Stardew Valley is no stranger to its uncomfortable moments. Penny has a complicated relationship with her mom. Some villagers have deep insecurities that they are working hard to combat. A looming mega-corporation threatens small businesses. For ten years, players have been exposed to these hardships. And in the process, they may shape Pelican Town for the better by balancing the game’s coziness with its denser moments.
For the most part, Stardew Valley has asked its players to only take note. At its most demanding, the game may ask for the player’s opinion. Rarely has it ever asked the player to do more than to simply sit in its sadder moments. I like this status quo—it does an excellent job at making the game feel a bit more human and lived-in, giving the player a reason to leave their farms to explore the world around them. I like the respectful distance the game gives me from these hardships. However, I just recently learned that in an alternate universe, a version of Stardew Valley launched where I could have been a literal monster. You could have been one, too.
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Stardew Valley’s 2013 Pre-Launch Version Was More of a Life-Sim Instead of An RPG
ConcernedApe’s 10th anniversary video was a dream for longtime Stardew Valley players. The retrospective, for me, felt more like a victory lap celebrating how far the game had gone. The video featured never-before-seen iterations of Stardew, from its early concepts in 2012 to just six months before its 2016 launch. Even in its rough draft state, it looked stunning. But seeing ConcernedApe’s progress legitimately made me feel like a proud mom: occasionally moved to tears, permanently amazed. These are the kinds of development cycles and success stories that keep me tied to gaming, and what a joy it was to see Eric Barone’s (ConcernedApe) idea sprout into the grandest afterlife.
In these early development versions of Stardew Valley, players learned about the game’s different iterations. It started off as Sprout Valley in 2012, and received bug fixes the night before it launched in 2016. 2013 was the first time the game started to look like what players know today. Of course, it had some differences, and ConcernedApe described this build as the game’s “puberty.” Here are some notable differences:
The mines were among the biggest changes made to the game before its launch. Within those randomized walls, however, was a level that simply weirded me out.
The Goblin Level Would Have Been Stardew Valley’s Saddest Part of the Mines
The mines that ConcernedApe conceived in 2013 were ambitious. The concept could have been its own game. Ultimately, players never got this version, and the omission might have protected some players’ innocence.
During the gameplay footage, one level of the mines stood out to me. The underground goblin village was nestled on a random level of the mines, and it is reminiscent of the type of ecosystem you’d see in Dwarf Fortress. You may have guessed it, but yes, you would have to slay some goblins for progress. What was startling to me was the fact that these goblins, environmentally, don’t behave like your average foe. When you eliminate them, in the footage, they drop weapons and consumables like bread. Walking around, you’ll see flooring, torches, rooms with tables and chairs, and a genuinely pleasant living standard, which notes that the goblins were sentient, perhaps intelligent, creatures. And then, you’d barge in, swinging your sword, probably killing off entire families. Just a normal day in 2013’s Stardew Valley.
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The Goblin Village Reminds Us that Stardew Valley’s Kindness Is A Choice
I think what unsettles me most about the goblin village isn’t just the imagery or the implications. It’s the fact that this is a path that the game could have taken and consciously didn’t. It’s also the fact that Stardew Valley could have been way less gentle. Omissions like these define the Stardew Valley we know today in more ways than one.
Stardew Valley‘s softer edges probably came when the game shifted away from being a strict simulator and more into an RPG. And little did I know that those soft edges were actually necessary boundaries against Stardew Valley‘s darker turns. Stardew Valley works precisely due to the boundaries it keeps:
- It acknowledges hardship without forcing the potential for cruelty onto the player.
- It explores sadness without turning suffering into a mechanism.
- It trusts empathy more than shock value.
For many players I know, Pelican Town feels like a safe haven to run to after a hard day. Even when it brushes up against heavier themes like poverty, loneliness, or burnout, it does not ask the player to be responsible for causing harm. The goblin village would have crossed that invisible line, even if the game never acknowledged it. And perhaps that’s why learning about it feels so surreal. It’s a glimpse into a version of Stardew that could have been less personal. Instead, we got a world that believes in softness as a virtue. And we are better for it.
Stardew Valley
- Released
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February 26, 2016
- ESRB
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E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)
- Developer(s)
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ConcernedApe
- Publisher(s)
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ConcernedApe
