Reason Four: The Theme of Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is about getting away from the hustle & bustle of modern living to settle down to a quiet life in the country.

It’s about figuring out what’s really important and pursuing it, looking at each day as the start of a new adventure.

It’s about getting back to nature and forming real connections with people (ironic since it’s a game you play by yourself? Well, multiplayer is coming!). That’s why I’m doing a “blind run”, not looking anything up. The sense of discovery, learning about a new place and new people over time, is a huge draw of the game.

I don’t want to go through the whole game over the course of a few weeks. I think that playing at such a slow pace, taking one day at a time and writing about it, fits into the themes of the game perfectly.

Oh, that reminds me, if you’d like to check out an excellent Let’s Play style blog on another game, you should read “Living in Oblivion“ by Christopher Livingston, in which he chronicles the life of an NPC in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I’m aiming for a similar sort of feel with this blog.

Next post will be Day Zero of the playthrough! I’ll show character creation and the prologue of Stardew Valley.

Reason Three: Seasons in Sync

Lots of games that have seasons run into this problem where it could be 100 degrees outside in July but it’s a cold bleak winter in the game world.

Not that this is a big issue or anything – games are all about imagination and suspending disbelief to visit strange or impossible places.

That being said, this slow playthrough I’m planning affords the unique opportunity to have the game world reflect the real world.

My character will wake up on the first day of Summer just like I do on June 20th.

I don’t know what fictional holidays exist in the game, but let’s say it has its version of Easter or Halloween or Christmas – those will all take place around the same time as their counterparts.

I might plant some vegetables in my own backyard while Karl (oh by the way, my character’s name will be Karl) plants the same ones on the farm.

And because I won’t know what happens next (in the game or in real life), I’ll be able to see both my year and Karl’s year unfold concurrently, with whatever parallels may or may not come out of that.

Reason Two: Lack of Similar Content

If you’re familiar with the “Let’s Play“ format, you know that these days they primarily exist on YouTube as videos with voice commentary.

Before YouTube was big and desktop recording software was easy to obtain & use, most LPs were written, with a series of screenshots accompanying the text. These were mostly posted on various gaming forums (for example at Something Awful).

Both of these formats have their pros & cons. An FPS or action game is probably better suited to video, while something like a turn-based strategy game or an RPG with grinding or farming elements (heh) is great for screenshots because you can pick out the important stuff without it getting too repetitive.

Another reason people may look for screenshot LPs is because reading an article is more accessible than watching a video. A written post can condense a long gameplay session down to a three-minute read. Videos have a set length (many are longer than your average break at work) and usually require sound. Some people have YouTube blocked at work; others are on mobile and don’t have the bandwidth or want to use the data.

I enjoy reading & watching LPs of games I’m playing, so shortly after Stardew Valley came out I started searching for some good ones. If you google it, you’ll notice that all of the top results are videos. I was surprised that a game that seems particularly suited to text/screenshot LPs didn’t have any.

Later, by refining the search a bit, at the time of this writing it appeared that one person was doing one (at the aforementioned Something Awful forum), but their stated goals were pretty different from what I was looking for.

So, I decided to make one. I liked the idea of a one-day-per-day playthrough, but then I realized the first day of Spring was only a week and a half away, so why not a “real-time seasons” playthrough? The timing seemed perfect, and I hadn’t seen it mentioned elsewhere, and so I came over to WordPress and this blog was born.

Reason One: Time Commitment

OK, so as I mentioned before, I’m a dad. In less than a month, I’ll be a dad of two.

When you have a kid, the amount of spare time you have to do things like, say, play a computer game, goes down. Way down.

When you have two kids, I can only assume that that small amount of time you have gets chopped in half (at least until Child 1 becomes mature enough to start adding value doing chores, getting dressed unassisted, brushing her own teeth, etc.).

So, two 15-minute sessions a week will hopefully be pretty manageable while still keeping family the top priority.

Also, I’ve never blogged before. Judging by the time it’s taking me to write these first posts, I’m guessing that doing the commentary and organizing the screenshots will take a good while longer than the actual time in the game.

I was initially going to play Stardew Valley at a rate of one day per day. Then I had the idea of having real-time seasons and making an LP of it, and the slower pace is what convinced me I could make it happen. I still don’t know if I’ll be able to stick to a schedule, but having two posts per week seems much less daunting than doing it daily.

Let’s Play Stardew Valley

What Is This?

This blog is essentially going to be a Screenshot Let’s Play, or SSLP, of the recently released PC game Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is an RPG similar to the Harvest Moon series in which your character inherits an old farm near a small town. Gameplay is divided up into days that each last 10-15 minutes, and the game has its own calendar with each season lasting 28 days.

Each post here will be a writeup of what my character did for one in-game day. The frequency of posts will be such that the game’s calendar and seasons will match up with their real-world counterparts.

The game starts on the first day of Spring, so the first post will go up on the 20th of March (the actual first day of Spring!). Three months later, my character will have progressed to the start of Summer, just in time for June 20th (Summer solstice). And so on… I’m sure you get the picture. My plan is to post regularly for one year (hence the blog’s title).

I’m starting on a brand new character with almost no prior knowledge of the game (I  played the first 5 days on another character before deciding to do this blog). I won’t be consulting the wiki or reading any information or tips outside the game.

To jump directly to the playthrough, use one of these links:

• Day 0: Character Creation & Prologue
• Day 1: First Day of Spring

Or, read on below for more of my ramblings before I get the year started.