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Stardew Valley can “never be perfect,” but that won’t stop its creator

With Stardew Valley 1.6 on the way, creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone outlines why they're still making the game all these years later.

Stardew Valley 1.6 development: a birds eye view of pixleated farmers and green grass

Stardew Valley 1.6 is coming, but we’re still going to have to wait a little longer. While Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone is putting their spooky chocolate-making game Haunted Chocolatier on hold to get the phenomenal farming game’s next update out, they’ve also highlighted why they still love developing the game all these years later. It shows a lot of heartwarming dedication, and I’m here for it.

Stardew Valley has been officially out for over seven years, and in development for closer to ten. With lots of major free updates and many more minor ones coming to the game since 2016, it’s safe to say that Barone has a lot of passion driving them to make it the best version of the farming game it can be.

This hasn’t been more evident than when Barone shared a sneaky look at the Big Chest feature coming to Stardew Valley 1.6, where they also responded to a fan question about why they keep working on the game.

“Many things,” Barone replies. “Including that so many people are still playing it, and many new people every day, I want it to be the best it can be, it will never be perfect but I feel an urge to keep improving it. Up to this point, it’s been my life’s work and I care a lot about it.”

Stardew Valley 1.6. development: Stardew dev Eric Barone tweeint about why he keeps making the game

While a Big Chest that can store almost double that of a regular chest is quite the tease, we still don’t know when 1.6 is coming out. I’d wager it’ll be early 2024, but knowing Barone and the amount of effort they put into Stardew Valley, there really is no telling when it will arrive.

With the Stardew Valley concert tour one of the coolest things to come out of Barone’s game and even just whispers of a Stardew Valley movie, the game is bigger than ever, so I expect 1.6 to absolutely blow 1.5 and all previous major updates out of the water.

In the meantime, we’ve also put together the best games like Stardew Valley if you want more farming and life sim goodness, alongside some incredible Stardew Valley mods to help revitalize your farm too.

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