Stardew Valley had MEAT?! // ConcernedApe’s Blog

Stardew Valley had MEAT?! // ConcernedApe’s Blog

Cozy farming sim behemoth Stardew Valley was famously created by one lone developer, Eric Barone, otherwise known as ConcernedApe. As we’ve discussed before, Barone was a… bit of a fan of the Harvest Moon games, but had some gripes with how they played out, for instance, the fact that often – time in

Them was finite, with the story wrapping up and having a set ending, which just wasn’t for him – he wanted to be able to keep growing his farm and living the farmer life, which is pretty understandable, like, I get it.

Thankfully for us, his natural course of action was to… produce his very own farming sim, seeing it as an opportunity to learn game development. As you’d expect, being a game built by one person, from scratch, in this way, Stardew

Valley didn’t just pop out one day looking all polished and as we know it today; it’s had to go through a long and considered development process to get here. Considering this, I was intrigued by its origins, and wanted to see a bit more of ‘what-once-was’;

Leading me to find the ‘Dev Updates’ that ConcernedApe had been posting on his ‘Developer Blog’ on the Stardew Valley website between 2013-2015, for reference Stardew was actually released in 2016. I could find 32 of these updates in total. Looking through these ‘Dev Updates’ and ‘Mini Dev Updates’, there were some things

I’d actually never seen before – and so I wanted to go through some of the earlier entries with you, as I was actually… so engrossed in reading through these and couldn’t contain myself… But to kick things off, I’d actually like to start off with a post that Concerned Ape

Made in 2017, on the 1 Year anniversary of the game’s release. In this post, he shared some details about, and screenshots of, the game’s early development that hadn’t been widely shared before. Barone starts off by listing a number of memorable events from the past year, including: Game came out Dozens of interviews

Exhibited at PAX and met many fans Met Mr. Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon Flew to the UK to visit Chucklefish and collect an industry award Built a decent computer and got a nice big desk (No more HP Pavilion propped on a Wii U box)

Before explaining just how long Stardew had really been in his life already and how thankful he was for its success so far. It’s honestly such a heartwarming read. He then treats us to some old screenshots from all the way back in 2012: Bringing a dandelion to Leah’s Cottage The farm. The mines.

Sebastian’s Room The Saloon… Pam in her usual spot (pfft clint) Level-up menu. Inventory menu. There were several background themes you could choose from. ConcernedApe then reveals that Stardew Valley started out life as… Sprout Valley! I absolutely adore this name and 10/10 think it should be used in some capacity – like

As a spin off or future game title. It’s adorable. We’re then told how the mines were once going to be completely procedurally generated, with lakes, and… rafting involved. Before being absolutely spoilt with this amazing, hand-drawn og Linus artwork. I love him.

And then this post was wrapped up with an image of the initial town map. So familiar, yet, so… not. So diving into Mini Dev Update #1, we have the shortest post – simply giving an update on the player character’s appearance.

We’re told that the player’s height has been increased, and that a customisation system is in the works. Our farmer looks a lot more in proportion versus the old design, and is recognizable as what we have today. Moving on to Mini Dev Update #2, we’re shown the first iteration of the character customisation menu.

Of course, what we have today is definitely more advanced – however, you can see that they are related, with the sliders and the gender selection appearing to have remained very much the same to this day. Update #3 bought with it some graphics updates, including an updated farmhouse design and

Taller npc’s, but what I think is most interesting here is the introduction of some old ‘new’ character card graphics. We’ve got: Neutral Haley, Neutral Elliot, Angry Penny, Enraptured Sebastian. Who even are you Angry Penny?! Update #4 again, saw a number of graphics changes, but I’ll skip over this one a bit

As they’re changes to things that still remain pretty much the same to this day – Pierre’s General Store, for instance. Now, I thought that Mini Dev Update #5 was a bit of an interesting one, with the mines looking, a bit different from what we’ve grown to know. First up in the update was…

Mine Elevators? “These can be built in the mines. When you use them, you can quickly travel to any other mine elevator platform you’ve built. Build a network of these and make mine travel a breeze.” I mean, we do have elevators that unlock as we progress downwards in the main mines, but

Building our own that connect? Ooo. Another mysterious mention here, is ‘dungeons’. “As you explore the mines, you might encounter a dungeon entrance. If you can make it through in one piece, you might just leave with a pocketful of golden souvenirs. These dungeons are procedurally generated to keep things fresh.

They are also totally optional for those who prefer to avoid combat!” Perhaps this was the origins of the Skull Cavern? There’s also talk of a dungeon-exclusive monster in this post,, and we do have different monsters available in the Skull Cavern, so perhaps this dungeon idea was just separated

Totally from the mine, so rather than being having separate levels in the same location, they were removed entirely and relocated to the Calico Desert? Next up, Update #6. In this one rings, boots and geodes were introduced for the first time… along with slingshots.

So really, it’s only fair that I should be able to sling geodes at Clint… right? Dev Updates 7 and 8 introduced more of what’s familiar to us today, including flowers, the Secret Woods, fruit trees aand … well, there was a giant, seemingly haunted space pumpkin

Involved – I think hinting at giant crops, but I think we need space pumpkin now ConcernedApe. Now, Update #9 presented me with something a bit… unexpected. This update was heavily animal-based, as you can see from this… brown pig? Sheep, and eyeshadow chicken?

CA later mentions ‘hogs’ in the post text, so I’ll presume that’s the brown pig we see here. But the presence of said ‘hog’ isn’t what caught me off guard here, it’s this part. “Befriend and properly care for your animals to obtain the highest quality product… or for a quick turnover, via your…

BUTCHERING KNIFE?!” I like the ‘oh no’ face, it looked just like mine. Doing a bit of a dig on this one, I saw chatter on Reddit under a recent post from user Erskol, about ConcernedApe being vegetarian and so decided to scrap this mechanic further into

Development, as it had been a community suggestion – but ultimately it wasn’t something he wanted in his game. Which is very much a fair move! I think it might’ve felt a bit off in some ways, I mean, I know Stardew has its fair

Share of darker themes woven here and there, but this might’ve been a bit too on the nose, bringing down the overall vibez? Let me know what you think! Dev Update #10 was largely fishing based, with the introduction of THAT minigame, and tackle too. It appears fisherman Willy appears here too!

I do just want to show you this screenshot with the cow here though! Update #11 is another pretty interesting one. In this update, ‘skills’ have been added, however they seem to have been called ‘farming talents’ at the time.

Looking at the graphic that’s at the top of this post, we see the Rancher profession (that we still have today) would once split off into ‘Butcher’ or ‘Shepherd’. Farming could definitely have taken a different turn for some… Looking further down the post, we also see these very meaty looking dishes too.

The final blog post that I’m going to be looking at today is Dev Update #12, just as after a certain point, everything starts to become more familiar than not. However, this one certainly doesn’t disappoint! Here, we’re treated to a quick run-down of all of the bachelors/bachelorettes that

Were set to be available at the time of this post, in 2013. There’s Abigail – who largely remains the same, aside from one kinda major point – in that her hair was originally blue, rather than purple! Besides an outfit change, Hayley seems to pretty much be as we know her.

Maru looks COMPLETELY different. Actually WAIT… LEAH is that even YOU?! Again, Penny is pretty recognisable – minus the outfit. My guy is still looking fine. Besides the… dancing, Eliott’s hair appears to just be a bit shorter? Harvey and Sam are still themselves too. And Josh… WAIT. Josh? The only reasonable explanation. Thanks Taterkind.

So while these were some of the most interesting of ConcernedApe’s early blog posts that I could find, there’s still loads more to read through over on the Stardew Valley website’s blog – I’ll stick a link down in the video description so that you can have a read through yourself if you’re interested!

For me, I absolutely adore seeing the early artwork – the game’s graphics are the heart of it being what we know and love today, so seeing these things that we’re so used to in a different way, that almost could have been, is always just so interesting.

Do you think any of these old additions should’ve been kept in? And what’s your favourite change that was made to the game? Let me know down in the comments! Anyway! I hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as I enjoyed making it!

If you did, please consider dropping a like/ subscribe down below as it’d really help me out! But anyway, until next time – bye for now!

The Early Days of Stardew Valley // ConcernedApe’s Blog

After finding the ‘Dev Updates’ that ConcernedApe had been posting to his ‘Developer Blog’ on the Stardew Valley website between 2013-2015, I was mesmerized by how different things could have been! Let’s take a look through his earlier entries, and see what’s changed between then and now. Don’t worry – there’s early game art involved.

Let me know what you think down in the comments! (Leave a chicken emoji too, if you see this!! 🐔)

To take a look at the posts for yourself: https://www.stardewvalley.net/page/1/?s=Dev+Update+

Sbooskie x

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