As a fellow management sim and automation game enjoyer, I understand your love for Rimworld and why Stardew does not scratch that itch. But the appeal of Stardew is I think just what you’ve figured out for yourself, it’s the anti-management, anti-automation game. The part of the brain that Stardew taps into is the one that likes to make things with your hands. It’s a bit more tangible feeling of involvement which is its own allure that is wholly distinct from the one where you watch a bunch of cogs turn in a machine.

I love playing Satisfactory and Factorio and Rimworld, and at work I spend a lot of time automating and analyzing and alerting. Stardew is the game I play when I’m burnt the hell out and I don’t want to diagnose why the automation I’ve written isn’t doing x thing or giving me Y result. I just buy seed, plant seed, water, and harvest. There’s very little planning and virtually no troubleshooting. You just put X effort in and get X benefit back. It’s why so many IT guys retire and become goat farmers.

Its about long term effort investment. The game really gets fun as you start making lots of profits, upgrading tools, and automating the farm, although it can be tiring. There is also probably over 1000 ways to play. Some focus on mining, some more on social, some rarely leave the farm.

I can usually play it for about and in game year then have to put it down. Then I have a hard time picking it back up cause im worried ill mess up my planting plans even though my character is already fairly rich.

It’s a farming game. Farming is a big part of it. Expecting not to farm in a farming game is a little misplaced as an expectation.

I love Rimworld and Stardew, but they’re different. Rimworld is a strategy game in which you strategically plan and the NPCs run their lives until you take control of them.

You can respect a game and not enjoy it. Games are art and taste is important. I hate first person shooters for example. Don’t force yourself if you don’t want to, but expectation and comparison are thief’s of joy. If you want to enjoy something, don’t expect, just play and let it guide you and choose which parts of the mechanics you enjoy interacting with more.

It’s a Dating Sim. Farming and Mining is just minigames. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) /s

Also, I am a full blown Factorio, Oxygen Not Included and Shapez player. TBH, I also never like game like Stardew Valley but after playing it for a month or so loved it. So, I can understand you and I also want to automate Stardew Valley to shit to overthrow the Capitalist Joja company.

Also feel free to come on !stardewvalley@lemm.ee if you ever try it again and liked it.

Just my opinion - but Stardew Valley, for me, is best enjoyed in the same vein like something like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing.

It is like Sims: Rural. I liked the idea of someone being sick of the corporate drone lifestyle and being given the opportunity to start a new life in the country-side.

While I agree, especially in the beginning that the timers do feel restrictive, farming can be a chore when you are starting out and the stamina can be annoying but it has been built towards an idea that

“This is your character’s life and just enjoy a new start in the countryside”

It does get easier, more streamlined and opens up more options when one starts getting into the specialisations in leveling and gain benefits from progress which brings with it more “set and forget” tasks (like ancient fruit in a green house with sprinklers) which are profitable and if farming isn’t your thing I was going to say to try animal husbandry - which starts out with just giving the animals you buy some attention and food everyday ( buy hay or use a scythe on long grass), open the barn hatch in the morning (when not raining) and close it at night and collect the resource either by picking it up or having the right tool for the animal.

Animal husbandry is a lot of initial setup and then animal maintainence to get a resource, which leaves more time to explore other aspects of the game

I guess it is a game best enjoyed to roleplay as one learns about everybody in the valley and make your mark as someone of important as you can either make your fortune, have a family, make friends or just check off the list of collectables

I do feel it is a bit unfair to compare it to something like Rimworld as it is a great colony simulator in its own right with it having the focus of developing a “blank slate” community of random people in a harsh and cruel world where the player is the “architect” as you create the plan and the pawns enact it.

Comparatively, I do feel Rimworld farming is more involved than in Stardew Valley as there is a lot of external factors to consider like fertility, effective crop placement to avoid disease ruining all your crops if your pawns are too slow to contain it, raiders burning it, weather and events that ruin the crops, etc)

While Stardew it is a cycle of seasonal preparation, planting, watering, scarecrows placement to avoid crows stealing crops and harvesting - it is quite simple although more hands-on in practice and some of these steps can eventually be automated.

I guess Stardew Valley is predictable and consistent without much risk and can come across as a chore whereas Rimworld has a lot of external variables that keeps one needing to have a plan in the back of one’s mind when things go wrong.

Fair enough if you do not find it interesting, it might just not be your style of gameplay. Give credit where credit is due that you gave it an honest go at it and if you do not refund it it, maybe you will enjoy it one day

I tried picking it up a few times and tried playing conventionally and felt like it was basically a snoozefest, break down a handful of rocks and stumps and faint in the field lol. Similar kind of road block. The time and the energy stirs up a little anxiety in me, trying to be efficient and stuff.

But then, I tried playing again, ignored the crops, and just went off fishing and exploring the caves, and fell into a hole.

it might still not be the game for you, but if you pick it up again, a no-crop playthrough might be far more engaging

Here’s the thing about SV: There’s no “losing”. No a right way, or a wrong way to play.

You have the time limit of the day, but there’s no time limit of the game. If you don’t plant a lot or make much cash for an entire in game year, it doesn’t matter. Just go fight in the caves, or fish, or go around talking to people and getting relationships or whatever. The day is in a hurry, but you don’t have to be in one.

That said; your direct complaint is “I have to do it myself?” Well, yes. There is a somewhat driving factor in the game, and that is that just like in real life, you’re trying to do work now, so you can do less work later. The driving factor of the game is completing the stories and also upgrading your stuff so the work is easier.

But again, there isn’t much of a time limit.

Also, it’s a farming game. Did you not expect to farm?

It took a few tries to get into it. Once you play for a while you realize how much freedom you really have at the start and can make cash and advance pretty easily. I fell in love with the mines. Worked really well since the more you mine the more materials you get to automate farming.

Also if you have someone to coop with do it. Having multiple players makes things fun and easier.

The wiki for the game is amazing and helps a lot starting out.

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Getting_Started

Honestly, looking at posts like this what annoys me most about Stardew Valley is the number of people who like the game who tell you how you are playing it wrong if you don’t enjoy the core gameplay loop. The only other type of game that is comparable in that respect are games like Souls-likes but most of those have more awareness that they only appeal to a specific type of player.

I got into Stardew Valley literally by accident. As in, I twisted my ankle during a winter vacation and got stuck indoors for a week while my family was having fun outside. All I had to entertain myself was my laptop and this farming game I recently bought on a whim.

I didn’t see the fun in it at first, but I liked the music and eventually the grind kind of clicked for me. Wake up, water plants, sell stuff, explore a bit, go to bed, repeat. It helped that my other choices for entertainment were a bit limited at the time :) But once the daily tasks become routine, you kind of zone out during that part and think ahead of what you want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe explore that cave a little more, or go fishing for that fish you need for the community center, etc.

But I can totally understand if it’s not your thing. I might not have enjoyed it so much if I wasn’t chair bound for an entire week with nothing else to do…
Erm…
That’s not the most glowing of endorsements when I write it out loud :)

What I’m trying to say is, for me it was a bit of a barrier to get through, but after that it’s such a cozy game to spend some time in. And it kind of has this nice reward cycle that makes me go “just one more day” a LOT of days :)

Stardew Valley is basically a love letter to/greatest hits compilation of the Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons franchises. It’s kind of the opposite of a management game. There is a little bit of automation later on, but most productivity gains come in upgrading your tools which can either plow more soil in one whack, cut down a tree faster, water large patches of fields, etc.

I definitely see where you fell off because at first it feels like you don’t have time for everything, the clock runs no matter what, there’s only so many minutes in a day etc. Here’s the thing though: There’s no failure state, and the game repeats forever. Each day is short, but days never stop coming. So plant and water a little patch of crops, then look around the town, talk to people, explore. More gameplay styles open up as you play; it’s possible to focus on exploring the various mines or fishing or whatnot rather than farming.

Definitely do give it up for Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. It’s amazing what the man built single-handedly.

You should give it more time. You are a young, new farmer, and as such, it’s supposed to suck. You’re learning a new trade in a strange place. The game evolves to a point long before the end game where energy doesn’t matter, and the tedious tasks are handled. You will have plenty of time to go do the things you would rather focus on.

That being said, if it’s not your thing, then that’s cool too!

my thought was, '“oh am i going to have to do all this myself?” Idk why I would want to spend my time and effort doing what someone in Rimworld does without needing micromanagement.

Not really my cup of tea either.

I don’t think that Stardew Valley is really all that similar to Rimworld. Maybe Oxygen Not Included, Satisfactory/Factorio, Kenshi, or Dwarf Fortress if you’re looking for something similar.

Thats fine, not every game is designed for every person that plays it to enjoy it. Its just not the kind of game for you.

Anyone that tells you to play it more is gaslighting due to Sunk Cost Fallacy. The experience late game is more or less the same as early game. The biggest difference being that you have stronger gear and can do more, just like any other game with progression. But the main gameplay and game loop remain the same, so if you aren’t enjoying that early on, you probably aren’t going to enjoy it later either.

First negative tho is something I remember from the article where he said he didn’t really like majora’s mask cuz the time aspect then laughed at the irony since he made Stardew.

I won’t tell you to like or dislike Stardew Valley, as that’s your choice alone. Now that’s said, I profoundry disagree with this assertion that ConcernedApe is a hypocrite. In Majora’s Mask you’re stuck in a time loop where you have to complete the entire game within the limit. That is far from the case with Stardew. You aren’t expected to complete much in a day, maybe a single task per day in the early game.

As for people accusing others of gaslighting, that’s wrong. The game doesn’t really open up until you get through the first season. Sure, you’re free to drop the game before that, but you then miss the parts that people love about the game. I don’t think it’s fair to call the gameplay loop poorly designed when you haven’t even seen half of it.

That being said, a season in game is about 10 hours of play time. Though I personally think the onboarding process is fairly good, it would be valid to argue that 10 hours is too much of a commitment to find out whether you like the game or not. I don’t personally think that for SDV, but I can respect it