The quietly enormously ambitious Stardew Valley has been given a new trailer detailing some of the Harvest Moony life sim's many, many activities. Activities like farming, battling monsters in procedurally generated caves, fishing, popping to the shops, and standing moodily on a dock looking out to sea. Not pictured: marriage, co-op, archaeology, cooking, crafting, or the other things mentioned on this About page.
Stardew Valley is one of the few PC life sims, and it's shaping up to be a timesink of gigantic proportions. I mentioned it before, nearly two years ago now, but it seems to have come on a fair bit since then. Starbound developers Chucklefish are publishing, which seems entirely apt to me: there's a similar sense of scale and ambition to the more earthbound Stardew Valley. As you can see here:
No release date yet, unfortunately, but while we wait, the game's website is full of interesting development titbits. Titbits like this one:
"Now, about Joja Corporation [the Walmart-like chain store featured in the above trailer]… I’ve decided not to impose a time limit on players. Here’s my new Joja concept:
"JojaMart already exists when you arrive in town. In fact, Joja’s presence is the reason the community center has fallen into disrepair, and why the local mom and pop businesses are suffering. Some townspeople long for the old days, when local businesses were thriving and the town had a strong sense of unity. Others welcome the convenience and affordability of the JojaMart."
You'll be able to affect JojaMart's influence on the town, by revitalising the community centre and putting Joja out of business, by expanding the mega-chain and demolishing the community centre for good (you monster), or by abstaining from the decision process and letting things run their course. Interesting stuff!
