Stardew Valley: The Story of Eric Barone (ConcernedApe)

Stardew Valley: The Story of Eric Barone (ConcernedApe)

Capitalism sucks. Eric Barone couldn’t help but conclude that life would be better without all this employment nonsense. He’d graduated with a decent college degree, but no matter how hard he tried, nobody seemed interested in hiring him. Eric was desperate to find a job that he’d enjoy. While none of his leads were exactly jumping at the chance to grab him, he couldn’t quite convince himself to apply to any of the big technology companies that might want him. Cubicles didn’t sit well with Eric. Neither did the idea of being forced into a rigid schedule. Commuting felt like a horrid idea, and worst of all, there was a danger that, if he pursued a job at a large global company like Amazon or Google, he’d be trapped forever in an endless routine of crushing monotony. But there was another option. As he considered his future, Eric couldn’t help but be drawn to the idea of laboring on making his own computer game, all by himself. No studio, no deadline, no fixed development period. Just Eric, his computer, and all the time he needed to create something all of his own design. And so, Eric turned away from the corporate machine, giving up on pursuing a boring desk job at a busy company. Instead, he’d embrace the freedom – and turmoil – of dedicating himself to building his very own game, without any outside help. That game was Stardew Valley. Creativity came naturally to Eric Barone. From his earliest childhood, he’d always been drawn to the idea of building, making, crafting, and producing things. He dabbled in everything, from art to music, and was a fairly accomplished guitar player. In high school, Eric tried out a few different creative projects, forming a metal band with some friends, and then, in a rapid change of gears, trying out synth pop. Eric didn’t really mind what he was creating, as long as he was making something fun. This passion for making things didn’t lend itself very well to making friends, though. Eric was naturally a fairly lonely guy, and didn’t mind shutting himself away for weeks at a time to complete his pet project. His satisfaction came not from interacting with others, but from being proud with his own creations. This wasn’t to say that he was completely isolated, but, like many introverts, Eric was comfortable letting his art do the talking when communicating with his friends. Eric found that his drive to create could be put to good work, and, with some effort, he attained a degree in computer science from the University of Washington-Tacoma – a success which he celebrated with his girlfriend, Amber. But as the prospect of adulthood loomed close, Eric found that he was utterly disinterested in the idea of becoming a slave to the daily grind. He’d rather be fulfilled than wealthy, and as his hopes of landing a job at an exciting, interesting company began to dwindle, Eric decided to go it alone in dedicating himself to creating a video game. This was a somewhat novel experience. Eric had never built a game before, and had a limited understanding of how he should go about it. For months, he experimented, trying to figure out how to make the idea that existed in his head come to life. Eric wanted to do a game about escaping the modern world. His project would have a strong narrative, focusing on the battle between corporate greed and the dream of a quieter, simpler life. For inspiration, Eric turned to one of his favourite game series, Harvest Moon. He had fond memories of playing these games as a child, growing crops and raising animals in a quiet, calm environment that didn’t require too much stress. Eric found himself making a game that borrowed many of the elements of the Harvest Moon series, expanding on some of the core concepts to take them in new directions. He felt that some elements, such as Harvest Moon’s romance mechanic, could do with more nuance and options, including a wider variety of potential romantic partners to suit all users’ needs. As his work progressed, Eric saw his game morph and change into more than he’d originally planned. He’d originally planned for the game to be a simple title that he could upload to the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace, but as he worked, he began to realize that he was outgrowing this limited vision. What had originally been a relatively small project grew in scope and design as he learned the art of game making and discovered what potential his game had. Eric worked tirelessly, all by himself, to craft every aspect of the game. He wrote the code, created art assets, and composed music. It was wonderfully freeing to have complete control of his creation, even if it did mean a lot of work. But Eric couldn’t keep working on this forever – he wasn’t earning money that he needed to survive, and there was no guarantee that his game would ever actually produce financial rewards. He got a weekend job at a theater, which he enjoyed, but this was nowhere near enough to cover his expenses. As he worked, Eric found the looming specter of capitalism growing more and more prevalent. He couldn’t keep working on this game forever without more money, but if he relented and got a boring deskjob, all of his time would be taken away, and he’d never finish his game. It was at this time that Eric’s girlfriend, Amber, stepped up. Eric’s project was important to him, and Amber decided that in order to make him happy, she was going to save the day. As Eric continued to work, Amber took over the role of provider, earning money to keep them both afloat. The pair moved in together, and Amber worked hard to support Eric while he crafted his masterpiece. Their relationship didn’t feel particularly balanced when it came to earnings, but they made it work. With Amber on his side, Eric wasn’t about to slack off or let his girlfriend down. He pushed himself to spend every available second working on his game. It might not be a paying job, but he was hardly wasting time – he’d spend at least ten hours a day working on his big project, trying to make everything perfect. Some days were more productive than others, but he did his best to keep himself focused on the task at hand, in order to make something he could be proud of, that would prove that Amber’s faith in him wasn’t misplaced. Eric also had another useful support throughout his game’s development. From the strength of his work, and as a direct result of the tireless effort he put in, Eric was able to sign on a publisher, Chucklefish, which gave him some degree of legitimacy as he worked. This wasn’t just some silly hobby project, Eric felt. He had Amber’s support, both emotionally and financially, and he had a publisher that believed he could succeed. For their part, the team at Chucklefish did a phenomenal job at spreading awareness of Eric’s game, getting early builds of the game out to YouTubers and Twitch streamers to help push the game into the spotlight. It was clear early on that Eric had tapped into something potent. Fans of Harvest Moon were extremely excited at the prospect of this tribute game, that would, it appeared, expand on the classic game’s premise to produce a more expansive, immersive experience. In addition to oldschool fans of farming simulators, though, Eric’s project began drawing in younger fans who were intrigued by its simple, relaxing gameplay, and its adorable art style. There was something here that audiences connected with – something that resonated deeply within many members of the growing online community that surrounded the project. Drawing from his own experience, Eric made his game about a player character that fights to escape the soul-crushing corporate world. Players start in a small cubicle before escaping to the countryside for less profitable, but ultimately more fulfilling work. Even out in the middle of nowhere, though, the player finds the machinations of capitalism, as the player’s main competition is a large convenience store that’s owned by the company the player used to work for. Nevertheless, Eric didn’t want players to feel like the aim of the game was to fight against this big corporation. He deliberately designed the game so that making money is harder than simply running a farm to survive. Cooking eggs, for example, provides a boost to the player’s energy, but doesn’t make any more money than selling raw eggs. The last thing Eric wanted was for players to lose sight of the game’s simple rural experience in a mad dash to make as much money as possible. This wasn’t always easy – Eric posted regularly online about his game, and, thanks to the work of his publisher, he began to attract a modest following of players who were interested in his game. Many would request various changes or features, but Eric wasn’t always eager to accommodate fan demands. This game was his baby, his pet project. He wanted to it be exactly the way he envisioned it, and while some suggestions from fans were useful, he ultimately didn’t include anything that he felt altered the way he wanted people to experience his work. Finally, after four long years of work, Eric’s project drew near to completion. It had been a trying time for him, albeit a fulfilling one, and he was tired from long nights that had kept him from spending as much time with Amber as he’d have liked. As he finished off his initial build of the game, Eric doubted that he’d see much of a return for his labours. This had been an entirely personal project, one which spoke to Eric’s own desire to escape the corporate world for a simpler lifestyle. No matter how many people already seemed to express an interest in his game, Eric doubted that wider audiences would have much interest in his message. But Eric was wrong. From the moment his completed project, Stardew Valley, was released to the world, fan love for the game exploded. Gamers couldn’t get enough of his farming simulator, and they quickly rallied around the title and began publicizing it far and wide. For a creator like Eric, though, this was no time to rest on his laurels. With popularity came critique and complaints, and he realized that his enormous army of fans were running into trouble with various parts of his game. As problems arose, he worked tirelessly to patch errors, bugs, and glitches, making sure gamers got the most enjoyable experience possible. While he’d been working ten hour days before Stardew Valley came out, he was now working up to fifteen hours a day, attempting to perfect all the little flaws that fans were discovering. The community surrounding Stardew Valley saw this, and they loved Eric all the more for it. Here was a developer who practiced what he preached, and was in this for the love of the game, rather than for praise or financial reward. Of course, with this level of success, riches were unavoidable. Stardew Valley sold in the thousands, then in the hundreds of thousands, then in the millions. Eric and Amber sat back in amazement as they watched the numbers rise. They’d become millionaires in a matter of weeks. Eric didn’t really care, though. This hadn’t been about the money. If he’d wanted to be rich, he would have done things very differently. His goal had been to escape capitalism and live a simple life, building up something that he cared about. He’d achieved his goal. He’d found a place in the world that truly fit him, and he would never, ever have to work in a boring cubicle. The moral of this story is one of freedom. There are a lot of paths open to us in life. It may take a while to find where you belong, and where you fit in the world. Take time to think about what you truly want from your time on this planet, and what you hope to achieve. Your goals may seem difficult to achieve, but it’s worth giving yourself something to work towards. As you push yourself, you might make mistakes, but you’ll learn along the way, and find greater satisfaction from what you accomplish. Remember that true happiness doesn’t come from reaching a particular destination. What matters is that you enjoy yourself, and you find something that brings you joy, and helps you to feel satisfied in the experience of working hard. When you finally discover this path for yourself, you’ll feel truly free.

Faced with the prospect of getting a boring job in a cubicle, Eric Barone rebelled. He decided to make his own video game instead. Four years later, the world fell in love with Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is one of those big hits that nobody (well, almost nobody) saw coming – in the space of a few weeks in 2016, the game exploded in popularity as everyone fell in love with the world that Eric Barone created.

Just as an aside, I (BretonStripes) take no responsibility for any mispronounciation of names – it was Kotor’s responsibility to research interview footage as a reference point this time (it’s normally me and I still butcher them sometimes!).

It’s interesting to see just how much of Eric’s personal story is reflected in Stardew Valley. It’s clear that themes of avoiding the corporate slog were fresh in his mind throughout development, and it makes it all the more impressive that the game has become such a success without any of the typical corporate involvement that accompanies big games.

There’s something very romantic about the idea of a lone developer working on their passion project without interference – we know that this game and its development provided some amazing inspiration for other developers (we’ll be tackling the indie game Ooblets next time as a kind of sequel to this video). That said, the moral of this story isn’t necessarily “quit your dayjob without a backup plan”, while that works for some people (Kotor in particular) it’s not necessarily right for all.

Instead, the lesson to take away here is that in order to succeed, you need to look at your life and find what really makes you happy. Eric Barone wanted freedom from the daily grind, and that’s what he achieved. You can achieve your goals too, whatever they might be, so long as you’re willing to work on them and sacrifice where necessary.

Speaking of sacrifice, Eric’s girlfriend Amber is clearly the real hero of this story. There’s not a lot of information available about her online, so we’ve deliberately avoided delving too deep into her own backstory as that’s clearly not something she’s interested in, but there is a great first-hand account from Eric about how important Amber was to the development of the game, which we’ll link below.

Anyway, thank you so much for all of your support, comments, and feedback. We’re trying hard to make these videos more regularly, and while we might fall down, we’re always eager to share these with you. Every thumbs-up and comment and share really helps us grow. Thank you for being amazing!

If you’d like to support us further, there’s always Patreon:

http://patreon.com/videogamestorytime

Next time (hopefully next week, but it might be a bit delayed) will be Ooblets, a game that’s not out yet, but that we came across while researching Stardew Valley, and we just fell in love with the lead developer’s story. You might have seen it recently at the XBox conference at E3.

In the meantime, keep being awesome!

Thanks,
BretonStripes and Kotor

Research for this video:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/first-time-developer-made-stardew-valley.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/267563/The_4_years_of_selfimposed_crunch_that_went_into_Stardew_Valley.php
http://kotaku.com/stardew-valley-s-creator-has-won-the-hearts-of-pc-gamer-1762636730
http://steamed.kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-stardew-valley-1766238624

Music: Drankin Song by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/