Stardew Valley has become the backbone of farming simulators since its launch in 2016, and the impact it had on the genre and the games that followed is clear as day. As soon as a trailer for a new farming simulator drops, someone will make a comparison with Stardew Valley, no matter how far a stretch that might be. But this impact has caused a lot of similar Stardew-esque games to be produced, which Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley, is aware of.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Barone shared that he hadn't really played many other farming and life simulators, although he did give Sun Haven and Graveyard Keeper a special mention. One stood out among the rest though, but not because it looked like an attempt to be the next Stardew Valley, only because the name was similar.
Barone shared "I did boot up Disney Dreamlight Valley. Because I was like, Wait, it's called Dreamlight Valley. Like, what? What are they? What's going on here? So I had to check it out. And it's like, it's more, I'd say it's more like Animal Crossing than Stardew."
It takes two seconds to boot up Steam and immediately be inundated with farming simulator recommendations. Don't get me wrong, I love the genre as much as the next person, if not more so having spent thousands of hours tilling soil and raising chickens. But it's becoming harder to sift through the masses to find something unique, and a lot of that is due to so many developers drawing inspiration from the success of Stardew Valley and trying to replicate it in their own way.
Barone recognises the impact Stardew has had on the genre, saying "I can't take all the credit for this, but Stardew, it seems to have inspired a lot more people to consider this kind of game. Like farming game life sim kind of games. Which, you know, I loved those kinds of games growing up.
I mean, Harvest Moon was my favorite. I played Rune Factory, I played the Sims. I did play a little bit of Animal Crossing, but I was more into, like, Harvest Moon, that's my big one. But it's great to see, like, a resurgence of that kind of game, and see that, you know, maybe you started to inspire other developers to make games in this style. I think it's cool."
