Final month, I had absolutely the pleasure of being in the identical room as Eric Barone, creator of Stardew Valley, and Yasuhiro Wada, creator of the Harvest Moon sequence and the upcoming Birthdays the Starting. The 2 builders had by no means met earlier than, and got here collectively to play one another’s video games for the primary time, then chat—farm sport maker to farm sport maker.
Afterwards, I sat down with each of them to speak farming inspiration, Japanese releases on PC, and the way making video games has modified because the first Harvest Moon. You’ll be able to watch the video above to listen to that dialog.
After I spoke to Barone again in March, he informed me Stardew Valley really began out as a Harvest Moon clone to show himself the right way to code in C#, earlier than it slowly advanced into what it’s at this time. Barone stated he had “grown up spending numerous hours enjoying Harvest Moon and [is] an enormous Harvest Moon fan,” however that he might by no means discover a appropriate substitute on PC. So he made his personal.
Watching him meet Wada, the person who created his inspiration, was a enjoyable second. Each builders had such a transparent respect for what the opposite had accomplished. Although Wada and the Harvest Moon sequence are legendary at this level, Stardew Valley has now offered shut to 2 million copies since its launch in February, making it an enormous success of its personal.
Our dialog additionally revealed that Barone is going through a few of the identical struggles Wada confronted with the unique Harvest Moon 20 years in the past. Localization could be time consuming and tough for a small crew. It was a limiting think about Harvest Moon’s early days (and resulted in some notorious translation goofs (opens in new tab)), and is an issue Barone is presently working by means of. The 2 builders additionally each discovered success across the age of 27, and Barone joked that he looks like he could also be following in Wada’s footsteps.
This assembly, together with our first face-to-face assembly as PAX West, reaffirmed my appreciation and amazement at how humble Barone has stayed within the face of overwhelming and sudden success. He is really a category act, and has continued to help what’s already a fantastic sport. It additionally obtained me extra excited than I anticipated to be for Wada’s subsequent sport, Birthdays the Starting—a god sport that ought to really feel proper at dwelling on PC, and has little or no in frequent with Minecraft regardless of the deceptively related graphics.
