With its charming pixel style and attention to detail, Stardew Valley farmed into the hearts of numerous players many years ago. Now solo developer Eric Barone aka Concerned Ape has revealed what the indie hit used to look like.
After all, the graphics for video games don’t appear out of thin air, there is usually concept art beforehand. Stardew Valley is no exception, even if the first considerations here do not resemble a glossy artwork, but rather seem like “drawings that were made during school lessons” – but nevertheless already convey the later charm of Stardew Valley well.
Stardew Valley: Junimos & Community Center concept art
Central to the story of Stardew Valley is the creation of the Community Center, which the somewhat mysterious Junimos have had a hand in. He summarized the first thoughts about the little beings, who live in equally small huts, in a notebook – and published an excerpt on Twitter. Striking: Both the design of the Junimos and their housing have actually only changed in details compared to the finished game.
was going through some things and found my old notebook w/ the original community center concept pic.twitter.com/cXPI77kxpt
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) April 21, 2023
This also applies to the internal structure of the community center. In another tweet, Barone shows an additional concept art that has a lot in common with the later game.
mine levels: pic.twitter.com/h8I0XaDVzl
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) April 21, 2023
Last but not least, Barone also gives a glimpse into his thoughts on the 100 mine levels that you can gradually explore in Stardew Valley. He also roughly considered the layouts in a notebook and again some of these thoughts made it into the finished game.
New patch in progress
Incidentally, it is not entirely surprising that Barone is writing a lot about his hit song these days. Recently, the Solo developer announced that he was working on a new update for Stardew Valley works and even the development of his new game Haunted Chocolatier paused. When the update 1.6 will appear is still completely unknown.
If you have already played Stardew Valley up and down and are looking for an alternative until the update: Take a look at Sun Havenwhich recently convinced thousands of players on Steam with a larger fantasy focus.
