The Stardew Valley Boardgame

 Escape to the valley

A perfect life can be defined in innumerable fashions by a thousand different voices, indicative of the diversity that the human heart can yearn for. Maybe some people want their name to be remembered through fame or merit, some small victory against the finality of death. Other's may want a family of those who they love around them, a defiant cry out to not living alone. Some may want to live a quiet life in a affluent area of a sleepy town, keep a modest paying office job in a department store and be home everyday by 8pm at the latest, don't smoke but occasionally drink, be in bed by 11PM and sleep for 8 hours no matter what after having a glass of warm milk and doing 20 minutes of stretches, all to ensure that they have no problems sleeping until the morning, and then wake up like a baby at day break without any stress or fatigue with no medical issues whatsoever. (Or maybe that's just Yoshikage Kira's overly specific dream, now I think about it.) For my two cents, however, I think that whatever it is one seeks out of life, whatever fits their world view's definition of 'happiness', it can be captured to some small value, at least, by the classic indie darling 'Stardew Valley'.

I've ever been a fan of the farming/middle-of-nowhere-life simulator, Stardew Valley; and seriously recommend the heck out of it for anyone out there. It's just a magical little game that somehow turns the stress of living a daily routine with responsibilities and tribulations into a breezy dream devoid of any real consequences. Were it that we all could live a life so uncomplicated and direct, without concerns and doubts about 'is this where I'm meant to be?' or 'what am I doing with my life?'- or perhaps even that is just my own bias tainting my view on the game. However I suspect not, given Stardew Valley's widely held adoration with the public that has translated into rightly earned success for the developer. However, there's still that barrier to entry, isn't there? Not a huge skill wall, or anything, or even a stupid expensive tech wall, (Cyberpunk) but rather a wall where only those in video games can enjoy the bliss of a Stardew Life. Well, that is no more with the official announcement of the Stardew Valley Boardgame.

And now I'm realising that I sound like the official marketing team, that's weird; Stop that, me. But I will anyway say that I find it an immensely pleasing turnaround to have a small independent 'studio' reach the point where they can diversify their product in such a manner. (If you consider one man to be a 'studio') Many of even the biggest franchises never really get that opportunity or never take ahold of it, and one might argue that could come from an inherent lack of needing to, but I think that maybe a curse of scope could apply too. You reach such a size where every single addendum to a franchise requires a plethora of different eyes on it such to the point where it's just easier and less taxing to stick to what everyone knows and is familiar with. (Or at least that's my headcannon for Fallout not having a proper X-com Style tactical shooter side-game by now; the world's perfect for it, what are you waiting for, Bethesda!?)

Yet, I'll admit that I do find myself a little curious as to what exactly a Stardew Valley Boardgame would look like. I mean, the idea seems so natural and fitting that the concept feels sound when you say it in your head, but translating that into a product sounds interesting. I wonder at the nuance and challenges proposed by trying to capture that perfect balance of peace and productivity which the game flitters on so effortlessly. I'd imagine that it'll really be an art of balancing which is probably only really capable of being judged in person through sitting down and playing a round of the thing. But seeing as how that's not really a possibility for little ol' me, I'll just try and break the thing down and see if it 'sounds' right. (I was a huge fan of the videogame afterall, maybe that familiarity will benefit my eye.)

Now firstly it appears that the base concept is identical. It's about moving to a small community and doing tasks in order to refurbish the town's community centre and push the Joja corporation out of town because soulless corporations are the epitome of Satan or something. (I wonder if this is the sort of game that would appeal to Johnny Silverhand?) This game realises the whole process of rebuilding the community centre as a series of goals drawn from a deck of cards, thus actually offering some replayability to this board game to the point that it surpasses what the original game offered, in which all the goals are set in stone. (Or at least, in the base game that was the case. After 1.5 you can actually randomise that as well because Stardew Valley is a forever game, apparently.) Although that extra replayability is somewhat necessary considering that the boardgame is only really meant for games of around 45 minutes to a couple of hours. (So significantly shorter than the video game, obviously.)

In something of a Persona-esque take on the concept, the game is split up into seasons where players choose which activity they'll partake in for each timeslot. I find this a curiously apt anagram of the main game's structure in which your daily activities were constrained by both your energy bar and the relentless march of the clock, here you have action points like this is an Atlas game. This means that you can spend time mining, fishing, farming and just about everything you could do in the main game sans, I'm sure, wasting several hours playing that damn minecart game in the arcade. (I was as dedicated to beating that game as I was for the minecart section in Donkey Kong Country. And as bad at both.) As you can imagine this really does make the game a cooperative experience of trying to save the valley, akin to the game itself. (I guess I couldn't really imagine a competitive edge to Stardew Valley anyway) 

What I personally love about this project, however, is the new art that's coming with the game because I just find it endlessly charming. The game version of Stardew Valley relied on an Harvest Moon inspired pixel style that was both affable and pleasing to the eye in a manner very fitting to the game itself. With the boardgame's art they obviously don't need to stick to the somewhat square-constraints of pixel art (the influences wouldn't even make all that much sense here anyway) but they still decided to stick to the rough shape and the result is this ludicrously pretty and, at least for me, nostalgia-tinged art style that just makes me smile. It hacks my happy bone for how cute it all is. I defiantly approve.

Boardgames are always a natural companion for videogames I think, much more so than movies and/or TV shows. I think that the reason for that isn't anything profound, and in fact I believe it be as frighteningly simple as being because they both seek to entertain through interaction; that and the fact that many video game genre's owe their inspiration to boardgames. Stardew Valley is a delight in either incarnation and I'm happy such a passion fuelled game is finding a way to more people as it should. For all the talk of violence and carnage being promoted by videogames, let Stardew be a reminder of how even that ill-fitting and contrived label is not all-encompassing... Then again I guess you do murder a lot of monsters... and the fish that you cook and eat... damn it, I guess we need a fully vegan edition of Stardew Valley next time to really sadate the gaming nay-Sayers, don't we?