Stardew Valley, a pixel-style simulation business game launched by indie developer Eric Barone under the name OfcondrantApe, recently announced that since its launch in 2016, its full-platform sales have reached 20 million copies.
Stardew Cereal Language is an open country life role-playing game! In the game, the player inherits their grandfather's old farm in Stardew Valley. Start a new life with old tools and a few coins, and from then on you learn to live on the land, raising animals, fishing, growing crops, crafting items, turning overgrown fields into a prosperous home, and even finding people to start a family with.
As a work developed by individuals, the sales performance of Stardew Cereal Language can be said to have brought exemplary impetus to independent game developers around the world. Do what you want to do, and you can get the love of many players, and by the way, you can also get a certain financial return.
Since the release of the PC version in 2016, Stardew Cereal Language has successively launched and developed multiplayer features on consoles (Xbox, PS4 and Switch), ported to mobile terminals (iOS and Android), and even launched a board game version, and the multi-platform strategy has continued to create a market voice for Stardew Valley to a certain extent. As of March 2022, Stardew Grain Language has sold more than 20 million copies on all platforms, with 13 million copies sold on PCs alone.
Behind the success is actually a long period of high-intensity sitting on the cold bench, Eric Barone revealed in an early blog post that the game skeleton of Stardew Grain Language existed as early as 2012. He then developed independently for four more years, teaching himself the necessary skills to make game music, art, programming, and design in order to hone the game.
Stardew Valley in 2012
Updated Stardew Valley
Of course, Eric Barone is not alone in the battle, and has also properly sought the help of external forces in multi-platform porting, which once had the help of publisher Chucklefish (later terminated), who outsourced a lot of localization work. There are also many troubles after becoming famous, Stardew Cereal Language is also selling well, and Eric Barone is also facing the situation of other developers borrowing or copying his work. For example, "SuperZoo Story Super Zoo Story" has been pointed out to be "over-borrowed" and suspected of plagiarism.
In addition, I wonder if the popularity of "Stardew Cereal Language" will put pressure on Eric Barone to develop new works, if it is you, will you continue to make games after the financial freedom? What theme will the new work choose, and in what direction? Eric Barone revealed in his blog back in 2018 that he was working on a new game that takes place in the same universe as Stardew Grain, but didn't talk much more about the new game. A few years have passed, and maybe there will be new news in the next few days.