Stardew Valley Turns 10: ConcernedApe Reveals Shocking New Marriage Candidates
It’s a big day for indie game lovers! Stardew Valley turns 10, and to celebrate, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone shared a video diving into the game’s history as well as introducing two new marriage candidates in the upcoming 1.7 update.
The beloved farming simulator, which released February 26, 2016, is considered one of the best indie games with over 40 million copies sold. Barone spent over four years developing the game, taking inspiration from similar farming simulators like Harvest Moon. However, it’s clear that Stardew Valley has changed the genre for the better, encouraging the creation for more cozy games.
For die-hard fans, the video is worth a watch, as Barone offers us a glimpse at the early builds. The video dived into his very first creation in 2012 with ‘Sprout Valley’, all the way to a few months before the games release where he finalized the farmers look.
We got to see how much the game has changed over the early years, especially the mines, as well as features that were removed from the game, including a map of the players’ farm and goblin villages.
According to Barone, most of his work came together at the last minute. Apparently, around August 2015, half a year away from launch, there were a ton of things that weren’t finished. “I did a ton of work in the last six months,” Barone admitted.
“I think I was just at the point where I knew it was so close. I needed to finish the game. The finish line was so close. And that’s what gave me the drive and the motivation to make all these little changes in the last six months to prepare the game for release.”
Which leads up to launch day, where Stardew Valley sold just under 40,000 copies on the first day. The exciting launch was more than Barone expected. However, he says he “didn’t have time to to think about that too much because there were immediately bugs being found in the game.” This caused him to release big patches every day for the next four days.
After reminessing about the games development and launch day, Barone then dives into the various updates, including the 1.5 ujpdate that introduced Ginger Island and Perfection, and the 1.6 update that added new systems and new content. “Even though Stardew Valley was luanched, in my mind it was not its ultimate form.”
But that’s not why most of us tuned into the live video, as much as we enjoyed learning the history. With the excitement that Stardew Valley turns 10 today, we also have the exciting news of who will be the next marriage candidates in the upcoming 1.7 update!
While Barone has consistenly talked about not wanting to reveal too much of the update to keep us in suspense, he did give us a clear answer on who will be up for marriage without any more context.
In the update, players will be able to marry Sandy and Clint. While not new characters, it’s still a very shocking twist. Many players were hoping for Robin, which is unfortunately not the case. But the inclusion of Clint as a marriage option is very interesting given a clear dislike for the character in the community, especially with his obsession with Emily. Sandy is a great pick, though it could be a challenge as you can’t access her character until the bus is unlocked.
What do you think about the new marriage candidates?
“I just wanted to say, thank you so much for supporting Stardew Valley over the past 10 years,” Barone said in the video. “I’m grateful to you for making this a reality for me.” Want more Stardew Valley content? Keep checking back here for everything you need to know.
