Stardew Valley creator shares early concept doodles on Twitter, and now fans want a full art book

Stardew Valley community center concept art — (Image credit: Eric Barone)

In case we needed more evidence that the world cannot get enough Stardew Valley, creator Eric Barone shared a piece of early community center concept art on Twitter, and fans immediately began clamoring for more photos.

"Was going through some things and found my old notebook w/ the original community center concept," Barone tweeted nonchalantly while sharing the image—which, for the record, is pretty great.

was going through some things and found my old notebook w/ the original community center concept pic.twitter.com/cXPI77kxptApril 21, 2023

Followers almost immediately asked for more, and Barone delivered:

Stardew Valley concept art — (Image credit: Eric Barone)

"I always spill everything I'm holding," Barone tweeted, explaining the stains (probably green tea) on the mine concepts.

Others began picking out their favorite bits and pieces from the images Barone shared:

Some followers want more than just a few tweets, and are calling for a full-on art book to be published.

if you published this notebook and sold it i’d buy it this is adorableApril 21, 2023

It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would be out of the question. Stardew Valley is an unparalleled indie game phenomenon, selling more than 20 million copies across just about every platform imaginable and inspiring spinoffs including a hit board game, soundtracks, food, a very impressive boxed edition, and at least one real-life marriage. In light of that, an art book seems almost mundane and entirely doable.

Unfortunately, if it does happen, it won't be anytime soon: When asked about the possibility of releasing an art book, a rep said that "for the foreseeable future [Barone] would prefer to focus his efforts on Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier."

That's a shame, but I suspect that as long as Barone keeps sharing the occasional blast from the past on Twitter, most of his fans will be pretty happy. And there's more Stardew Valley coming, too: Barone announced last week that a surprise 1.6 update is now in the works while he takes a short break from developing his next game, Haunted Chocolatier,

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.