Post: Green and Housed
Monday the 10th of November, 2025, at breakfast.

The first time I ever played (with any significant progress at least) this silly little game, I marked my milestones by only a handful of completed objectives.

The most of those was passing through the “got greenhouse” progress state.

If you are unfamiliar with Stardew Valley, just know that it is a cozy game with about a thousand little objectives that you need to complete by collecting, growing, making, selling, giving, or consuming the countless objects that can be collected, grown, made, sold, gifted, or consumed in the game.

One of those is an aggregate challenge that includes mostly growing and gifting often high difficulty collections of certain objects that an only be obtained through multiple sub-challenges or clever game progress. The end result is that this little run-down greenhouse that has been on your farm since day one suddenly gets repaired and, voila, you have a great place to ramp up your permanent farming production and elevate your in-game income to the next level.

Among all the relationship-building, exploration of the maps, expanding of the farm, and progressing the story, I unlocked the greenhouse on the third day of Summer in my second in-game year.

That is actually, real progress.

Post: Year Two
Friday the 10th of October, 2025, mid-morning.

All slay and no play makes Brad a dull guy… or so it goes that my forays into playing a bunch of RPG titles should occasionally give way to paying some quality time to my little Stardew Valley farm. By which I mean, I’ve now logged enough hours in this lifestyle sim (yet again!) to make it to year two. You Stardewheads know what that means, right?

As it goes, I’ve made some serious progress on a lot of serious things. I have a mere handful of items to clean up in the Community Centre quest, bottomed out the mine, I’ve got all my skills to a solid 5 at minimum, and I’ve apparently got at least two digital girlfriends. (Don’t tell my real world wife! Or whatever.)

According to the in-game clock either a whole year has passed… or about twenty-six hours. Yikes!

I will plead my case that this game is acting as somewhat of an inspiration for my own coding adventures. I’ve been working on a game that not only aesthetically overlaps with Stardew Valley but takes some of the higher concepts from this title, like passing days, npc interactions, and inventory management. I plead such a case only to suggest that spending some time back in Stardew Valley has been more than a way to pass some time waiting for the phone to ring or for my body to recover from a cold, it can be suggested that I’m “researching” game design… and I’d only be a tiny bit exaggerating to suggest that. I actually kind of am.

Of course, that doesn’t also mean I haven’t been enjoying my return visit, particularly so since I have a to-do list in my head to power through some of the more grinding tasks and challenges. I don’t actually know if it has helped, but I feel more productive. And after all, this game is all about the feels, ain’t it?

Post: Fall and On
Friday the 26th of September, 2025, morning.

There is always so much to do in this game, that to try and express an approach as progress is not a clear translation to make.

It is fall of my first year in this playthrough of Stardew Valley, which means that (and since I’ve played it a half dozen times before) I have made some solid gains on the community centre, levelled up a bunch of skills, nearly found my way to the bottom level of the mine, and have been stashing a respectable hoard of gold star vegetables for the harvest festival in a couple of days.

What I have definitely neglected this time around has been building strong relationships in the community (I’ve been hoarding all my gifts to sell for gold) and fishing. I will, as a side note, say that on the PS5 fishing suuuuuucks. I dunno if the controller is not responsive enough or I’m just doing something wrong, but it’s fall and I can count the number of fish I’ve actually caught on my fingers and as a single digit percentage of my attempts. I mean, it’s supposed to be a little tricky, but the curve is just off on consoles. Or something. Either way, I’ve been neglecting it.

My leaning back into this game has left me with a bit of self-reflective angst, tho. I mean, I’ve logged hundred of hours in this silly cozy game over the last decade, so on the one hand you might consider that its a familiar retreat. On the other, you’d assume I’d seen enough of it. It troubles me because I had Baldur’s Gate on my wishlist for nearly three years and finally bought it last month and… well, I logged about a dozen hours in that and started playing Stardew Valley again. What gives?

I think the disconnect I’m feeling is that cozy aspect. BG3 is an adventure game that requires thought and planning and strategy and attention to a story. SDV is just me chopping trees and planting vegetables and running around the #8bit landscape looking for berries.

In other words, I think my choice of game probably says more about my mental state and ability to focus than anything about the games themselves.

Autumn tends to be a time of reflection for me. My birthday is in autumn, for a start, which always makes me mushy about the passage of time. But autumn is also one of those clearcut seasons when the weather switches so dramatically. In fact it might be the most clear cut. Winter is winter and summer is summer, and spring is always a slow gradual melt and blossoming of the world, but autumn? Things just turn yellow and die and one day it’s freaking cold outside, snowing, and miserable and you need to dig your jacket out of the cupboard. Or you need to settle into a cozy video game. Take your pick.

Post: End of Summer
Tuesday the 23rd of September, 2025, evening.

Stardew Valley is syncing up nicely as a kind of comfort game for me lately: turn off my brain and click on stuff, y’know?

I mean, to start maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the seasons happened to line up just nicely, I guess, what with summer just ending here in the real world and me running around for an hour in Stardew Valley cleaning up the last few days of the same there.

My focus on this playthru (and emphasis on the THIS because I have played this game something like eight times on as many platforms) has been mostly twofold: there are a lot of new hidden features, areas, and other additions that have come out in the updates in the three or four years since I last seriously played, and of course, once again trying to unlock the thing I covet the most.. the greenhouse.

I have made progress on both, but of course, only a mere two seasons into the game calendar it is pretty much impossible to say that I have done much besides checkbox the easy stuff and start to formulate the concept of thinking about a plan to get the hard stuff.

One thing I will admit I have not focussed on as much as I normally do is farming. The heart of this game is planting a clever little farm and getting all the plants growing and making a buttload of money from hot peppers or something. I have not prioritized that. My farming vibe is just not there this time, odd considering that earlier this past spring and summer I logged a solid century in Farming Simulator. Maybe little guy with watering can isn’t scratching the farming itch the same way as a big green tractor simulator, huh?

Alas, I season and vibe aside, I only really have been dabbling in this game only in as much as it is the right kind of gem to play while listening to a podcast or an audiobook, half engrossed on a quiet evening and to get away from less wholesome (ahem…politics) content on my screen. And I mean no slight to the dialog either… I have read that book multiple times already. Comfort gaming, to be sure.