Green rolling hills, walkable areas, and a tight-knit community await me as I return home from my busy academic schedule or summer job. Stardew Valley represents the fun of fantasy and expression for me, as it allows me to immerse myself into an idyllic, quiet setting far away from the demands of Silicon Valley.
Despite being a game with simple pixelated graphics, Stardew Valley has a variety of mechanics that increase my immersion into the homesteading fantasy. The game requires a lot of walking in the world and talking with NPCs, which contributes to the perception of slowness. There is also the in-game passage of time in the form of days, seasons, and years that convey a realistic separate timeline for my player character. Though the supernatural and magical elements of Stardew Valley are nowhere close to being high fantasy, it represents the fantasy of peaceful small town life.
(Figure 1: Stardew Valley’s passage of time is not quite like real life, as seen by the 28-day, 1-month seasons below. These are also marked by in-game holidays and birthdays.)
The game is also one that promotes possibility and self-expression, as its mechanics allow the player to customize their character, decorate their house, and set up their farm as they wish. Romance is another factor of the game’s self expression, as users have 10 romanceable characters and 1 non-romantic roommate option. The game also allows for possibilities such as LGBTQ+ representation as users are able to pursue all relationship routes in the game no matter their character’s gender. Another mechanic that increases self-expression, ironically, is limitation—there are only so many hours in each in-game day, and users can do a variety of tasks such as farming, mining, fishing, exploring, and customizing. Therefore, I enjoy the self-expression element of being able to structure my character’s life and determine their priorities. Overall, Stardew Valley is a game that leverages its mechanics to make a simple game become one that is full of possibility and imagination.
(Figure 2: Character customization in Stardew Valley is simple but allows for imagination and impacts further gameplay.)
