Former Stardew Valley developer making their own gorgeous life sim RPG, this time in a city with rideable bikes
Former Stardew Valley developer making their own gorgeous life sim RPG, this time in a city with rideable bikes
The unnamed game looks absolutely delightful
I didn't know Concerned Ape ever had help.
I thought so as well, but apparently ConcernedApe started enlisting help around the 1.3 update. Before then it was all solo work by him.
The referenced dev from the article contributed to the 1.4 and 1.5 updates from the Stardew wiki.
Even then, by my understanding, that was mostly for the port and bug fixes. CA was very reluctant to give any control and did all art, musical, feature, and overall directional development himself.
I'd argue it was a recipe for burnout and generally a bad idea but this is what I remember from when I obsessively read his update blogs back then
From the Stardew valley faq:
Stardew Valley 1.0 was developed completely solo by ConcernedApe (Eric Barone), over the course of 4.5 years. It was released on February 26th, 2016.
-The 1.1 update was also developed solo by ConcernedApe.
-Starting with 1.3, there have been others that helped with the updates, including:
Arthur Lee, “Mr. Podunkian” (1.4 & 1.5 updates).
Tom Coxon (Multiplayer net code in 1.3).
Alex Erlandson, “Zillix” (1.4 update).
Sickhead Games (Console ports).
The Secret Police (Mobile ports).
…and more. Full credits can be found in the game’s title screen.
Thanks, Farmer!
Me neither, but this guy has ConcernedApeLLC on his LinkedIn.
I really don't like that it uses the same assets as Stardew and seems to be very much in the same genre.
Does the dev have permission to use Stardew Valley assets, or are those placeholders?
It doesn't look like the exact same assets, but it clearly has the same color palette and design. Honestly it kinda feels like a slap in the face, but maybe the two of them came to some kind of agreement? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Are we looking at the same screenshot? I see many assets that look the exact same as SDV. Bushes, the sand and grass floor tiles, the fence maybe?
Edit: Did some digging and apparently this is some engine the dev was working on while doing stuff for SDV and the ConcernedApe is cool with it. That explains the copied base assets.
It might just be because of the bike, but the videos I've seen of it give it a real Earth Bound feel.