Stardew Valley is a game that appears like dwelling. It all feels acquainted to me, like part of my on a regular basis routine: stand up, brush my tooth, and play a day of Stardew Valley. I do know the game just like the again of my hand. I do know everybody’s likes and dislikes, everybody’s each day schedules, everybody’s birthdays. Starting new games appears like coming dwelling after a protracted journey, when the seasons have modified and the cosy familiarity of your neighbourhood has an thrilling contact of the brand new.
And but, after many such games, there comes some extent the place you’ve completed nearly all the things and it begins to really feel repetitive. There’s solely so many instances I can hear NPCs converse the identical strains time and again. I wished to alter this.
I found the Stardew Valley modding neighborhood after I realised how a lot I disliked the truth that Shane, the city’s resident heartthrob-grump and alcoholic, stored consuming even after he vowed to chop down on alcohol. I’d married him 3 times in three totally different playthroughs, as if I anticipated one thing to alter. When nothing did, I made a decision to take issues into my very own arms.
More particularly, I took issues into the arms of the modders who change Stardew Valley to their liking. I spent hours looking Nexus Mods, discovered two mods which match the invoice precisely, and similar to that, the game felt new once more. Shane stopped consuming and obtained a brand new job on the saloon on the town. It felt like my farmer had married a completely totally different man.
But somewhat than discover totally different paths inside the game, I’d achieved this by putting in a brand new one. A line had been crossed, and abruptly Stardew Valley appeared much less acquainted. It felt a bit like I used to be messing with destiny: if ConcernedApe, the creator of Stardew Valley, supposed for Shane to begin as he meant to go on, then ought to I actually attempt to change that?
I made these mods for me. It’s my city, I’ll do what I need
“A lot of people feel that way,” a modder, who requested to be recognized solely as Karina, tells me. “But modding isn’t like that. I’m not ‘fixing’ the game. I’m just tweaking it a little. You don’t want Shane to drink, I don’t want my trees to be green.”
Karina is the creator of a preferred mod that fully overhauls the graphics of Stardew Valley, giving the city a extra unique color scheme. She’s additionally made a number of different mods, however says she’d somewhat not share them with the general public.
“I made these for me,” she says. “I wanted to change my game so that I liked it. So I changed Haley’s dialogue to make her less airheaded, I changed Harvey’s sprites so he’s not so geeky-looking – you know, he’s more of a hot doctor. I made Marnie a romanceable character. It feels more personal now. They’re just things that I wanted. It’s my town, I’ll do what I want.”
Karina doesn’t suppose there’s something incorrect with the bottom, or ‘vanilla’, Stardew Valley; she began modding “because I like the challenge! I wanted to see what I could do.” But from there, it grew to become extra about making the game her personal, in order that it felt extra like a universe that catered to her.
“[ConcernedApe] made a beautiful – an awesome – foundation for people to build upon. The only flaw vanilla Stardew Valley has is when you sometimes glitch out and get stuck in the walls.”
After speaking to Karina, I felt justified in my resolution to alter Shane. I downloaded mods that added new romantic dialogue to eligible NPCs, that modified villagers’ sprites with every season, and that overhauled my farm fully. Playing the game nonetheless felt like coming dwelling, simply to a unique however nonetheless loveable roommate.
However, my experiments in Stardew Valley quickly got here to an abrupt halt.
Ava
Meet Ava in actual life. After I began modding Stardew Valley, one of many many mods I take advantage of is one which lets your pets observe you.
In September 2018, I misplaced certainly one of my pet cats to a careless driver. The total incident haunted me for weeks. Every time I shut my eyes, I’d watch the scene play out in my head. I couldn’t cease it. Ava’s demise hit me arduous. It grew to become tough to sleep. I withdrew from the world. She was a rescue cat, like all our cats. A grumpy outdated tabby searching for a brand new life. We have been meant to be her endlessly household – the individuals who would love her unconditionally. And I failed her.
It was early October when Karina messaged me. She’d despatched me a hyperlink to a obtain that was merely titled ‘catv3.zip’. Curiosity obtained the very best of me, and I put in the mod into my Stardew game.
For some time, nothing appeared totally different. Had I wasted my time? Had the mod not labored? My questions and worries constructed upon one another as I performed. It wasn’t till Marnie confirmed up on my doorstep with a cat that I lastly broke down.
There she was. My Ava. Preserved endlessly in pixels.
An important weight lifted off my chest. What had beforehand felt like enjoying god was now a key consider my therapeutic. They say house is the place the guts is, and the Stardew Valley neighborhood actually is proof of that. It was a harsh therapeutic course of, however I’ve discovered solace in these pixels.
Ava has a cheerful little life on my farm now. I don’t actually go to that save file a lot anymore as a result of I don’t suppose that I must. I ended enjoying through the in-game summer season season. My farmer married Sebastian, getting him out of the basement he used to dwell in. I prefer to think about that Ava’s mendacity within the grass, enjoyable within the solar, similar to she used to do. I’ve lastly given her the life that she deserves, and that’s sufficient.
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