I just look at the update history on steam. I don't necessarily go to other websites. Every update has been minor, but I still consider it. Maybe they just meant no more major updates, but even still, it's impressive they have kept maintaining that game for over 10 years.
So many people are still playing it, and many new people every day, I want it to be the best it can be
It will never be perfect, but I feel an urge to keep improving it. Up to this point, it's been my life's work, and I care a lot about it.
AAA companies:
So many people are still playing it because exploiting poor impulse control and FOMO are at the core of our game design philosophy. We want it to be the most profitable it can be
It will never be enjoyable, but we will make sure people feel the urge to keep logging in to grind their dailies so their purchase of a battle pass can be justified. Ever since we started allowing pre-orders it was already profitable, and we stopped caring about quality.
Indie devs: suddenly I'm a millionaire thanks to this one-hit-wonder game that I spent 6 years making. I think I'll keep updating it so people keep buying it.
AAA companies:
We need to pay 400 people over a course of 2 years. 30 million is less than 10% of the budget
Don't forget the mandatory apology JPEG on Xitter.
We have done our utmost to make the enjoyable experience more accessible to average user. This has in turn resulted in sub-par experience for some. As we constantly try to improve quality of our products and this was a valuable lesson from which we plan to grow into more responsible company that caters to people's needs.
ConcernedApe thought so, too ;) He works on Stardew his whole game development career. It is difficult to stop trying to improve the game and let your baby go after so long.
There is probably even more comming in the current version for you. Stardew valley is the type of game where you watch a random YT video where someone shows off something you never knew was in the game, after you got 1000h clocked.
Its a huge mod that basically ads a whole new entire game worth of content, on top of the base games content, that is seamlessly integrated into the base game.
It adds taxes and market prices, thus bringing an element of complexity into the game that makes you think how to optimize your early growth and how to get the most out of your energy and money, turning the relaxing indie game about returning to nature into an optimization grindset nightmare that everyone but me hates.
New maps? I found that I always gravitated towards one map as I disliked all the rest. Mostly just wanted a big open space to go crazy, not obstacles that I had to design around.
Gonna throw a bit of advertising about Dinkum, for anyone that'd like to see a mix of Stardew (farming, tending to animals, socializing with people) with Animal Crossing (you set up where shops and houses will be, you can terraform the whole place, lots of shinies around the land to be dug up)
I couldn’t get into Dinkum. The early game is really poorly paced and a bit janky. Ended up deleting it after an hour. Could be one I come back to once it’s optimised a bit more but I wouldn’t really compare it positively with Stardew at the moment
I wish i could transfer my save file from my switch to my steam deck. I have the oled switch and i guess i need to mod chip it in order to access the file system.