Stardew Valley is a 2016 farm life simulation video game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. Players take the role of a character who inherits their deceased grandfather's dilapidated farm. The game is open-ended, with players managing the farm by clearing land, growing seasonal crops, and raising animals. Players can acquire skills in farming, foraging, fishing, mining, and combat. Social features include building relationships with townspeople, with the option to marry and have a child. A later update added multiplayer, allowing online play with others.
Barone created Stardew Valley by himself over five years as an indie developer. He began the project to improve his programming and game design skills. He was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series (now named Story of Seasons), with additions to address some of those games' shortcomings. British studio Chucklefish approached Barone halfway through development with an offer to publish the game, allowing him to focus on completing it. It was released for Windows in February 2016 before being ported to several other platforms.
Stardew Valley received generally positive reviews from critics, including Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon. The game has been cited as one of the best video games ever made and is credited with causing a resurgence in popularity for the farming sim genre. It became one of the best-selling video games, selling 50 million copies by February 2026. The game appeared on several publications' year-end lists and received accolades, including the Breakthrough Award at the Golden Joystick Awards and a nomination for Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards.
Gameplay
Stardew Valley is a farm life simulation video game set in top-down perspective. The open-ended game starts with the player character leaving their corporate job to manage a farm just outside of Pelican Town, located in the eponymous Stardew Valley. The farm inherited from their deceased grandfather must be restored, and players must assist in the town's revival.
Players may choose from several different farm types, each with a unique theme and different benefits and drawbacks. Each theme helps players focus on upgrading different types of skills faster. On the farm, players need to cut down trees, break rocks, and use a scythe to clear weeds to make space for tilling and planting. The farming system allows players to plant seasonal seeds that require daily watering and generally must be harvested before the next season. Players can also build barns and coops to raise animals for products like eggs and milk. As the game progresses through four 28-day seasons, players can complete certain tasks known as bundles. Players must collect a set amount of goods to complete each bundle and bring them to the Community Center to unlock new areas and activities such as a new island.
Players may develop skills in farming, foraging, fishing, mining, and combat. Interacting with townspeople and giving gifts builds relationships over time. Players can marry one of 12 bachelors or bachelorettes regardless of gender, allowing the spouse to help with daily farm chores such as cooking, feeding animals, or watering crops. After marriage, the couple may choose to have children. Time in the game is divided into day-length segments. Each morning, players begin with a full energy bar, which decreases as tasks are performed and can be replenished by eating food. A nearby cave system holds ores that can be mined and smelted by using a furnace. The cave also contains monsters, adding a combat element to mining. Players must switch between a pickaxe and a sword while exploring deeper levels, where more valuable treasures can be found. A multiplayer mode was introduced in a later update, allowing online play with other players.
Development
Stardew Valley was created by American indie game designer Eric Barone, known professionally as ConcernedApe. Barone graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma in 2011 with a computer science degree but was unable to get a job in the industry, instead working as an usher at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Looking to improve his computer skills for better job prospects, he had the idea to craft a game that would also pull in his artistic side. Barone grew up in the Pacific Northwest and incorporated many elements of the region into the gameplay and art.
Stardew Valley originally began as a modern, fan-made alternative to later Harvest Moon titles, as Barone felt the series had gotten "progressively worse" after Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. Unable to find a satisfactory replacement, he created a game similar to the series, explaining that he aimed to fix the issues he had with Harvest Moon and felt that no title in the series ever brought everything together perfectly. Originally titled Sprout Valley, Barone spent five years developing the game before its official release. He was the sole developer of the game, including all of its pixel art, music and sound effects. Barone used Reason Studios, a digital audio workstation, for music and sound effects and Paint.NET for the pixel art. He chose not to use Steam's Early Access feature for development, as he felt it was not well suited to Stardew Valley. The game was originally programmed in C# using the Microsoft XNA framework, later migrating to MonoGame in 2021. Barone stated that the migration ensured the game remains "futureproof", enabling mods to use more than 4 GB of RAM.
Barone aimed to give players the feeling of immersion in a small farming community, saying he wanted Stardew Valley to be entertaining while also having "real-world messages". In contrast to most Harvest Moon games, which could end after two in-game years, Barone kept Stardew Valley open-ended so players would not feel rushed to try to complete everything. He designed the game to encourage a relaxed playstyle, allowing players to take as much time as they wanted to explore its activities, plot lines, and goals to feel excited rather than stressed. While he had hoped most players would learn on their own, he noticed some immediately used spreadsheets and guides to optimize their farm's income. He saw this approach as inevitable but not entirely in the spirit of the game. To that end, he designed the cooking system purposely not to be profitable, but instead to pay back in bonuses that aided exploration, farming, mining, and fishing skills. Barone also chose not to include the butchering of farm animals for meat, encouraging players to name and tend to each animal.
Release Barone initially considered releasing Stardew Valley on Xbox Live Indie Games, but the project grew beyond its original scope. He announced the game in September 2012, using Steam Greenlight to gauge interest in it. After strong community support, Barone began full-time development, engaging with Reddit and Twitter communities to share progress and gather feedback. Shortly after the Greenlight period in 2013, he was approached by Finn Brice, director of Chucklefish, who offered to help publish the game on release. Chucklefish handled several non-development activities, including site hosting and setting up a wiki. In April 2015, Barone said he would release the game only when it was feature complete and declined pre-sales. Stardew Valley was released for Windows via Steam and GOG.com on February 26, 2016.
Post-release Barone continued developing Stardew Valley since its official release, incorporating community feedback, fixing bugs, and adding new features. He also planned more end-game content and ports on other platforms. In May 2016, Barone announced that Chucklefish would help with non-English localizations, Linux, macOS, and console ports, and the technical aspects required for online cooperative play, allowing him to focus on the first major content update. Barone had planned for public beta testing of the multiplayer feature in late 2017 for the Windows version, but was still working to improve the network code by early 2018. The multiplayer beta for Windows was released in April 2018 and officially launched for all PC platforms on August 1, 2018. In December 2018, the multiplayer update was released for the Nintendo Switch. That same month, Barone said he wanted to assemble a team of developers to help continue the game's development. He regained publishing rights for all platforms except for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch reverted to Barone. By 2019, all versions of the game, except on mobile, were self-published by Barone. He regained the rights for the official wiki in February 2021, the iOS release in December 2021, and the Android release in March 2022, ending Chucklefish's involvement. In March 2024, Barone published a major update that significantly expanded the game, with mobile and console platforms receiving the update in November of that year.
Stardew Valley was released on several platforms following its initial launch. The Linux and macOS ports were released on July 29, 2016. Console ports for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were announced at E3 2016 in June. At the same event, Barone said that a port for the Wii U would also be released. However, that version was later canceled in favor of a version for the Nintendo Switch. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released on December 14, 2016. The Switch version, ported by Sickhead Games, was released on October 5, 2017. A PlayStation Vita port was released on May 22, 2018. Retail versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were published and distributed by 505 Games. A collector's edition released at the same time included a physical map of the game's world, a download code for the soundtrack, and a guidebook. Mobile versions for iOS and Android were developed with help of The Secret Police, with the iOS version released on October 24, 2018, and the Android version on March 14, 2019. Both versions include the ability for Linux, macOS, and Windows users to transfer progress to their device. In December 2019, Stardew Valley was added to the Tesla Arcade, a Linux-based video game service incorporated within most models of Tesla electric cars. In 2020, Barone collaborated with Fangamer to announce the physical release of the game's standard and collector's edition, as well as the Nintendo Switch and PC versions. The Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Stardew Valley was released on December 25, 2025.
Mods Stardew Valley has also seen an active modding community, with players adding various new features to the game. , over 30,000 mods have been created. One of the most popular mods is Stardew Valley Expanded, which adds multiple new characters and locations and has been downloaded over 4 million times. Devin Hedegaard, the mod's creator, later joined the Stardew Valley development team. Other mods offer more cosmetic options ranging from changing the overall appearance of the game to introducing new animal designs. Most mods are only playable through the PC version of the game. Later updates to the game have added features for mod developers.
In March 2025, a fan made Baldur's Gate 3-themed mod was released, titled Baldur's Village. The mod received praise from Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke. In the same month, lawyers representing Wizards of the Coast have had the mod removed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Vincke took to social media to voice his support for fan-made mods, raising concerns about how they are handled and urging for a solution to be found. On April 1, 2025, Wizards of the Coast issued a statement on the DMCA, saying that it happened in error and apologized for the situation.
Reception Critical reception