The Future

Hey everyone! It's been a month since my last post here and I have a lot to update you all on. I've been hard at work polishing and refining Stardew Valley Expanded 1.15. There have been 150 patch notes since 1.15.6's release today. I've fine-tuned all the content, balanced everything via feedback from the community, fixed many bugs and crashes, and added touches here and there that I felt were missing. Looking back, I'm genuinely proud of this update and the project as a whole. This marks not just the completion of this update, but the completion of my mod. Now, with the release of SVE 1.15.6, I'm thrilled to say that Stardew Valley Expanded is officially complete. There's nothing more I want to add or change. After many years of dedication and effort, this milestone feels incredible. It is now time that I turn to a new chapter in my life.

I'm setting aside my modder's blacksmith hammer for a while as I take on official work at ConcernedApe LLC. What exactly that work involves will remain a secret for now and likely for quite some time (not Haunted Chocolatier). Working for ConcernedApe has always been a dream of mine since my early years of modding his game, and with SVE now complete, I can fully dedicate myself. That said, this isn't the end! We're not entirely finished yet. There's still the highly anticipated 2.0 update, and I'd like to share more details about that with you all.

I always envisioned Castle Village as the centerpiece of SVE 2.0, but I've come to realize it's out of scope for what Stardew Valley Expanded was originally meant to achieve: expanding the valley. Castle Village is a distant land with minimal ties to the Stardew Valley region, focusing heavily on magic, combat, and dungeon crawling. Additionally, SVE 1.15 has already pushed the limits of what I think SMAPI can handle across a wide range of devices, both in terms of performance and hardware requirements. With all this in mind, I'm excited to announce that Castle Village will be developed as a completely separate mod. It will be playable on its own or alongside SVE. While I'll recommend playing it alongside SVE for the full experience, this modular approach gives players more flexibility with other mods and expansions. Castle Village will be a substantial mod, similar in size to SVE, and likely just as demanding if not more in terms of GPU, CPU, and RAM. This approach ensures that all players can fully enjoy what Castle Village has to offer while keeping it distinct from the core SVE experience.

To be fully transparent, my primary focus will be my work at ConcernedApe LLC, but during weekends and free time, I'll be developing Castle Village. A lot of progress has already been made! The ideas and themes are solid, a lot of music and art is finished, and the foundation for this project is strong. My next big milestone for Castle Village is to complete the city and make it fully explorable for players, much like what I did with Retro Castle Village. As I continue making progress, I'll be sharing updates here, including polls where you can help decide on certain features and elements.

Thank you, sincerely, for all your support and love... for everything. The generosity I've been shown has helped put food on my table, paid for my rent, and has allowed me to work on SVE over the years. It means the world to me. Honestly speaking, I don't think I'll ever leave the kitchen. I'm always going to be cooking.

-Flash