Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020)

Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by aethe on Saturday January 23, 2021 @06:29PM (#25887120)

The game doesn't do a good job of explaining this, but, there is almost no benefit to min-maxing it. Absolutely nothing is gated off by taking your time to do it. If it takes you seven in-game years to finish the community center, there's no downside. It's a common misconception that you need to complete everything as quickly as possible. I think this stems from the fact that after your second year you get a kind of "grade". But this doesn't matter since you can choose to get graded again whenever you want!

Some people find the min-maxing to be part of the fun, but it sounds like it stressed you out, so you just shouldn't play it that way. Take as long as you want, the game will not punish you for doing that.

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by thatswrong0 on Saturday January 23, 2021 @07:49PM (#25887671)

I just wish time went a _bit_ more slowly, or there was some mechanic to slow it down.. the first day of the season, even with coffee, I'm always rushing to get a 300+ crop farm re-tilled / fertilized / planted in time. I know that min-maxing isn't really necessary, but there's a part of me that can't stand not getting everything done on the first day (which can mean the difference between 2 and 3 harvests in a season).

The first year was pretty hectic for me trying to get everything done - basically had no time for relationships until year 2. I would not call that experience relaxing, even though it was pretty fun. But once you hit year 3+, it becomes pretty chill when you have iridium sprinkles + junimo huts taking care of pretty much everything while tons of money rolls in, so you can just focus on getting your farm perfectly set up.

Of course, after I had my farm set up perfectly, that's when I lost interest

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by azeirah on Sunday January 24, 2021 @07:36AM (#25891538)

It sounds like you're playing this as you would code at work. Optimize, maximize, automate. Stardew valley is not factorio :p

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by Moru on Saturday January 23, 2021 @08:51PM (#25888178)

There are mods that gives you as much time as you want.

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by fendy3002 on Sunday January 24, 2021 @07:55AM (#25891641)

This mod, together with save anywhere and lookup anything makes the game much more relaxing

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by mrec on Saturday January 23, 2021 @11:46PM (#25889353)

> But this doesn't matter since you can choose to get graded again whenever you want!

I don't think this was true in the original release of the game, which may be why early players felt pressured.

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by wizzard on Sunday January 24, 2021 @01:12AM (#25889778)

The re-grading capability was added within two weeks of the game's release in early 2016. Only the VERY earliest players would have been affected.

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Re:Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020) by mrec on Sunday January 24, 2021 @02:02AM (#25889962)

Ah, OK; I didn't realize that change happened so early.

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