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Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has made no secret of his love for the OG farming RPG series, Harvest Moon, and the indie game's success has revealed the joys of cozy farming games to a whole new generation of fans. But during the game's development, Barone was worried that not even hardcore Harvest Moon fans would like it.
"When I first started, it was just a pipe dream project – something I didn't have huge, ambitious ideas for," Barone says in an interview with our friends at PC Gamer. "I was like, I'm just gonna make a little game. It's based on a game that I loved as a kid, Harvest Moon. I just wanted to create my own world that's similar to that."
Stardew Valley, with its robust crafting systems, extensive customization options, and largely lovable cast characters, has arguably outdone anything Harvest Moon has managed – and I say that as a diehard childhood fan of games like Harvest Moon 64 and Friends of Mineral Town myself. But it didn't look that way to Barone during the game's development.
"I started off kind of having no ambitions," Barone continues. "My ambitions for the game grew over time as my skills improved, as the game started to come together, and I started to feel like maybe this could actually be something. I still didn't think it was going to be super popular. I thought it would be maybe a niche game for Harvest Moon lovers. I even thought a lot of them would probably hate it because they'd be like 'This isn't as good as my favorite Harvest Moon game.'"
Obviously, those fears turned out to be unfounded. Stardew Valley quickly become a hit, going beyond a mere love letter to a childhood favorite, and helping to kick off an unending wave of cozy and farming games that continues to this day.
"When I was making the game there was many times where I thought 'This game's awful. It's not fun. No one's going to like this,'" Barone admites. "But the truth is, I'm always very hard on myself. I’m like my own toughest critic in a huge way. That mindset, I think, helps me always struggle to do better. I always need to make the game better. I always need to improve my skills."
Barone's commitment to improving on Stardew Valley has led to an incredible number of improvements to the game over the years, though some fans are eager for him to move on with Haunted Chocolatier on the way. Now, Barone says he's "committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I'm done with Haunted Chocolatier," but he'll "never say" he's completely done with his magnum opus. That's a big turnaround for a project that started with "no ambitions."
The success of Barone's game has led to a whole lot more excellent games like Stardew Valley.
