That allows AC to just pad things out. You could easily put in 70 hours and be finishing just your first year in this game, though, and the "soft ending" is at the end of 2 years. The second year will be much like the first, but there'll be a few new crops and stuff plus you'll have finally established yourself better and so the experience will be a bit different. There's a lot of little secrets to uncover, as well.

 

[TheKeyPit]

I imagine some are streaming but it's not really a game that's going to get a big reaction out of an audience. It's too slow paced and long.

Just word of mouth, good game, and serving an ignored audience for the most part. I mean, not only have PC gamers been clamoring for a title like this, but really even most core gamers that might prefer consoles or handhelds don't have a lot of options for the genre these days. 3DS gets the games but even then a lot of them are in a downward trend quality wise.

I think a big part of it, along with Undertale last year, is it priced itself well too.

I play 99% on consoles and I always wanted a game like this to play there. (I even made a thread about the need for a Harvest Moon game on consoles; people mentioned Stardew Valley in that thread and I eagerly waited for it)

I'm playing it on my Surface Pro 1. No matter where I am, I can play this gem.

 

[bizzarewars]

You know, I got this yesterday and I was enjoying it but I wasn't certain I was really enjoying the gameplay loop. Then I decided I'd play for a bit earlier today and then 7 HOURS later I realized how intoxicated I was with this game. This is some addictive stuff right here...

 

[N° 2048]

You know, I got this yesterday and I was enjoying it but I wasn't certain I was really enjoying the gameplay loop. Then I decided I'd play for a bit earlier today and then 7 HOURS later I realized how intoxicated I was with this game. This is some addictive stuff right here...

That endorphin release when pick your crops. This game is scary...

 

[Kaffeemann]

The game is in the top 10 on steam currently. Insane.

 

[Seil]

The game is in the top 10 on steam currently. Insane.

More importantly, it's #2. It was #1 for the first few days.

 

[Kiyo]

More importantly, it's #2. It was #1 for the first few days.

He means it's in the top 10 of concurrent players, which is even more impressive imo.

 

[Seil]

He means it's in the top 10 of concurrent players, which is even more impressive imo.

Ah, I forgot that list existed. Though I think topping sales in terms of revenue for this long is more impressive, personally. Especially at its price point. It's been going for a week.

 

[Cerity]

I think my time is nearly up with this game, 50 hours in and maybe another 5 hours to go (depending on how quickly I get into fall and finish the rest of the community centre bundles). If my math is right, I'll be pulling 60k+ every week or so for well into the next season just thanks to fruits I've stockpiled through spring and now summer. The only issue I've really run into is clay, I managed to stockpile quite a few during before they fixed the duplication loophole but now I've actually run out.

50 hours very well spent and don't regret a minute of it.


e: lol, the end of day screen doesn't support making more than 100k a day.

 

[Thelonelykoopa]

One thing I would like for him to add to improve the ambiance is after you get married have the other single characters start to marry each other I believe it was done that way in the last Haverst moon game I played (On the N64)

 

[Spirited]

And it is now above 200k sold according to Steamspy, more exactly 227,897 ± 11,098.
And more interesting is that once again the growth for the day was ~30k, no signs of slowing down.

 

[Textured Monk]

Are there any level of fences/barricades that don't degrade? I tried the regular wooden ones which weren't worth it at all, which is fair for the bottom level. But I've got better things to spend hardwood and iron on if I'm just going to be replacing them every week or so.

EDIT: I mean just naturally falling apart, if storm damage is a thing that's not an issue.

 

[Seil]

Are there any level of fences/barricades that don't degrade? I tried the regular wooden ones which weren't worth it at all, which is fair for the bottom level. But I've got better things to spend hardwood and iron on if I'm just going to be replacing them every week or so.

EDIT: I mean just naturally falling apart, if storm damage is a thing that's not an issue.

I just use stone and I rarely have to replace parts. So I'd assume iron and hardwood last a stupidly long time.

 

[JohnCYQ]

The day before the season ended, I tilled the soil, dropped in some Quality Fertilizer, then planted a crop (potato seed in this case). You need to plant SOMETHING because the greenhouse will automatically destroy/clear any plot of land that's been tilled, but has no crop on it.

Anyway, Day 1 of Winter, I don't see the fertilizer in the plot. So yeah, even in the greenhouse, fertilizers stop working during the season change.

In a related note, I've basically made my greenhouse a brewery. Its main crop is Hops, I've got 6 kegs running inside the building, will be adding more kegs soon.

I've also got 50 plots set aside for the biggest profit crop from each season (Cranberry, Blueberry, Strawberry). I'm not going strictly one crop because I like the variety.

There's several sprinklers in the greenhouse, so its pretty much self-automated.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Yea I'm probably not going full-blueberries either, will have at least 10 hops for my kegs and like 6 ancient seeds as well (the wine money from these...). Will allocate some space to grow pumpkins too since that's my wife's favourite. =P

Speaking of Brewery, some guy managed to fit in 120? kegs in an empty upgraded Barn. That barely takes up any space on the farm itself so its the best way to optimize your space for a full-on brewer.

 

[WhereAreMahDragonz]

How do I make money? I'm always fucking broke. I cultivate some crops and it seems like days later...all of that profit is gone.

 

[Cerity]

I've got 100 on the dot on my big barn atm, haven't really optimised placement yet either. Complete overkill but it's fun seeing big numbers after struggling in the first year

You'd easily be able to more than 120 in the deluxe barn.

 

[LurkerPrime]

How do I make money? I'm always fucking broke. I cultivate some crops and it seems like days later...all of that profit is gone.

Use that money to Invest in more crops and more efficient farming techniques.

Stamina and time are the only obstacles to unfathomable riches.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

For those of you that had a baby already, how'd the process go?

My wife asked me

Spoiler

"want to have a baby" before the next morning and then everything is back to normal. Is it supposed to take some time like irl?

That night she walked off into the darkness all evil ghost like so hopefully it didn't glitch out.


Besides that, have expanded my house fully on summer year 2. Bought 160ish cranberries and planted them all with fertiliizer first day of the fall, managed to plant them all before I went to sleep. Give me all that money I no longer need lol.

Started to focus on doing the goals for the community center. Some of these are a pain so I'll do them year two. I should be able to finish the fishing one this year and do some other ones on the side, but don't expect to finish any others this year.

How do I make money? I'm always fucking broke. I cultivate some crops and it seems like days later...all of that profit is gone.

There's 1 or 2 crops that are the best for each season when you need to make money fairly fast.

I'll tell you what I did which is fairly standard and easy to do without too much thinking.

Spoiler

1. Get all the way to the level 80s in the mines, so you can have access to all three ores.
2. Try to make as many sprinklers as you can, of both of the first two types. You want to have at least 100+ crops automatically watered so you don't have to worry about watering anymore.
3. Save up money to buy the best seeds in bulk for each season.
4. Don't focus on farm animals until maybe year two, once you're making easy money in the farming.

Best crops for each season that isn't too expensive to do.:

Spoiler

Spring: potatoes. You'll have to constantly be planting/replanting them which is the issue though, but it's worth it for the money.
Summer: blueberries. Buy as many as you. I just made like 100k+ in summer with 140ish seeds planted.
Fall: Cranberries. Think of them as the blueberries, only they start making fruits faster
Winter: if you have the money and hay, focus on animals in winter

edit: hey guys where's the glittering boulder?

 

[WhereAreMahDragonz]

Use that money to Invest in more crops and more efficient farming techniques.

Stamina and time are the only obstacles to unfathomable riches.

For those of you that had a baby already, how'd the process go?

My wife asked me

Spoiler

"want to have a baby" before the next morning and then everything is back to normal. Is it supposed to take some time like irl?

That night she walked off into the darkness all evil ghost like so hopefully it didn't glitch out.


Besides that, have expanded my house fully on summer year 2. Bought 160ish cranberries and planted them all with fertiliizer first day of the fall, managed to plant them all before I went to sleep. Give me all that money I no longer need lol.

Started to focus on doing the goals for the community center. Some of these are a pain so I'll do them year two. I should be able to finish the fishing one this year and do some other ones on the side, but don't expect to finish any others this year.



There's 1 or 2 crops that are the best for each season when you need to make money fairly fast.

I'll tell you what I did which is fairly standard and easy to do without too much thinking.

Spoiler

1. Get all the way to the level 80s in the mines, so you can have access to all three ores.
2. Try to make as many sprinklers as you can, of both of the first two types. You want to have at least 100+ crops automatically watered so you don't have to worry about watering anymore.
3. Save up money to buy the best seeds in bulk for each season.
4. Don't focus on farm animals until maybe year two, once you're making easy money in the farming.

Best crops for each season that isn't too expensive to do.:

Spoiler

Spring: potatoes. You'll have to constantly be planting/replanting them which is the issue though, but it's worth it for the money.
Summer: blueberries. Buy as many as you. I just made like 100k+ in summer with 140ish seeds planted.
Fall: Cranberries. Think of them as the blueberries, only they start making fruits faster
Winter: if you have the money and hay, focus on animals in winter

edit: hey guys where's the glittering boulder?

Cool thanks. I made the mistake of getting two chickens, but that's all I have other than crops. Might start a new file.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Cool thanks. I made the mistake of getting two chickens, but that's all I have other than crops. Might start a new file.

dude nooooooooooooooooooo don't, two chickens ain't the end of the world, you can make your money back in no time. I bought 4 chickens, 4 cows and ran out of hay in year one, with only like 5k gold to my name by the end of year 1, and in year two I reached like 100+K easily. Just keep playing.

 

[Quonny]

Man I think I'm getting to the point where I'm going to be done with the game soon. Farm has become automated, have a waifu, all buildings fully upgraded. I can do the community center stuff but some of it is mindnumbing, dunno if the payoff is worth it.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Yeah, money really isn't a big obstacle in the grand scheme of things. Some things will take more time to get, but fortunately there's a lot to do in Stardew Valley in the meantime.

Perfect runs really aren't needed, so don't worry about any mistakes. Just do what you want.

 

[WhereAreMahDragonz]

dude nooooooooooooooooooo don't, two chickens ain't the end of the world, you can make your money back in no time. I bought 4 chickens, 4 cows and ran out of hay in year one, with only like 5k gold to my name by the end of year 1, and in year two I reached like 100+K easily. Just keep playing.

Oh...okay. I'm nearing the end of summer year 1, so I'm gonna be getting a hefty chunk of change when I cash in my melons.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Man I think I'm getting to the point where I'm going to be done with the game soon. Farm has become automated, have a waifu, all buildings fully upgraded. I can do the community center stuff but some of it is mindnumbing, dunno if the payoff is worth it.

I'm in a similar position. My house is fully upgraded, I've already given up on a chance I might get iridium ore, so all I have left is upgrading the community center as much as possible and maybe getting all of my skills to level 10. I'll wait to see if I can get two children before I finish playing at least.

Still it was easily 40+ hours of gameplay for 15 bucks. Cannot complain whatsoever lol

 

[Quonny]

I'm in a similar position. My house is fully upgraded, I've already given up on a chance I might get iridium ore, so all I have left is upgrading the community center as much as possible and maybe getting all of my skills to level 10. I'll wait to see if I can get two children before I finish playing at least.

Still it was easily 40+ hours of gameplay for 15 bucks. Cannot complain whatsoever lol

Oh yeah, definitely not complaining about the game. Although I think it's paced strangely, at least it was for me. I went from the first house upgrade to fully upgraded home, tools, married, animals, and such in less than a season. Once fall hit, I suddenly had so much money I just bought everything I needed. I was pulling in 10k a day.

 

[HaRyu]

Oh yeah, definitely not complaining about the game. Although I think it's paced strangely, at least it was for me. I went from the first house upgrade to fully upgraded home, tools, married, animals, and such in less than a season. Once fall hit, I suddenly had so much money I just bought everything I needed. I was pulling in 10k a day.

You did all that... in one season?

You can't even max out a person's affection in one season, as far as I'm aware. You need at least 2.5 seasons to max a person's affection.

Not to mention the fact I find it hard to believe you could have found enough iridium in the first season alone to fully upgrade your tools.

 

[TheKeyPit]

Reading some posts here, I'm happy that I take my time and don't make big cash, because I want to play this game as long as possible.

------

Question about hardwood: When I chop everything down on my farm, where can I go to buy/chop for more?

 

[Havok1313]

Reading some posts here, I'm happy that I take my time and don't make big cash, because I want to play this game as long as possible.

------

Question about hardwood: When I chop everything down on my farm, where can I go to buy/chop for more?

In the woods with the pond there are stumps that respawn every day.

 

[Cerity]

Brings a tear to my eye, mostly starfruit with rhubarb wine. 200k in one day.

Besides that, have expanded my house fully on summer year 2. Bought 160ish cranberries and planted them all with fertiliizer first day of the fall, managed to plant them all before I went to sleep. Give me all that money I no longer need lol

day 1 of summer in year 2 was crazy for me lol. Farm got pretty heavily damaged by all the junk that appears - weeds, branches, rocks, grass etc. Cleaned all that up, planted all the star fruit seeds that I'd bought over spring, went into town to buy all the other random seeds that I'd need for the community centre bundles and fertilisers, went to grab even more star fruit seeds with the money leftover and then coming back to plant the rest. Didn't even finish before 2 am and had to continue planting the next day.

 

[Sloane]

And it is now above 200k sold according to Steamspy, more exactly 227,897 ± 11,098.
And more interesting is that once again the growth for the day was ~30k, no signs of slowing down.

Incredibly deserved, and that's with next to none press. (Even compared to other indie games.)

Really looking forward to how he's gonna expand it -- even though I've still got tons to unlock in the current version of the game.

 

[Wilsongt]

Incredibly deserved, and that's with next to none press. (Even compared to other indie games.)

Really looking forward to how he's gonna expand it -- even though I've still got tons to unlock in the current version of the game.

Twitch helped a lot. Dansgsming was pulling in 5k+ viewers consistantly and helped it get on the front page a lot.

 

[Quonny]

You did all that... in one season?

You can't even max out a person's affection in one season, as far as I'm aware. You need at least 2.5 seasons to max a person's affection.

Not to mention the fact I find it hard to believe you could have found enough iridium in the first season alone to fully upgrade your tools.

I never said I went from zero to max affection, just that I got married.

Also I consider max level tools the gold tier. Iridium offers nothing new but faster efficiency, and you can't farm Iridium. Also there is zero point in upgrading the hoe or watering can at all.

 

[Sloane]

Twitch helped a lot. Dansgsming was pulling in 5k+ viewers consistantly and helped it get on the front page a lot.

I see. Because the OpenCritic page still looks like this: http://opencritic.com/game/2242/stardew-valley -- 4 (!) reviews over a week after its release. Might not pick every single review up but, still, except for PC Gamer almost nobody seems to cover the game.

 

[AndyMoogle]

Also there is zero point in upgrading the hoe or watering can at all.

Of course there is a point. When you upgrade them you can charge them and do more tiles at once.

 

[Quonny]

Of course there is a point. When you upgrade them you can charge them and do more tiles at once.

When you have 36 quality sprinklers, there isn't a point to the watering can. The hoe upgrade may save me 90 seconds three times a year.

 

[CaLe]

I'm tired of working fulltime as a developer with zero personal satisfaction. Miserable from 8 to 5, every day of the week. I'm finally going to put my knowledge to good use and develop my own game. Every single minute of free time I have outside of work and family will be dedicated to it. Thanks ConcernedApe for giving me the determination to go ahead with a dream I thought was dead.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

If I can give one solid advice to people still in year 1 and struggling, don't search for solid ways to make money and just enjoy the game. Because once you reach the point money is not an issue you might end up wishing it still was for the sake of keeping your interest.

 

[CaLe]

If I can give one solid advice to people still in year 1 and struggling, don't search for solid ways to make money and just enjoy the game. Because once you reach the point money is not an issue you might end up wishing it still was for the sake of keeping your interest.

Yeah, and don't look at the xml-formatted save file in %appdata%, the pull to cheat might be too strong.

 

[Seil]

Also there is zero point in upgrading the hoe or watering can at all.

Uh, what? You know you can charge upgraded hoes and watering cans for larger areas of effect, right? Because that makes setting the farm up every season significantly less terrible.

Also the hoe can be used in dungeons on dirt/mud/sand patches to find stuff, so that charged area of effect is useful for quickly checking those.

 

[LurkerPrime]

RIP Quonny. How could you even think that!

I see. Because the OpenCritic page still looks like this: http://opencritic.com/game/2242/stardew-valley -- 4 (!) reviews over a week after its release. Might not pick every single review up but, still, except for PC Gamer almost nobody seems to cover the game.

Giant Bomb will be posting a Quick Look of it in two days. They don't do many reviews nowadays though.

But yeah, Stardew Valley really seems like a game that folks will cover because it's popular, not because of any previous plans to. The response to it reminds me a lot of Divinity: Original Sin, which took the RPG world by storm a few years back.

I'm tired of working fulltime as a developer with zero personal satisfaction. Miserable from 8 to 5, every day of the week. I'm finally going to put my knowledge to good use and develop my own game. Every single minute of free time I have outside of work and family will be dedicated to it. Thanks ConcernedApe for giving me the determination to go ahead with a dream I thought was dead.

Good luck, dude. Hope it turns out well!

Just don't count on a one-person project being a runaway success or any kind of high profile thing. Stardew Valley is bucking every trend right now.

 

[CaLe]

Good luck, dude. Hope it turns out well!

Just don't count on a one-person project being a runaway success or any kind of high profile thing. Stardew Valley is bucking every trend right now.

Thanks ! I'm mostly doing it to try and accomplish something out of my life that doesn't involve working for ungrateful bosses. It will also be a learning experience, something that's inexistent in the gaming industry when you work for a big company. Most of the time you're just a code monkey working on unsatisfying bugs, or features that no one cares about. If it does work out, then great. If not at least I would have had something to keep me busy when not working. It's good to not feel useless sometimes and to take time for yourself.

I'm curious to see what happens down the line when I revisit this post a few years from now.

 

[LurkerPrime]

All this time I've been trying to catch sturgeon in the wrong season.

RIP me.

Thanks ! I'm mostly doing it to try and accomplish something out of my life that doesn't involve working for ungrateful bosses. It will also be a learning experience, something that's inexistent in the gaming industry when you work for a big company. Most of the time you're just a code monkey working on unsatisfying bugs, or features that no one cares about. If it does work out, then great. If not at least I would have had something to keep me busy when not working. It's good to not feel useless sometimes and to take time for yourself.

I'm curious to see what happens down the line when I revisit this post a few years from now.

You said the magic words: Code Monkey!

 

[Cerity]

If I can give one solid advice to people still in year 1 and struggling, don't search for solid ways to make money and just enjoy the game. Because once you reach the point money is not an issue you might end up wishing it still was for the sake of keeping your interest.

Yeah, treat year 1 as a learning/test year. Figure out what's good/bad, have fun in general being a farmer. Don't go looking up those crop spreadsheets that give you the best investment crops or other money making tips.

Go ham in year 2 or later, the year 1 struggle makes it all the sweeter. Year 2 is still a good 30-40 hours away anyway.