Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020)

Post by er4hn » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 11:41 PM UTC

DC1350 wrote: post #15

I didn’t like Stardew Valley because I thought it was one of the most stressful games I’ve ever played. It gets a reputation for being relaxing, but I felt like the timer plus the variety put a lot of pressure on me to play efficiently and maximize each day. Was I just playing the game wrong?

Post by username90 » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 11:56 PM UTC

psyc wrote: post #11

29athrowaway wrote: post #3

My criticism towards game designers is that they often analyze games from an abstract perspective, leaving out important details that contribute to the success of the game: High frame rate, stability, good quality animations, color palette/art style/fonts that are consistent with the game fiction, UI usability, soundtrack, community, abscence of cheaters... just to name a few. You can have a great game, but if it's u…

Are we talking about Stardew though? Because IMO it excels in half your criteria and is pleasantly adequate in the rest. If you mean games in general I mostly agree. Most teams just don’t seem to prioritize these things and it can be frustrating. Especially when the core concepts are so promising. There are a lot of reasons to idolize John Carmack, but my favorite is his lifelong obsession with latency. End to end. F…

Post by DC1350 » Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 12:02 AM UTC

dljsjr wrote: post #21

DC1350 wrote: post #15

I didn’t like Stardew Valley because I thought it was one of the most stressful games I’ve ever played. It gets a reputation for being relaxing, but I felt like the timer plus the variety put a lot of pressure on me to play efficiently and maximize each day. Was I just playing the game wrong?

Are you talking about the day/night cycle or the 2-year "timer" before you get evaluated? Once you get evaluated at the end of two years you can get re-evaluated whenever you want and you can still get the reward for the highest evaluation tier. You don't lose anything from not getting the perfect evaluation the first time.

Post by covidthrow » Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

Angostura wrote: post #25

covidthrow wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with both your general point and your specific regarding The Orville. I wasn't excited to watch it, because I don't find McFarlane funny (as a writer/showrunner and especially not as an actor), and because I think I've only ever enjoyed maybe one sci-fi parody ever. (2 if you count MST3K as "sci-fi"..?) But my wife wanted to give it a shot because she's such a sci-fi nerd (even more than me), and you'…

> I've only ever enjoyed maybe one sci-fi parody ever. It was Galaxyquest, wasn't it?

Post by thatswrong0 » Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 12:49 AM UTC

aethe wrote: post #17

DC1350 wrote: post #15

I didn’t like Stardew Valley because I thought it was one of the most stressful games I’ve ever played. It gets a reputation for being relaxing, but I felt like the timer plus the variety put a lot of pressure on me to play efficiently and maximize each day. Was I just playing the game wrong?

The game doesn't do a good job of explaining this, but, there is almost no benefit to min-maxing it. Absolutely nothing is gated off by taking your time to do it. If it takes you seven in-game years to finish the community center, there's no downside. It's a common misconception that you need to complete everything as quickly as possible. I think this stems from the fact that after your second year you get a kind of…