"I'm now self-publishing Stardew Valley on Android": Developer opens up about the game development process, and more

Creator of Stardew Valley, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, has announced that he is currently self-publishing the game on Android devices. This means that he has taken complete responsibility for publishing the game across all platforms.

After making the announcement, Barone conducted an AMA where he answered many questions from fans relating to game development and his upcoming projects. Fans did take him up on his offer of 'asking him anything,' and it must be said that he delivered to the best of his capabilities.

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Stardew Valley creator conducts AMA on Twitter

Barone was asked about the complexities of self-publishing, to which he replied:

"I haven't had enough experience with mobile yet as I just recently started publishing there. Consoles in general are a lot more complicated than PC. Steam is the easiest to work with. They just let you be free and if your game has issues, that's on you. I appreciate that."

Fans asked Barone how he got to developing Stardew Valley. The developer replied:

"I coded it from scratch using XNA (which provides some low level game functions like loading assets and drawing textures to the screen). I've never used any game making software but I'm not against it or anything."

Users on Twitter asked the developer how much he likes chocolate, considering Barone's next game is a chocolate shop sim called Haunted Chocolatier:

"I do enjoy chocolate, but also I just think chocolate and candy-making in a dark, snowy town sounded like a fun and cozy thing to do with a lot of room for imagination and magic."

When asked if there will be any more Stardew Valley updates, the developer said:

"There may be, but it's unlikely that there will be any future updates as big as the 1.5 update was."

Fans even asked Barone for any advice he might have for up-and-coming game developers. He replied:

"Make the game that you love, that you are so excited to work on that you will jump over any hurdle to bring it to life. The actual software or approach you use is not so important. If you have the drive, you'll find a way."

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Monetization, Haunted Chocolatier, and more

Regarding monetizing YouTube videos with Stardew Valley, Barone said:

"Really don't mind if individual YouTubers use the music for their backgrounds or whatever. I guess if a big company was using the music for an advertisement or something I would mind. So it's kind of case by case but if you're just a person making YouTube vids I don't mind."

His opinions on awesomeness:

"There's a lot of potential in the human mind and willpower and it just needs to be unlocked, almost everyone has a huge amount of untapped potential and I hope everyone can discover their own key."

When players will hear more about Haunted Chocolatier:

"Hopefully soon. To be honest, I would like to post more about Haunted Chocolatier but I also feel kind of rude or insensitive doing that before the mobile 1.5 update is out."

A lot more has been announced, including bringing the 1.5 update to mobile devices, enabling mods for the console versions of the game, and some future troubleshooting. Such an extensive Q&A really shows how much the Stardew Valley creator cares about the fans of his works.