Stardew Valley turns 10 years old today, marking a huge milestone for one of the most beloved and successful indie games in of the modern era. Despite being far from a live service game, solo developer ConcernedApe (also known as Eric Barone) is still providing content updates to this day, and though they’ve slowed significantly in recent years, 1.7 is coming soon.
Today, Barone premiered a video on YouTube celebrating both the anniversary and upcoming update, taking a trip down memory lane to show off old builds of the farming sim while also providing a sneak peek at 1.7 – specifically, Stardew Valley’s first new marriage candidates in years. At the very end of the video, he revealed that players will be able to romance Clint, the blacksmith, and Sandy, a shopkeeper in the desert.
Clint is a surprising choice, for a few reasons. For starters, Clint is commonly made fun of by members in the community who dislike his personality. In a cast of beloved characters, he stands out as one of the most commonly disdained. That said, maybe this is Barone’s attempt to turn the character’s popularity around, since romance quests give characters a lot more depth.
Still, there are other characters players have requested to romance for years. The most notable are Robin (she’s married when the player arrives to the village, but that fact doesn’t do much to quell romantic fans) and the Wizard. Unless they’re coming in some massive 1.8 update, fans will have to stick to fanfic and mods.
The rest of the video is worth watching as well, since we don’t usually get such a detailed behind-the-scenes look at indie games like this, and it’s cool to watch the project come together.
Stardew Valley’s 1.7 update doesn’t have release window yet, but will hopefully be out sometime soon. If you haven’t played Stardew Valley in a while, you can check out its Switch 2 update, which includes split-screen co-op and mouse controls. As for ConcernedApe’s next game, Haunted Chocolatier, we have no idea when to expect its release, but it’s one of our most anticipated games right now.
