By Stardew Valley‘s creator believes the fundamental choice between supporting a community center or assisting a large grocery chain in transforming it into a distribution hub was too “cut and dry.”
Stardew Valley lacks numerous significant ethical dilemmas, apart from the core objective of the game. Players can either invest time to forge bonds and collaborate with the local residents to rejuvenate the community center, or they can pay to convert it into a Joja facility – while the basic rewards remain similar, the paths to achieve them are distinct.
In a conversation with PC Gamer, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone mentioned he would have to “favor the community center,” despite considering this choice “one of the aspects I somewhat regret about Stardew Valley.”
“I feel it might be a bit too obvious, like, ‘Joja is evil and the community center is the correct approach,'” Barone remarked. “I think if I were to create Stardew Valley again, I would aim for more complexity. Perhaps there are some merits to Joja, you know? Reality rarely presents situations that are purely black and white. There’s generally a layer of complexity. That’s what I wanted to incorporate in Stardew Valley – that complexity – but I feel I may have faltered in this particular area.”
In the game’s context, who could fault Barone for advocating for the community center? The protagonist relishes rural living after departing from a monotonous office role at JojaMart, making a return to their grasp feel like regressing to previous habits.
Perhaps Barone’s upcoming project, Haunted Chocolatier, will embody more of the “complexity” he seeks.