Looking in from the outside, “Stardew Valley” looks like just another farming game but there is much more to the game than just harvesting crops and raising animals.

In “Stardew Valley,” you have the opportunity to become apart of the tiny village in the valley and really make your mark on Pelican Town.

While your grandfather is lying on his deathbed he hands you an envelope with an intricate wax seal. Twenty years later, modern life has taken its toll and you decide to open the letter. Inside is the a letter with deed to your grandfather’s old farm.

As soon as you step of the bus and arrive in the small village of Pelican Town, you can already tell that you are home. The Mayor, Lewis and the local carpenter, Robin greet you and introduce themselves to you and the pair takes you to your grandfather’s old farm. After the introductions the cut-scene ends and you wake up in your cabin. In the cabin there is a box of turnips with a note, from there the adventure in farming and small town life begins.

In the game you can choose what you want to do, based on your farm choice in the character creation screen. There are five different farm types. The first being the ‘Standard Layout’ which offers a large open land to help increase farming skill.

The second layout is the ‘Riverland Farm.’ This layout encourages the player to increase their fishing skill, which in the start of the game is frustrating and annoying.

Another layout is ‘Forest Farm.’ The forest farm has renewable hardwood stumps and encourages the foraging skill. The ‘Hill-top Farm’ is another layout. This farm helps increase the mining skill with a small mining quarry in the southwest corner.

The final farm type is the ‘Wilderness Farm.’ This layout makes it easier for the player to gain combat skill because monsters spawn there at night.

As you start your career as a farmer you are given tasks, most of which come from the other villagers. In the game you befriend the villagers. As you gain more ‘hearts’ with them you unlock heart events which have certain triggers. Most of the heart events reveal things about the characters. Other heart events could just be them sending you a recipe in the mail.

In one heart event you meet see one villager, Shane, surrounded by beer cans and lying next to the edge of the cliff. In the heart event, it is revealed that Shane does not want to live any more and he is depressed. After you give him a reality check, he is taken to the hospital where the town doctor, Harvey, pumps his stomach. Harvey outlines Shane’s situation and refers him to a doctor friend of his in Zuzu City that can help Shane.

After a while, the Mayor will invite you to come look at the beat up old community center. Inside there is a plaque, written in a weird alien language and these weird alien things. After a visit with The Wizard, you are able to read the plaque. The alien creatures, or Junimos, will restore the community center in return for the items listed on the plaques, also called bundles and you need to gather the items for these bundles.

After you complete the bundle sets, you are rewarded with an upgrade to the town like repairing the old greenhouse on your farm, or the broken down bus getting repaired. One bundle even offers the friendship of the whole town once completed. There is another route you can go, but it is basically like selling your soul to Satan, also known as the Joja Corporation.

“Stardew Valley” was created by Eric Barone, more known by his online moniker, ConcernedApe. He did all the coding for the game and even made the soundtrack himself. The game took him four and a half years to code on his own and was finally released to the public in February of 2016. Barone continues to code more updates for the game such as multiplayer and new content.

“Stardew Valley” is a very addicting game for those who enjoy a laid-back atmosphere and the stress free game play. There are many goals to complete and it is completely up to the user on what time basis they want to complete them.