Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone says he chooses what goes in each update based on his "whims," but he wishes he'd made it easier for him to make them.
In an interview in PC Gamer magazine, Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone was asked what goes into making each update, like the substantial Stardew Valley 1.6 update that rolled out on PC in March (and is still on its way for consoles). In response, Barone said that "mostly, it's just how I feel, my whims. It helps when I play the game myself, then I will get ideas; 'Man, I wish this was in the game', or a spark of an idea."
Barone says that player feedback does shape the game a little bit - "I do look somewhat at player feedback and requests, but it's not the ultimate compass that I navigate by. I try to follow my feelings and intuition. What I think would make the game more fun."
Even if Barone is primarily following his own drive for fun, each major Stardew Valley update can be a huge amount of work. That's something he says he wishes he could change. His game has been a smash hit, selling over 30 million copies, but Barone says that "if I had known how popular Stardew Valley would be and how many updates and languages [it would receive], I would have spent more time up-front in a way to make my life easier for making all these updates."
Perhaps that's a lesson that Barone is preparing to take over into Haunted Chocolatier, his next game. Having been waylaid by his latest update, he says he's "eager" to get back to working on what's next, but ironing out all the issues with 1.6 is currently his biggest job. Eventually, he thinks he might move on from Stardew Valley for good, but for now, he's still firmly rooted in the game that made him famous.
