Hello everyone,

I hope you’ve all had a great summer and are enjoying this transition to the cooler weather of fall.

Today, I’ve got some exciting news to share with everyone – Stardew Valley is coming to mobile, and it’s actually releasing on the iOS App Store in just over 2 weeks time, on October 24th!

The mobile port is being developed by London-based mobile development studio, The Secret Police, who have been working with me for about a year. Chucklefish has been handling the business and marketing side of things. While the game will launch first on the iOS App Store, The Secret Police are currently working on finishing up the Android version, and I hope to give you more news about an exact launch date soon.

Features:

• Supports iPhone and iPad gaming, just make sure to check on the App Store page whether the game is compatible with your iOS version
• It’s the full game, not a cut down version, and plays almost identically to all other versions. The main difference is that it has been rebuilt for touch-screen gameplay on iOS (new UI, menu systems and controls)
• £7.99 / $7.99 / 8,99 € with no in-app purchases
• Includes 1.3 single player content, such as the Night Market, but not Multiplayer
• PC players can transfer their save data to the iOS version via iTunes – but make sure to always back up your save data first! Mods are not supported, and any save data transferred containing mods may cause compatibility issues.

Pre-orders are available today

I want to be sure it is clear that the development of the mobile port has had no impact on the development of the console Multiplayer ports, as they are being worked on by two entirely separate teams/companies. Console multiplayer is making great progress and I have every intention to release it as quickly as possible. For a quick update on where it’s at, the Switch Multiplayer update is coming along well, and has now gone into QA (quality assurance testing). Xbox One and PS4 Multiplayer updates will follow (all being done by Sickhead Games). I promise to keep you all updated on any news I get regarding release time frames for all the consoles. I really appreciate everyone’s patience.

That’s all for now!

-ConcernedApe

Stardew Valley 1.3 (Multiplayer Update) is now available!

This update is a significant change for Stardew Valley… Not only does it include a good amount of new content (new items, events, etc.), but it also includes the long-awaited addition of co-op multiplayer!

Several months ago, I finished working on the content additions, and turned my attention to finishing multiplayer. Progress on that front came along steadily.

Then, we started the multiplayer beta on April 30. Of course, I underestimated the number of bugs you’d all find! But over the past couple months Tom and I have worked hard to track and fix every known multiplayer bug. And now, it’s ready to go.

Credit must be given to Tom Coxon (of Chucklefish), who wrote all the major networking code himself and turned this fairly complex game into a seamless multiplayer experience! We’ve worked hard to make the co-op experience as fun and intuitive as possible.

I also want to thank everyone else at Chucklefish for all their hard work coordinating this big launch!

Below, I’ll give you a more detailed explanation of both the new game-play content and a more detailed explanation of how multiplayer will work.

First, let me share some of the new content with you. This is not an exhaustive list, and I’m purposely being vague on many aspects because I think it will be more fun to discover these things for yourself:

• A traveling festival comes to town
  • For three days in winter, a traveling festival visits Pelican Town. Unlike a normal festival, farmers can come and go as they please, and the location isn’t “locked out” at any point (there’s no setup). Pelican Town is different for a few days, and most of the townspeople’s schedules change to reflect that. The festival offers farmers a once-a-year chance to acquire unique items, purchase an original work of art from the famous Lupini, enjoy some live entertainment, and more….

• A winter mystery… and a new collection type
  • In winter, farmers might encounter a strange event… which will ultimately grant them the ability to start a new, “secret” type of collection. This new ability will surely result in unusual new adventures and greater knowledge…

• Help someone out in town…
  • Farmers who have made great progress for themselves will have the opportunity to help someone in a significant way…
• New Character Events
  • There are new character events, some of which grant you permanent bonuses. There are also a couple of “secret” events that you’ll only encounter if certain conditions are met.

• Skull Cavern Changes
  • 3 new monster types added (more powerful versions of familiar enemies)
  • “Treasure Rooms” added (rare chance of finding a room with a chest containing useful items… including two that can’t be found any other way)
  • A new reason to attempt a deep dive…
• Ability to change professions
  • If you regret your choice of profession, or simply want to try out something new, there is now a way to change your professions. It comes with a price, however…

• Signs
  • Signs are craftable items which are available to you from the very beginning of the game. Any item in Stardew Valley can be “clicked” onto the sign, and it will display that item (the item won’t be consumed).

• Decorations
  • A variety of new outdoor decorations have been added, including many that are “seasonal”, meaning that their appearance changes with each season. Multiplayer makes decorating even more fun.

• Auto-Grabber
  • An expensive item that can be placed in a barn and automatically harvests milk and wool from the animals each morning.
• Garden Pots
  • Garden pots allow you to grow any crop indoors year-round. Think of them like one-tile greenhouses. When placed outside, however, they only grow crops that are in-season.

• New Crop
  • There is a new crop that only grows indoors.
• Fireplaces are now furniture
  • This means you can move your fireplace around, and also buy a couple of different kinds of fireplaces.
• Hats on horses
  • You can now put hats on your horse. Enjoy… (this was actually an original intended feature in Stardew Valley two years ago, but I never finished it and had completely forgotten about it. Now it’s finally finished)

Now, a more in-depth look at how multiplayer works…

Stardew Valley now supports up to 4 player co-op. Co-op is nearly identical to single-player, but with 1-3 other friends playing together with you to achieve a common goal. Any single player game can be “converted” to a co-op game by having Robin build one or more cabins on your farm.

One player serves as the host, and the other 1-3 players connect to the host in order to play. Therefore, the host must be in-game at all times when the group wants to play.

The new update adds a Co-op button to the title screen. Clicking the button will bring you to the co-op menu, from which you can:

• Host a new co-op game
• Re-host an existing co-op game
• Join a new farm (provided that any of your friends are hosting and have a cabin available for you)
• Re-join a farm (provided that the host is in-game)
• Join a LAN game (by entering the IP address of the host)
• Enter an invite code (generated by the host) to join a game (this allows for Steam/GOG crossplay)

When hosting a new game, you’ll have some new options available to you:

• “Starting Cabins” gives you the choice to start a new game with 1-3 cabins pre-positioned on the farm. If you decide to go this route, you’ll have two “Cabin Layouts” to choose from: “Nearby”, which places the cabins close to one another, encouraging a communal farming style, and “Separate”, which places the cabins far apart and allows for more independence.

Alternatively, you can start with no pre-positioned cabins and instead build them yourself (via Robin).

• “Profit Margin” adjusts the profit margin of goods that you sell. You can choose between “Normal” (the original Stardew Valley amount), “75%”, “50%”, and “25%”. This is, in effect, a way to increase the difficulty of the game. For larger groups of experienced players, it might be desired. However, keep in mind that there already is some “scaling” of difficulty built into the game, since each player will need to upgrade their own tools, upgrade their own houses, buy bigger packs, etc.

• In co-op, all players share the same pool of money, and are working together on the same farm. The state of the game world, including the main storyline, is shared between all players. However, each player has their own private inventory,  skills, achievements, collections, relationships, quests, and crafting/cooking recipes.

In general, it’s assumed that co-op games are only being played with people you trust. The game maintains no real concept of “ownership”, since all players are working communally on a shared farm.

• When it’s time to go to bed, all players must enter their beds. Only then will the day end.
• Players can marry each other by crafting a “wedding ring” (An old Zuzu City tradition), and offering it to another player. If the other player accepts the ring, the couple is now engaged.
• The chat box allows you to communicate with each other… with the help of nearly 200 custom Stardew Valley emojis!

Here’s a trailer:

Also, want to let you know that the console versions of multiplayer are in development & coming soon.

I hope you enjoy the update!

-Ape

Hi everyone,

Perhaps the most common questions I get asked is, “When is Stardew Valley coming to PS Vita?”

Well, the time has finally come for me to answer…

Stardew Valley will be coming to PS Vita on May 22nd!

It will be cross-buy, so you’ll only need to purchase one copy to play on both your PlayStation 4 and your PS Vita. This also means those of you who already own the game on PlayStation 4 will now be able to download the PS Vita version too!

Stardew Valley on-the-go is a lot of fun, so I’m very excited to bring it to a great portable console like the PS Vita!

I look forward to hearing about your experiences in Stardew Valley.

-ConcernedApe

Hello everyone! The highly anticipated multiplayer update is almost upon us. After several months of internal testing and QA, we’ve decided to open the beta up to a wider audience. This blog post details everything you need to know if you want to help us test the update before it goes live.

How do I opt into the beta?

Currently the beta is only available to Steam and GOG Galaxy users.

To enable the beta in Steam, right click the game in your library and select properties. On the window that pops up there will be a ‘betas’ tab. In the text box, type the password for the branch: jumpingjunimos. Then click the ‘Check Code’ button.

If you’ve done that correctly, you will now be able to select the ‘beta’ option from the drop down box.

Once you’ve done that, Steam will start downloading the update.

GOG Galaxy users can opt in with the same branch name and password by following these instructions.

What precautions should I take?

The v1.3 update is still a beta at this point, which means there will be bugs! At the very least, it’s recommended that you:

• Backup your save files before playing the update. Your save files are located in %APPDATA%\StardewValley\Saves on Windows, or ~/.config/StardewValley/Saves on Mac and Linux.
• Remove any mods you’ve installed that haven’t been updated for v1.3. You can see a list of compatible mods here.

Can I use my existing save files?

Yes, your old save files can be used in v1.3, and they can even be used to host multiplayer games! However, note that:

• You should back save files up before installing the beta.
• Files that you save in v1.3 can’t be loaded in v1.2 or earlier.
• If your game was modded, it may or may not be recoverable in v1.3.

If you have a vanilla v1.2 save file that can’t be loaded in v1.3, it’s a bug! Report it to us, and we will fix the issue.

How do I host my farm?

Each player needs to have their own home on the farm, so the first thing you’re going to have to do is build each of your friends a cabin to live in. Don’t worry, they’re cheap! You can have up to three on your farm.

When your cabins are built, save, return to the title screen and open the co-op menu. Your file should appear in the host tab.

Alternatively, if you are starting a new farm, you can start the game with cabins already built on your farm. From the title screen, open the co-op menu, select the ‘Host’ tab, and then ‘Host New Farm.’

The new options on the left allow you to pre-build up to three cabins on your farm.

In the settings menu are some new options you may want to play with:

‘Server Mode’ configures the visibility of your server:

• With ‘Friends-Only’, only people on your friends list in Steam (or GOG) can see your server and join it.
• With ‘Invite-Only’, only people you send invitations (or invite codes) to will be able to join your server.
• ‘Offline’ shuts the server down immediately. This will disconnect all players besides yourself.

‘Accept IP connections’ allows players on your LAN to join your game, whether any of you are signed in with Steam/GOG or not.

‘Enable new character creation’ allows players who connect to your server to create a new character on your farm. If you’ve got more cabins than players on your farm, and you don’t want anyone else to join for now, you can turn this off.

How do I invite people to my farm?

There are a few ways for people to come to your farm. You can use whatever is most convenient to you!

All of these methods require you to first load your farm through the host tab in the co-op menu.

1. The co-op menu

If your server is running, your Steam/GOG friends will be able to see and join your farm through their co-op menu directly.

This is only possible if your server is set to ‘Friends-Only,’ and your Steam privacy settings permit friends to see your game library.

2. Steam / GOG friends list

If your server is set to ‘Friends-Only’ and your Steam privacy settings permit friends to see your game library, they will be able to join your game through their friends list.

3. Steam / GOG invitations

As the host, you can send invitations from the settings menu, using the ‘Invite Friend:’ button. When the recipient accepts your invitation it will automatically launch Stardew Valley on their end and connect to your game.

4. Invite codes

If the person you want to invite is not on your friends list, you can invite them using an invite code. These codes enable cross-play between Steam and GOG. Due to platform restrictions and technical limitations, we are not currently planning to roll this functionality out any wider than Steam and GOG.

To get your invite code, open the settings menu, scroll down to the multiplayer section and click ‘Show Invite Code.’ A 10-12 character string of letters and numbers will show on your screen for you to send to your friend. Your invite code will change each time you reload the game.

To use the code, your friend should launch the game, and then in the co-op menu choose ‘Enter Invite Code:’

You must both be signed in on the Steam client and/or GOG Galaxy client in order for this to work.

5. LAN

For the final method, you must both be on the same network, i.e. behind the same router.

Launch the game and host your farm through the co-op menu as usual. When the game is loaded, find out your computer’s IP address. Note that you should use your computer’s actual IP, not the Internet-visible IP that websites see. This means checking your computer’s settings. Googling ‘whats my ip’ won’t give you the right result.

Once you have your IP address, your friend should open the co-op menu, click the ‘Join LAN game’ button and type it there.

Neither of you need to be signed in with Steam/GOG in order to do this, however the ‘Accept IP connections’ setting does need to be on.

Why can’t my friend join my farm?

There are a few reasons the connection might fail:

1. You are not signed in on Steam/GOG. Check ‘Server Mode’ in the settings. It should say ‘Friends Only’ or ‘Invite Only’. If it says ‘Online,’ it isn’t connected to Steam/GOG and it’s only serving LAN games.
2. Your server is still connecting to Steam/GOG in the background. Click the ‘Show Invite Code’ button in the settings. If the invite code displays, you’re connected. Sometimes it can take a minute or two.
3. Your friend is not signed in on Steam/GOG.
4. Your privacy settings in Steam prevent your friend from seeing and joining your game.
5. There isn’t a cabin available for your friend. Either the maximum number of players is already connected, or all the cabins have all been claimed by other people.
6. You’re running different versions of the game (‘version mismatch’).
7. You’re trying to connect by IP when you’re not on the same network. Use invitations instead, they’re a lot easier!
8. There’s a problem with one of your Internet connections.

How do I report a bug?

Here’s a thread specifically dedicated to beta bug reports. Posting details into this thread is the best way to communicate new issues.

Also search that thread and the support forums for your bug. If there’s already a thread there’s no need to start a new one, but please post if you can provide new information about the problem!

When reporting bugs to us, following a few simple rules can help make bugs much easier to identify and fix:

• See if you can trigger the bug again by repeating what you did.
• Give your thread a descriptive and specific title. “Crash” is not specific, whereas (for example) “Game crashes when the load game menu opens” is.
• Include as much relevant information in the body of your post as you can.

Including a few bits of extra information in your report can help a lot. Try to include:

• What happened? Did the game crash, freeze / lock up, or just do something wrong (e.g. use the wrong character’s dialogue)? What did you expect to happen here?
• What were you doing in the game at the time? (e.g. switching to full screen mode / talking to Linus on Spirit’s Eve)
• Whether you were able to trigger the bug again by repeating what you did.
• Your operating system name and version.
• If the game crashed, attach (or link) your error logs. These can be found in
  • Mac / Linux: ~/.local/share/StardewValley/ErrorLogs
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\StardewValley\ErrorLogs
• Your current version number. You can usually find this in the bottom left corner of the about menu. (Click the ? on the title screen.)
• A screenshot can help. A video of the bug is even better if you can do that! 👌

How many players does it support?

You can build up to three cabins for other players. With the host player included, that makes four players total.

Can I marry another player?

Yep! You’ll need to find a wedding ring, and right click on them to propose!

Can the game be paused?

In single-player, you can open the menu to pause the game, as you’re used to.

In multiplayer, the game no longer pauses when you have the menu open. If you need to pause the game for a break, the host can use the /pause command in the chat box. This pauses the game for all players.

How do we sleep? How do we start festivals?

To sleep, all players must enter bed and answer yes to the dialog. The day won’t end until all players have done that.

Starting a festival is similar. All players must enter the location of the festival before it will begin.

What things are shared vs separate?

*Although inventories are separate, offline players’ inventories can be accessed through the chest of drawers in their cabins.

In deciding what to share vs keep separate, our main goal was to encourage cooperation and teamwork. Since the farm and your money pot are your main way of progressing through the game, they have to be shared in order to facilitate cooperation. Without this, there would be no need for players to even interact!

Does this beta contain the new single-player content too?

Yes. More details about it will be shared at a later date.

When is the update hitting the stable (default) branch?

TBD

How did you add multiplayer to Stardew Valley? :O

After donating a bundle of ethernet cables to the junimo sprites, I recompiled the game with the “add multiplayer” checkbox on. I missed some of the forage items in the first year, so it took two years.

Hi everyone,

Just want to give you a quick fill-in on the status of the new update.

As you may know, I’ve always worked solo on Stardew Valley. However,  for this multiplayer update I’ve had the help of Tom Coxon (of Chucklefish). He’s done all the network coding to turn Stardew Valley into a multiplayer game… truly an impressive feat, and one that would not be possible without his talent. He deserves a lot of credit for this — Thank you Tom!

Now, here’s where we’re at:

Work on the new features is done, and we’ve sent all the new text off to be translated into the different languages. Meanwhile, we are working on bug fixes. Once we’ve received the translated text and integrated it back into the game, we’ll begin a serious QA phase involving thorough testing of all new features in both multiplayer and single player contexts. When that is finished, the update should be ready for a public beta.  I am still shooting for a spring release for the beta.

When the beta gets closer to launch, I’ll fill you guys in on more specifics as to how multiplayer will work, as well as a more complete list of the new features in the update.

I’ll also be sure to let you guys know as soon as we’ve determined a more concrete timetable for release.

For now, here’s a screenshot of the new signs in action:

These signs are crafting items that will be available to you from the start of the game. Any item in Stardew Valley can be “clicked” onto them to display. 

Thanks so much everyone for your patience while we get this update ready. It’s really going to be a “game changer” for Stardew Valley!

-Ape

Hey everyone! We thought it’d be good to give you a quick status update ahead of the holidays.

 
So, multiplayer is coming along nicely! Tom is working on implementing marriage between players, and recently finished up working on festivals. Now you’ll have someone to dance with at the Flower Dance, even if you’ve yet to win over any of the residents of Pelican Town.

We had been planning to launch a multiplayer beta before the end of this year, but we’re pushing that beta back to Q1 2018 in order to make room for polish and QA.

ConcernedApe is working on a new content to be released along with the multiplayer update! We can’t say much about it yet, so I’ll just leave this screenshot here.

A number of people have been curious about the PS Vita port we mentioned way back in January, and I’m happy to announce that a PS Vita port is actually happening! It’ll be available next year, and it’ll have cross-buy too, so if you’ve got Stardew Valley on Playstation 4 you won’t need to buy it again to play it on your PS Vita! However, it’s worth noting that we can’t port the multiplayer update to PS Vita.

ALSO! Stardew Valley is getting more language support! Support for French, Italian, Korean and Turkish will be added in 2018.

Phew, I think that’s just about everything we can talk about for now. 🙂
Thanks for all the support this year! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break and a happy start to 2018.

P.S – Oh hey, new site design! It was long overdue for some sprucing up. Let us know what you think!

Hey everyone!

We’ve just released an update for Stardew Valley on the Nintendo Switch which should solve the issues some of you have been reporting since the game’s release. No more crashing when you go to sleep! No more weird crackling noises! 😀

Big thanks to everyone for their support and patience as we worked to ensure these issues were fixed, and thank you to the players who took the time to send detailed bug reports that helped us to track down and fix these issues! Check below for more detailed patch notes.

• Players should see a significant improvement on save times! Also, the saving screen is now animated.
• The new video recording feature is now supported!
• When a controller connects or disconnects, the Controller Support Applet now appears to ask which controller you want to use to play the game, instead of silently switching to the new controller.
• The game now detects Simplified / Traditional Chinese environments on first start up and defaults to the Simplified Chinese localisation instead of English.
• Fixed issue that created the unintended ability to skip saving at night with a well-timed button press.
• Fixed an issue causing the player character (and sometimes important NPCs) to appear off-screen during certain cutscenes.
• Fixed a temporary soft lock that occurred when the player pressed A and B together while eating or drinking an item.
• Fixed a way for players to temporarily lose access to essential tools via the chest interface’s organize button.
• Fixed the Wizard’s slay monster quest sometimes asking you to kill 0 monsters.
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred while sleeping (before saving) if any essential tools were not in your inventory at the time.
• Fixed the wrong tooltips sometimes appearing on the bundle interface in the Community Center area.
• Fixed the inability of players to drop items without deleting them when using the cursor mode that snaps to UI elements.
• Morning music is no longer looped endlessly, and now fades out during the day as it should.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the journal with no quests.
• Fixed occasional inability to select certain items in the crafting menu.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when pressing the ‘-‘ button when playing a minigame at the Saloon.
• Fixed button controls for the Prairie King minigame shooting in the wrong direction.
• Fixed occasional left channel audio crackling
• Fixed lack of vibration in handheld mode

Hey everyone!

Not sure if you’ve heard, but uh: Stardew Valley is out on the Nintendo Switch! Huge thank you to the developer ConcernedApe, the porting house Sickhead Games, the folks at Nintendo and our very own Tom Coxon for making Stardew Valley on the Switch a thing!

I hope you’ve all been harvesting spring crops and having your heart broken at your very first Flower Dance all over again — but portably, this time!

We’ve been keeping up with discussions about the game over social media, and have taken note of all of the issues people have been reporting. We’re working on a patch that will address the following:

• Audio crackling – Some players have been reporting a crackling noise coming out of the left speaker on the Switch during gameplay. If this happens to you, try closing the application and re-starting!
• Unable to select certain items in crafting menu – specifically, some players have reported not being able to select items on the bottom right. (For a temp-workaround players can disable the option ‘Use controller-style menus’ – that should allow players to select things until a fix is distributed.)
• Journey of the Prairie King minigame A/B inputs are swapped
• Game crash when opening the journal if there are no active quests

We’re sorry for letting these slip through, but we’re investigating and will provide fixes ASAP.

It’s been so exciting to see the reactions to Stardew Valley on Nintendo Switch so far! Thank you for the support, everyone! Have a lovely weekend. <3

~ Chucklefish

Hi everyone,

I have exciting news:

Stardew Valley will come to the Nintendo Switch on October 5th, 2017

I’m very happy to see Stardew come to a Nintendo console… I grew up on Nintendo, after all! This will not only be the first time Stardew Valley appears on a Nintendo platform, but also the first time Stardew will be on a portable system.

The Switch version will be priced at $14.99 USD.

I would like to give a big shout out to Sickhead Games, who worked very hard to develop this port. They did a great job, as always, and deserve all the credit! I’d also like to thank my publisher Chucklefish for coordinating everything.

I look forward to hearing about your experience with Stardew Valley “on the go” this Thursday!

Thanks for playing,

-ConcernedApe

Hi everyone! I’m the Chucklefish dev who has been coordinating with Eric on localisation, porting and multiplayer for Stardew Valley over the last year. I’ve previously worked on Starbound (the procedural quest generator was my baby), and I’m also developing Lenna’s Inception, another Chucklefish project, on the side.

I’m here with an update for those of you who have been waiting so patiently for news on multiplayer! Now that we’ve pinned down the main technical issues, we know enough to feel confident describing the gameplay you can expect from it.

Shortly after you begin the game, Robin will offer to build up to 3 cabins on your farm. Each cabin will house a farmhand, controlled by one of your friends.

Farmhands can do almost anything the main player can do. They can farm, mine, fight, fish, forage, marry NPCs and take part in festivals. Each player has their own inventory. When a farmhand is not connected, their inventory can be managed through a chest in their cabin.

Certain decisions can be made only by the main player: when to sleep, when to start and end festivals, and whether to side with Joja, for instance.

You won’t need to set up a server to run multiplayer. Friends can be invited onto the farm through Steam. The invite mechanism for non-Steam versions is TBD, but likely to be similar in most cases.

A lot of players have requested player-to-player marriage. It’s an idea we like a lot, and want to make available as a feature. Player-to-player marriage won’t use the mermaid pendant, but rather an alternative method that requires a similar amount of effort to wooing an NPC. We’re still working out what that will be.

Local multiplayer, split-screen and PVP are not planned at this point.

Effort so far has been focused on overcoming the biggest technical hurdle: synchronising multiple games over the Internet. Almost every source file has been touched, and 15,000 lines of code have been rewritten. Retrofitting multiplayer into a game that didn’t have it originally is notoriously hard.

Anyway, that chunk of work is almost complete now and we’re starting to look towards what’s next:

• Implementing the farmhand cabins
• UI and menus
• Events and festivals
• Multiplayer NPC relationships
• Polish, testing and optimisation

We currently expect to be able to start a beta test at the end of the year for Steam users to help us test the game. Mod authors will be encouraged to update their mods during this beta period. Then, in early 2018 we will release it as the 1.3 patch on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Consoles will get the patch too, starting with Nintendo Switch. This will be a bigger patch than usual, so be aware that it will take a while to roll out to each platform.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!