Stardew Valley dev admitted that he don't want to stop developing the game any time soon. „You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something”
Eric Barone admitted that he is unlikely to ever end up developing Stardew Valley. Unless the game's content becomes so overwhelming that it begins to spoil the fun for players.
The creator of Stardew Valley has finally acknowledged that he may never stop developing his game, and even "in 50 years," it could still receive new updates.
This last statement is quite an exaggeration, but it's undeniable that Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone can't say goodbye to his hit. In early December, the developer admitted that this was partly because of the popularity of this title. Stardew Valley will soon turn 9 years old (Eric has been working on it for 12 years), but it is still one of the most frequently launched games on Steam, and the sales of this game have exceeded 41 million copies.
Half a century of Stardew Valley
Of course, Barone realizes that he can't develop SV indefinitely - or rather, "forcefully." As he emphasized in an interview with NPR, a video game can have too much content, which is why he will continue to improve Stardew Valley only until, in his opinion, the content starts to overwhelm to the point where further development would be "harmful to the fun aspect" of the game.
Nevertheless, it doesn't seem likely at the moment, even though the latest game update (available on consoles and mobile devices since November) turned out to be "slightly" larger than the developers had announced. Barone admitted that he always might feel like returning to Stardew Valley to add "one or two" new features. As he jokingly put it: "You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something [to SV]."
Retirement not for Eric Barone
Nevertheless, at least for now, Barone has managed to break away from his hit, but certainly not for relaxation. In December, the dev mentioned that he had resumed work on Haunted Chocolatier, which had previously been set aside for version 1.6 of Stardew Valley, smaller (though important) patches, and adapting this update for consoles and mobile platforms.
Clearly, Barone - despite occasional fatigue from intense work and self-imposed crunch - cannot part with game development. He cannot imagine retiring and humorously considers how funny it would be to release another update at the age of 90.
I like creating things. I don't think I'm ever going to retire. I think it would be funny to release an update when I'm, like, 90 years old — if I live that long. Let's hope so.
