Stardew Valley‘s creator and self-publisher, Eric Barone aka ConcernedApe, did a live Q&A on Twitter yesterday to coincide with the announcement of Stardew Valley being self-published on Android devices.
Using the Twitter handle ConcernedApe, the publisher of Stardew Valley answered many of the fans burning questions regarding their favourite farming simulator yesterday via Twitter.
Eric Barone has been very vocal with fans regarding his massively successful title, so the Q&A comes as no surprise. There was still some exciting information given regarding the background of the Valley, including some beliefs regarding game mechanics. Here are some pretty interesting ones:
Super_Anina wrote: “Any fun Stardew Valley (development) trivia not many know about?” to which some favourite characters’ names were revealed to have been changed “Penny used to be named Dana, Alex used to be named Josh, and Willy used to be named Dick. The intro cutscene I added at the last minute and that’s why grandpa’s bed looks so weird, but now it’s part of the lore,” showing that even last-minute changes can be helpful.
Other interesting takes were given regarding the title, including whether the music featured in the game can be used for creator videos, to which he responded that he doesn’t mind if creators use it, but on a “case by case” basis. If a major marketing campaign used it, it might be a different story. This is similar to the Square Enix music release on YouTube. Supporting smaller creators is a notable sentiment, considering he was one.
Regarding the newest update in the works for Stardew Valley, he stated that it would be “mostly” modding-related, to make it easier for users to mod the title, and to ultimately make modding more “flexible.” There’s also a hint of more content ‘may’ be coming to the title in the update, but fans will have to wait and see.
On the stance of whether more NPC stories will be expanded on in the future, ConcernedApe’s reply was that he “was open to adding more story to NPC’s and even making some marriageable,” answering a question on whether Gunther or Marlon would be romanceable. Time constraints, possibly due to Haunted Chocolatier being in development, or lack of ideas on “how to expand” them appropriately, he suggested.
There was even a question on if he can lower the difficulty on the Prairie King, to which he regretted the difficulty on it, but he wouldn’t feel fair towards the players who have already unlocked the achievement associated with the quest.
Of course, fans asked about Haunted Chocolatier, but an update on development wasn’t given considering mobile update 1.5 hadn’t launched yet, and he would “feel kind of rude” if information about the latest game were given before the Stardew Valley update 1.5 for mobile launched.
The rest of the ConcernedApe questionnaire can be found on this Twitter thread, and giving the account a follow will help fans stay connected to news regarding Stardew Valley and the upcoming Haunted Chocolatier.
