Stardew Valley developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has made a big financial donation, and it could be a boon to indie game developers. It seems to be the Stardew Valley dev’s way of giving back, and also includes ongoing financial support.
Stardew Valley is easily one of the most beloved indie games to come out in the 2010s, and despite its age, it’s still going strong. Players all over the world love Stardew Valley, and that feeling often extends to its sole developer, ConcernedApe. The dev has gained tons of goodwill from the community for continuously pushing out updates for the game and not charging a cent past the initial purchase.
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Stardew Valley Developer Gives Back
On Twitter, MonoGame has revealed that it received a generous donation from the developer of Stardew Valley, as well as continuous monthly support. MonoGame is an open source framework used to design and develop games, and provides its services for completely free to developers, making it popular among indie game devs. Eric Barone’s donation is sizable, as the developer apparently gave a flat donation of $125,000 to MonoGame, and has also promised to help support it on a monthly basis, though no amount was given for that particular aspect.
Stardew Valley uses MonoGame, so it’s only fitting for one of the biggest indie hits utilizing the framework give back. The amount is especially considerable when looking at MonoGame’s support page, where it indicates that it typically receives about $2,200 monthly from 238 sponsors. Comparatively, $125,000 is tremendous, and will likely help the framework developers to keep doing what they’re doing for a long time.
MonoGame may not be a household name among gamers themselves, but those who are fans of indie games have likely experienced some that were built using the framework. In addition to Stardew Valley, MonoGame has also been used to build indie games like Axiom Verge and Axiom Verge 2, Celeste, as well as non-indie games like Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. MonoGame notes that thousands of games, libraries, and tools have been made with the framework, so these just scrape the surface of what developers have done with it.
ConcernedApe is in Many Gamers’ Good Graces
While releasing free content updates for a game that’s already sold at an affordable price would make many gamers happy, the dev has done more than that. ConcernedApe has pleased his fans by maintaining an open line of communication and remaining transparent about what he’s working on, as well as integrating some player feedback into updates for Stardew Valley. The dev has worked hard to ensure everything works properly, even if it means working on patching Stardew Valley on Christmas. He’s even impressed fans by giving the go-ahead to an artist creating a tarot set based on Stardew Valley, with no apparent request for a part of the profit.
All of this has led to not only a game that’s adored, but a developer that’s well-loved by the community. An appearance at the Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons saw Barone receive roars of applause from the audience, and he is regularly reassured by players that they’ll wait as long as is necessary to try out whatever he releases next. While Barone has been quiet about this donation and is presumably remaining humble about it, players and other game developers utilizing MonoGame are likely to find even more to like about the guy. Though there’s no telling how much longer players will be waiting until they can get their hands on his next project, Haunted Chocolatier, it’s likely that the game will see a similar level of success to that of 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
