How Was Stardew Valley Developed by One Person?

Behind many of the games we love to play major production companiesThere are huge staff and people with different talents for each job. These companies work day and night while developing games. Well development processes of games It’s not as easy as we think. Stardew Valley is for one person It literally challenges these games with its huge staff.

ConcernedApe also known as Eric Baronehe does everything about the game on his own. From years of training We can say that the success of the game, which he made with what he learned and his endless belief, was a surprise to Barone, too. Come together until 2022 more than 10 million copies Winning the love of everyone, no matter how big or small, by selling of Stardew Valley Let me examine how it was done by a single person.

Stardew Valley is made by indie game developer Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe.

It wouldn’t be wrong to start the game’s production process by telling about a period in which Eric Barone lived, because Stardew Valley is, in a sense, his story. success story. The making of Stardew Valley actually for personal reasons stems from. computer science Barone, a graduate, when he was looking for a job programming skills He wanted to improve.

However, his favorite game is to Harvest Moon He set out on this path because he wanted to make a similar or even better game. Whatever happened next, this game went far beyond improving skills and to his life came. Barone, per day 10- 12 hours He was working non-stop. Of course, he had to deal with many difficulties in this process.

Long working hours and learning everything about game development from scratch made it very difficult for him.

Barone’s in 2011 development of Stardew Valley, which he started to do about 5 years lasted. As time went on, Barone occasionally lost his motivation for the game. Of course, we should not forget this; Barone covers nearly every aspect of the game –design, coding, and sound effects He was trying to run it on his own, including So it’s understandable how challenging it was for him.

However, learning everything about game development from scratch wasn’t the only problem. Barone turned down other job opportunities so he could work on the game full-time. with financial insecurity He also had to deal with it.

What will happen if the game fails? from financial risks We don’t even mention it. Ultimately, whether the game will be successful or not enough whether it can sell There was no guarantee about it. Despite all these difficulties, Barone had a great chance. Family and girlfriend He gave him a lot of help, both materially and morally, during this process.

Stardew Valley has become much more than a farming simulator.

Barone’s goal is to give us, the players, comforting but also meaningful was to offer an experience. That’s why the developer added farming to Stardew Valley mining, fishing and even social relations and marriage It added many different features such as. In short, throughout the development process, Barone expanded the scope of the game by doing more than he had originally planned.

Although Eric Barone initially worked alone in the development process of Stardew Valley, as the game approached its release stage, chucklefish He received support by making an agreement with a publishing company called. Chucklefish, Stardew Valley publishing and marketing He helped Barone with the issue. Additionally, the company multiplayer features They also provided support on technical issues such as adding games and porting the game to other platforms.

The sales success of Stardew Valley, which was released after 5 years, came as a surprise even to Barone.

Stardew Valley first February 2016The game quickly gained popularity when it was released in , and approximately one million copies sold. Since then, the game’s sales figures have increased tremendously. Stardew Valley as of 2022, more than 20 million copies has sold out. As a result, Barone determination and passion it paid off and independent game development It became a source of inspiration for those who wanted to.

Have you ever played this game that left its mark on the gaming world?

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