I keep seeing how Stardew is great here so I tried it yesterday. First I read an interview with ConcernedApe and love how he’s a solo dev, which is inspiring to me for my own solo project. So I really wanted to love stardew, become attached to it, and view ConcernedApe as a romodel.
Did not happen. Loved the music and gentle nice vibes of the intro, and the different starting choices were cool. First negative tho is something I remember from the article where he said he didn’t really like majora’s mask cuz the time aspect then laughed at the irony since he made Stardew. Well I agree. The time aspect doesn’t make it more fun for me.
I love how different the people are instead of all slight variations of the same model.
thing 2 tho that basically prevents me from getting farther is the ‘work’. Right now I’m loading back in to my Rimworld game. Comparatively, when I stepped out on to that Stardew field with no crops yet planted, my thought was, '“oh am i going to have to do all this myself?” Idk why I would want to spend my time and effort doing what someone in Rimworld does without needing micromanagement.
Tried to get farther this morning and could not.
So I guess it isn’t for everyone, and for me, this is why. Definitely admire ConcernedApe tho and his success and community he creates as a solo dev.
I get stressed out by the fact that missing one seasonal item in the community center means you have to repeat an entire year again just to complete it and move on to new content. I’ve still never managed to get to any of the content on Ginger Island because of that.
That is fair in the case of fishing, foraging and to a lesser degree farming
If one wants to finish it as soon as possible then there is a pressure to not miss something - a bit of a heresy - but Joja Mart route can ignore that pressure, but it does feel better getting the community center up and running though.
I know the T.V. channel that Pam provides is helpful for fishing and for me I try to set up a schedule where I dedicate a day to get a particular item or to improve a skill to make it easier to get a item I am looking for.
My first two years are usually very busy as my farmer is on a “sigma grindset” and approached as a game getting everything sorted.
I do feel that it plays better when I tried to compromise a bit and try to roleplay like start the day, sort out my fields and animals, have regular meals, visit the town, greet everyone, maybe look at the message board - doing something like fishing, foraging, mining or cave diving for a bit, head to the bar at night for a night cap and then make my way home for the night - especially Friday nights.
I break that habit a bit when it is a really lucky day but I can write that off as a day that my character felt like some “me” time or they are focussed on getting resources for an upgrade to the farm or an item for center
One starts to learn everyone’s schedule and you start to feel part of the Valley as familiarity helps build the “community” feel