Happy Farming

In 2016, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone released Stardew Valley on Steam.  The game was created completely by Barone over the course of four years, resulting in an elaborate game about building up a small, farming community, a game that then exploded with support and has since been released on every other console and had several massive patches, including multiplayer.

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I told myself "Why not me?" (x)

As Teresa Amabile writes in her article Beyond Talent, intrinsic motivation and hard work are a large part of creativity.  It took Barone four years of development to finish the game, during which he was a "struggling artist".  In a Reddit AMA, he stated: "I applied a few places, no one hired me. I felt both scared and depressed about going into the "workforce" anyway. I still felt like a kid, I wasn't ready to grow up."  He also said, when asked about his lowest point, that it was "probably 3 years into development... feeling like the game is not very good, people giving up on me because the game was taking so long, even my grandma openly admitted that she thought I would never finish the game.

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Create. Move on to something else. Go back and re-create. Create. Move on. Re-create. (x)

Barone's process with Stardew Valley was to build a piece of the game until it was "around 80 percent done" by creating it, then redoing it until it worked for him, before moving on to another piece.  For example, as written in the GQ article: “'I put in thousands of hours on pixel art just to get better at it and better at it,' he says. 'I just persevered and forced myself to learn. You realize the thing that you thought was good actually isn’t. You realize why and you improve on it. And that’s just an endless cycle.'"

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When I’m deep into a project that’s consuming my entire life,” he says, “that’s what makes me feel the best. (x)

His perfectionism made him neglect other parts of his life, something he now regrets.  Not only that, but he was reluctant to reach out for help, instead searching for answers without having to ask for help from others—"He prefers not having the subconscious feeling of owing a debt for a favor, so instead he does things all himself."  All this obsession culminated in that fourth and final year. "I was just absolutely sick of it, I was bored. I didn’t even have an objective sense of if the game was good or not. In fact, I thought it was bad,” he said in the GQ article.

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I want complete creative control. I just think this is my niche, this is who I am. (x)

In answering a question during a Reddit AMA about being a one-man developer, he said, "I think that Stardew wouldn't be the same I didn't make it alone. I believe there is something special about solo development.... I was able to create a cohesive vision and indulge my own whims to a large degree... in a way that seems impossible in a team. I prefer working this way, and I don't know if I'll ever want to work in a team."  Barone did everything on his own, and often talks about how he even held himself back during development to avoid being 'too much'.  He's said that he'll instead indulge himself on his next project, especially given the success that Stardew has had.

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Eric Barone is now working on his next game, which he thinks will be another three years of development.  He continues to update Stardew Valley with new, free content and changes, only improving on the project, which has a 10/10 on Steam and a 9.5 on IGN.  And I'll be honest, this post has just made me start playing it again so I guess I won't be very productive in the next few weeks as I become obsessed with my virtual farm.  That's just how good of a game it is.