Stardew Valley creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone says the last month has seen “a ton of progress” on the game’s 1.6 update as the farming sim’s sole developer went into “(self-imposed) extreme crunch mode”. Barone says he’s trying to keep as much as possible of the upcoming update secret.
In a post shared to X (formerly Twitter), Barone shared a rare sneak peek at “one of the many” additions coming to Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update alongside a brief progress report. “A ton of progress on 1.6 last month, it’s (self-imposed) extreme crunch mode, nose to the grindstone (raw nose) mode,” the post said. “Heres’ one of the many additions in 1.6. Keeping mostly everything secret.” Accompanying the post was an image of a new item, a Big Chest, which can store almost twice as much as a regular chest.
In the ensuing X thread, one user asked what motivates Barone to keep working on Stardew Valley so long after the game’s release, given the developer has already fulfilled all content promises. In response, he said there were many reasons he continued to update the game over seven years on from the original launch. “So many people are still playing it, and many new [people] every day, I want it to be the best it can be,” he said. “It will never be perfect but I feel an urge to keep improving it. Up to this point it’s been my life’s work and I care a lot about it.”
Stardew Valley update 1.6 is set to include a bumper crop of new additions to the popular farming sim, and while Barone has been mostly tight-lipped about exactly what fans of the game can expect, he did outline in September some of the things coming when the update was live – including a new festival, over a hundred new lines of dialogue, and support for 8-player multiplayer on PC.
Currently, there’s no confirmed launch date for the new Stardew Valley 1.6 update as the sole developer continues to work away on it alongside developing new game Haunted Chocolatier, which Barone has also been slowly teasing. Whenever this next update drops, it seems to grow bigger and bigger with each new tidbit of info shared – get ready to get sucked back into the farming sim all over again (if you ever left it), gamers.
Lead Image Credit: ConcernedApe
Leave a Reply