A Stardew Valley player is sharing a discovery they made in the game after having spent 250 hours playing. Stardew Valley contains many secrets, and some of its game mechanics go unnoticed by fans, no matter how long they've been playing.
12.04.2024 - 15:55 / polygon.com
Hold on to your parsnips, because an apocalypse has struck the pastoral lands of Stardew Valley.
No, it wasn’t a game-breaking bug or new content. Rather, the highly anticipated Stardew Valley 1.6 update introduced changes that overhauled the back end and rendered several of its most popular mods completely useless. While mod compatibility might not be at the top of mind for every fan, it’s paramount in the larger Stardew Valley community, where a single mod might have more than 10 million downloads. Now, the 1.6 update has kicked off a frenzied scramble among its enthusiast creators to fix their content and mitigate the effects of what people in the community are calling the “modpocalypse.”
But it’s not all bad news. Update 1.6 might be one of the biggest turning points for modding in the game’s history and will make it easier to add new content, like characters and music. Previously, certain changes required technical programming knowledge, but thanks to improvements made in 1.6, it’s easier than ever to create mods. Polygon spoke with creators behind some of the biggest mods, and while they mentioned the challenges that came with all the current dysfunctional mods, in the opinion of Stardew Valley Expanded creator turned Stardew Valley developer Devin Hedegaard, the changes will “make the modding community stronger than ever before.”
According to Hedegaard, better known as FlashShifter, the game was developed in a way where you “would need to be a programmer“ to edit and add things behind the scenes. Content Patcher, a popular program for modders, made it much easier to add content, but there were limitations on what you could use it for. Now, modders can use it to edit and add even more elements to the game, like animals and music, that you couldn’t before. “With Content Patcher, you don’t need to be a programmer, you just need to be able to read data and think logically. And you can add things very easily now. [...] It was easy before, but now it’s even easier,” Hedegaard said via Discord voice chat.
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Developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone first released Stardew Valley in 2016, and it’s sold over 30 million copies to date. That lasting popularity can, in large part, be explained by Barone’s continual updates, but also by the passionate community of modders who continue to create new content and expand the world of the game. Players can explore new regions, meet fan-made characters, or alter the art direction thanks to these mods. According to a representative from Nexus Mods, there have been over 336 million downloads across roughly 15,300 Stardew Valley mods over the past eight years, making it the fifth-largest game community on the site.
Rather than policing modders with the likes of
A Stardew Valley player is sharing a discovery they made in the game after having spent 250 hours playing. Stardew Valley contains many secrets, and some of its game mechanics go unnoticed by fans, no matter how long they've been playing.
A recent Stardew Valley update has added a potential homage to SpongeBob SquarePants, as the pineapple item can now be placed in fish tanks. While Update 1.6 added a boatload of new content to Stardew Valley, the game’s creator, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, included a few more surprises in subsequent updates in the weeks following, such as allowing players to place more items in their fish tanks.
players have been romancing snarky, wannabe photographer Haley since the game came out, but queer players have been celebrating their love for the bachelorette with some edits set to Chappell Roan's «Good Luck, Babe!» The song is from the perspective of a woman talking to her former lover, who's in denial about her attraction to the narrator, instead opting to continue dating a man. From the first Flower Dance, most players will believe Haley has her eyes set on Alex, the stereotypical masculine choice of the game's bachelors, creating a fictional love triangle parallel to that in the song.
After a couple of months of consistent updates for , ConcernedApe has released yet another patch that adjusts the game and while it may not be massive in terms of content, it should make a particular kind of farmer very happy. While the farming RPG may be nearly a decade old, it continues to be one of the best-supported video games in recent memory as its creator continues to listen to the community's feedback. The recent 1.6 Update was one of the biggest expansions to date, so it stands to reason that some bugs need to be squashed.
A Stardew Valley fan is sharing their concept for a Joja mod that could add a lot to the current experience of siding with Joja Corporation. While Stardew Valley has always had an option for players who would rather side with Joja Corporation, the route has been criticized in the past, as some players have felt there isn't much incentive to do a Joja Corporation runthrough. While that might be intentional, mods can always help to change the experience in the more dramatic ways that fans are hoping for.
An artist has drawn the characters of Stardew Valley in the world of Fallout, providing a glimpse of how Pelican Town's citizens would fare in the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Both franchises are incredibly popular among gamers.
Stardew Valley update 1.6.6 is officially here, and although creator Eric Barone says it's "mostly bug fixes and translation changes," there is a list of "balance and gameplay changes," and among them is one that's a pretty dang big deal for honey farming.
A glitch in 1.6 is making characters extremely wealthy overnight. There are various ways to accumulate gold in, as players build a dilapidated farm their character has inherited, bringing its standards up to produce several different types of goods.
A Stardew Valley player has shared the apothecary they designed. The shop uses items from the recent Stardew Valley 1.6 update, and the design has charmed fellow players.
One Stardew Valley player has found a clever place to build a «secret lounge» in Pelican Town. While Stardew Valley allows players to place objects almost anywhere in the town, one area that seems to be overlooked by many players is the tunnel next to the bus stop, where this secret lounge resides.
Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft has recently revealed that players will be able to use their Royal Tools while visiting other players’ Valleys soon. By introducing the new feature, the devs will likely increase the level of interactivity that gamers may have in Disney Dreamlight Valley while playing together with their friends.
Fallout 76, the online survival game set in the Fallout universe, got a massive player base boost thanks to the combination of the Prime Gaming giveaway, heavy discounts, and the popularity of the Amazon Prime Video TV series (just renewed for a second season).