Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone broke his first multi-week silence over the weekend, with a new blog post on the game’s official website, outlining some of his plans for the immediate and long-term future of Stardew Valley on PC and consoles.
Last month, Barone announced plans to “ break away from the PC ” for a little bit, giving himself time to recharge after the Stardew Valley launch blew all of his expectations out of the water. The developer used that time to catch up on a few recent releases, like recent indie standout Factorio , and think about his plans for the future of Stardew Valley . Now, the game’s lone developer is back with a short roadmap outlining some of his short- and long-term plans for the country life sim. Those plans include the previously promised cooperative multiplayer support, localization for non-English regions, and porting Stardew Valley to Mac, Linux and unspecified consoles. Barone even has plans for Stardew Valley merchandise.
“ I know in the past I’ve been very adamant about doing everything myself… and I still am, when it comes to game design and content,” Barone wrote . “However, I’ve decided to seek outside help for some of the more technical things listed above. More specifically, I’ve accepted an offer from Chucklefish in which they will handle the porting, localization, and the technical side of multiplayer. This will allow me to focus on creating new game content for version 1.1, which I will continue to do entirely on my own.”
Given the Stardew Valley creator’s ambitious plans for his farming sim, it’s not exactly shocking to see Barone accepting outside help with some aspects of the game’s development. Only the game’s creator can know what sorts of animals, buildings and new game mechanics would fit within his original vision for the game. But anyone with the proper coding prowess or fluency in non-English languages can start work on the game’s multiplayer features or begin localizing Stardew Valley for other regions. With that off his plate, Barone wants to develop new late-game content, introduce more-advanced farming mechanics, fix more bugs and continue to expand the social and relationship mechanics that hooked many Stardew Valley fans.
Here’s everything Barone says he has planned for Stardew Valley 1.1:
More late-game content
New farm buildings
New crops
New artisan goods
New advanced farming/producing mechanics
Shane and Emily will be marriage candidates. They will also have more events and dialogue as a result.
More marriage content for all spouses
More events for the non-marriage NPC’s
Improvements/Additions to mining and combat
Ability to move buildings and other convenience features
More bug fixes
More secrets
More small, fun touches to the world
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Stardew Valley news throughout 2016 and for however long ConcernedApe supports Stardew Valley in the coming months.
