{"id":107150,"date":"2023-07-01T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=107150"},"modified":"2023-07-06T13:54:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T17:54:33","slug":"how-was-stardew-valley-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-was-stardew-valley-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How Was Stardew Valley Made by Just One Person?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How was <em>Stardew Valley<\/em> made? Did one person really create the entire farming simulator by themselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stardew Valley<\/em> is one of the most popular farming simulators around, and it was created by one person: Eric Barone. To achieve this, Barone had to spend four years working on the game, putting in eight to 15 hours a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out more about the stressful conditions of <em>Stardew Valley<\/em>&#8216;s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-development-of-stardew-valley\">Development of Stardew Valley<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How was <em>Stardew Valley<\/em> made? Schreier spoke to Eric Barone, the one-man team behind the beloved farming simulator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stardewvalley.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Stardew Valley<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em><strong>Barone spent over four years working on the game, during which he says he put in anywhere from eight to 15 hours a day.<\/strong> He consistently told friends and family that it would be done in another month or two, but that timeline kept stretching since he had no supervisors pushing him to finalize and release the game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Creating your own game like Barone did is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/gamesblog\/2010\/feb\/01\/games-casual-gaming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more doable than ever<\/a> thanks to the accessibility of programming software and how powerful personal computers have become. However, there are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedesigning.org\/gaming\/indie-game-development\/#:~:text=Pros%20and%20Cons%20of%20Indie%20Game%20Development\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">downsides<\/a> to independent game development: Making a game by yourself is a hugely time-consuming endeavor (as Barone discovered) and one that you won\u2019t get paid for unless your game does well.)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, Barone struck a deal with a small publisher called Chucklefish Games, and <em>Stardew Valley <\/em>finally came out in February 2016. The game was an unexpected hit; it sold over a million copies in two months and made Barone a millionaire practically overnight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Barone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stardewvalley.net\/clarification-on-the-relationship-between-chucklefish-and-stardew-valley\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">publicly distanced himself<\/a> from Chucklefish Games in 2019 when the studio was accused of exploiting developers and relying on unpaid labor. He emphasized that he was the only developer who worked on <em>Stardew Valley<\/em>\u2014implying that he wasn\u2019t benefitting from unfair labor practices\u2014and said Chucklefish was only responsible for publishing the game and implementing the multiplayer feature. Chucklefish released a statement in 2022 that didn\u2019t directly attack Barone\u2019s post but made a point of listing the <a href=\"https:\/\/chucklefish.org\/blog\/thank-you-stardew-valley\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">numerous features and re-releases the studio handled<\/a> as <em>Stardew Valley<\/em>\u2019s popularity continued to grow beyond what they or Barone had ever imagined.)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schreier notes that Barone\u2019s work situation didn\u2019t improve after <em>Stardew Valley <\/em>came out; a few months later, <strong>Barone worked himself into burnout and couldn&#8217;t bring himself to work at all. <\/strong>Having so many players meant that Barone was suddenly under enormous pressure to fix bugs and release new features. He frequently pulled all-nighters to develop and release patches\u2014small updates designed to fix problems in the game\u2014but those patches often created as many issues as they solved.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Even in 2023, seven years after the game\u2019s release, Barone was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/stardew-valley-developer-promises-new-content-in-patch-16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">still developing patches for <em>Stardew Valley<\/em><\/a>, albeit at a much slower pace. In a Tweet from April 2023, Barone said that he was currently working on yet another update for the game that would add new content, including some much-requested new dialogue for its characters.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barone took the summer off to rest before entering a cycle of intense work and equally intense burnout. He\u2019d push himself for weeks to crank out new patches\u2014then, he\u2019d have to take weeks off to recover.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Burnout is more than simple fatigue; it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/ipractice.nl\/en\/symptoms\/burnout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">serious condition<\/a> with symptoms including anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, and the inability to make even simple decisions. Furthermore, recovering from burnout often takes longer than just a few weeks or months\u2014severe cases can require <a href=\"https:\/\/ipractice.nl\/en\/symptoms\/burnout\/treatment-and-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">up to a year<\/a> of rest. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betterup.com\/blog\/signs-of-burnout-at-work#:~:text=However%2C%20addressing%20burnout%20may%20be%20the%20single%20best%20thing%20you%20do%20for%20yourself%20and%20your%20career.%20Left%20unchecked%2C%20burnout%20can%20have%20physical%2C%20mental%2C%20and%20emotional%20outcomes%20that%20impact%20every%20area%20of%20life.%C2%A0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Forcing yourself to work<\/a> before you\u2019re recovered can trap you in a cycle of burnout like the one Barone found himself in. Trying to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-push-yourself\/\">push yourself<\/a> through a period of burnout can cause further mental, emotional, and even physical harm, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betterup.com\/blog\/signs-of-burnout-at-work#:~:text=Job%2Drelated%20stress%20can%2C%20in%20fact%2C%20lead%20to%20death.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">up to and including death<\/a>.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schreier says that he got in touch with Barone in December 2016 to see how he was doing. Barone replied that he was exhausted, sick of <em>Stardew Valley<\/em>, and thinking about starting a new game with a more realistic timetable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Barone, also known by his gaming alias ConcernedApe, announced that he\u2019d begun work on a new game called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hauntedchocolatier.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Haunted Chocolatier<\/em><\/a> in late 2020\u2014although, as noted above, he continued developing patches for <em>Stardew Valley<\/em> even after beginning this new project.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How was Stardew Valley made? Did one person really create the entire farming simulator by themselves? Stardew Valley is one of the most popular farming simulators around, and it was created by one person: Eric Barone. To achieve this, Barone had to spend four years working on the game, putting in eight to 15 hours a day. Find out more about the stressful conditions of Stardew Valley&#8216;s development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":107520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[586,33],"tags":[1087],"class_list":["post-107150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-people","tag-blood-sweat-and-pixels","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Was Stardew Valley Made by Just One Person? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stardew Valley is one of the most beloved video games around, and it was single-handedly made by a first-time developer. 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