Hello everybody,
With the outdoors Stardew Valley 1.4 Update now available on Xbox One. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a little about the unique development history.
I started working on what would become Stardew Valley in the fall of 2011. I had never released a game before, had no connections to the video game world, and only had an amateur level of art, music, and programming experience. The game was originally intended as a programming exercise. I wanted to improve my skills to get an entry-level job in programming. My idea was to develop a very simple farm game in the style of Harvest Moon, a series with which I had very good memories as a child. I thought it would take about six months and then I would publish it on the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace and keep going . boy, was I wrong!
Over the next 4.5 years, my little project (originally called Sprout Valley) developed into something much bigger than I ever imagined. As a 100% solo developer, I was responsible for every aspect of the game, from coding to art, music, sound and writing. While it was a lot of work for one person, I liked having total creative control over the project and being able to work on a variety of disciplines that kept me from getting bored or burned out. If I got tired of programming, I would make music for a while . and if I was tired of it, I would work on art.
Over time, my skills in all areas of game development improved. About a year after I started, I had a finished product. At that point I had improved my skills in art, music and game design so much that I was very unhappy with the game and wanted to do it all over again. I repeated the game several times until I was satisfied with it (I am still not entirely satisfied, so I would like to continue making updates). No one had played the game until a few months before the release. So I wasn’t sure if it was fun at all!
However, the game was very well received at the start and quickly became a huge success. Stardew Valley has now been translated into eleven languages ​​and sold over 10 million copies across all platforms. It’s really amazing how far this game has come . The Stardew Valley community and the game itself have grown so much since the original launch of 1.0, and it’s really the best thing in my life. It’s a great pleasure to bring the 1.4 update to Xbox One and share it with you.
Xbox will always have a special place in my heart as it is the platform on which I originally wanted to publish Stardew Valley. The new update should make your experience better than ever. I hope you like it!
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for playing Stardew Valley!
