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As work on Stardew Valley and its huge 1.7 update cracks on, creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has taken some time out of his busy schedule to look back on the beloved farming sim's history – including the conception of its mines.
Speaking in the recent Stardew Valley 10-year anniversary video on YouTube – yes, the one that ended with news of the game's two new marriage candidates – he recalls wanting mines that were "procedurally generated," much like sandbox gem Terraria.
"This was the era of the procedurally generated mines," ConcernedApe says. "I wanted the mines to be like Terraria, but top-down instead of sidescrolling."
He continues, outlining (and showing – the accompanying clip is definitely worth a watch) how such mines would've worked.
"You had these big procedurally generated levels, and you mined into the walls and uncovered ores and secrets within the walls, which I think was a cool idea, but for some reason, I was just never able to really make it compelling, and it was very bug-prone." ConcernedApe explains that it was just too much of an undertaking.
"It just ended up being too complicated," as the developer puts it. "I think it was maybe just beyond my ability. I don't know – or maybe another way to think about it was just that it was too ambitious a concept for the scope of this game. This should have been an entire game on its own."
That's when he brings up such a game: Core Keeper. "And, you know, if you've played Core Keeper, that's pretty much what Core Keeper is," he says.
"When I saw Core Keeper, I was like, 'Hey, someone finally did it.'" He praised the game – but as a concept, it sadly just didn't work in Stardew Valley. "So, cool idea, but I had to make the hard decision to scrap all of it – and I spent a long time working on this, too."
I do wonder what it would be like if Stardew Valley still had that sort of mining system, but I'd say it all worked out perfectly in the end (even if I regularly die on floor 99).
