Stardew Valley - Indie Farm Game

To me, I think it boils down to the sense of progression. There is something about the gradual expansion of a farm alongside that feeling of wanting and needing to do more balanced against discovering more about the people and world around them. The only suggestion I would offer is that the first month (Spring) does suck, but I found it got better once I hit Summer. What helped for me is knowing that as with all games of this style (ie: Harvest Moon, Rune Factory) the first month is always terrible.

This is a fantastic bit of writing

I couldn’t figure out how to give someone a fish, one of my first quests. It was in my inventory and I tracked the individual down in the town (is there an option for quest markers? That was a task which took more than a day in game). I figured out how to speak with the person, but no option to give the fish popped up anywhere.

Select the fish in your inventory (so you’re running around holding it above your head), then go up to the person and left-click. That’s how all the gifting works.

I humbly thank you for your sage advice. That makes enough sense that I should have tried it, lol.

I, uh, I definitely don’t have 365 hours in SDV according to Steam. So yeah, happy to help!

So just like in real life. :D

Is it bad to just tend to your crops and then go to sleep at noon?

Not bad, per se. Your goal is whatever you want it to be. Maybe try some fishing, or head up into the mines, or see if you can forage up some stuff and or cut down some trees in the forest?

What Adam said.

I am using humping it to get get back in time to get to bed before I collapse… never enough time in the day.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be playing so I was trying to rush my crops so I have the money to build the chicken coup. I just built the smelter. I guess I could use the extra time to go to the mines to kill creatures and get more ore.

There are lots of collection type things in the game… fruits that only blossom during certain seasons, fish you can only catch not only during certain seasons but at certain times of year… then there are all the tasks you do to open up more areas of the map… .it’s kind of a always got a goal in front of you approach game.

Quick question: does the game have an end date? If so, does it allow New Game + or for the player to just keep going if he wants or is it all over?

There’s a soft ending where you get (really casually) judged for your progress, but you can keep on keepin’ on as much as you like.

There is an event that happens after a certain period of time where you essentially get a score, trying not to spoil here, after that is basically the end game where you can try and increase that score. ConcernedApe added a lot with v1.1 I just haven’t completed yet, and I believe one of those quests is towards the end game or I guess mid game if you are super aggressive in trying to tackle some of the objectives as early as possible.

But yes you can keep going to your heart’s content. I started over because the new stuff wasn’t in my original game.

thanks to you both

It was Leah that I was missing and now I’ve met everyone. I’m in summer now and built a chicken coup. I haven’t’ been maximizing my time, sometimes I go to bed at 1-3PM just so I can get some crops harvested. I’ve been mostly ignoring trying to make friends by gifting items.

So, I’m not really trying to do ‘well’, just trying to do enough to see what some of the progression is. I think it’s fair to say Stardew Valley isn’t really my kind of game. It’s likely that I’ll putz around a bit more with the farming, and cave exploring and call it quits in the not too distant future.

I’ve got a feeling I’ll feel exactly the same as you @robc04 about Stardew Valley but hoping to give it a try at some point still.

It’s funny, I’m very much an achiever-type player almost exclusively - I derive enjoyment from learning and mastering game systems, moreso than exploring or role-playing or whatever. Generally Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing and such have bounced off of me pretty hard, while Stardew is GOTY 2016.

I think the difference is that Stardew is really, really good at giving you just enough goals to form your own framework of “stuff I want to do” without overwhelming you. And I get a real kick out of optimizing for time - on my fourth farm here, I’ve completed the Community Center as soon as (almost) literally possible in summer of year 2, 10/10 (or 8/8) heart friendship with everyone, max tools, tons of money, married, maxed farm buildings, etc.

Stardew is self guided in that you are given rather passively a whole list of opportunities to accomplish but are not pushed (or really even facilitated) to accomplish them, and in fact many of them you have to find yourself. If you need a more direct Quest List sort of game play I don’t think you’ll like Stardew. It’s also just a bit cutesy and that’s kind of the whole point, and of course if you don’t like that aesthetic you’re not going to dig the game. I really appreciate the seasons and the sounds of the outdoors, that strikes my fancy, so just heading out into the woods is a good time for me. To some extent it’s the joy of self guided exploration and even though there are tons of guides at this point I think it sort of is more fun if you only use those guides to figure out a few crucial things - i’m an adult, you know, i’m not going to spend 100 hours figuring out every characters’ favorite meal through multiple playthroughs. If you get to the Flower Festival without a date and think “Boring, I just want to level up and get more money to buy some cows”, then… you might not be the audience for this one.

I mean, you’re managing a farm and growing cute farm things and then reinvesting your profits into more farming in an innocent Nintendo-esque world. Ultimately if you don’t like basic thing the rest of the game isn’t going to hang together. Maybe try one of those Farming Simulator games?