Sunshine 2023: Prompt 1: Iris

[stardewdreaming]

Prompt 1: Iris
They can represent faith, hope, courage, wisdom and admiration. Specific flower colours attach further meanings to the pretty blooms. Purple iris brings a message of wisdom and compliments, while a bouquet of blue iris blossoms speak of hope and faith.

We've already covered my slight obsession with Stardew Valley, right? So I'm kind of wondering if I can manage to make this entire blogging challenge about the game. I don't know if I will, but the prompts appear to be nice and abstract so fingers crossed!

When you start playing Stardew Valley (or any game really) you don't know what you're doing, the controls can be confusing and can you feel completely lost and confused, right?
But you have faith that you'll eventually figure out what you're doing.
I remember thinking I'd learn my way around the map, never remember who the characters were, but within a couple of hours/game days, I was working it out and a year later I know so much about the game.

The whole point of the game is the hope that you can build a better life for yourself in Pelican Town, the hope that you can find a sense of satisfaction, happiness and maybe in love!

Even though it's only a game, there's still courage needed to face the challenges in it. There's monsters, disease, the weather. It takes courage to try new things, both picking up a new game to play, but also in-game itself - I know people who find it scary to start talking to & befriending the villagers; some of them can be difficult and no-one likes rejection, even when it's fictional! I find the mines take a lot of courage, especially the Skull Cavern - I keep dying and it would be so easy to not keep going back but I find the courage to keep trying.

There's so much to learn in game - what crops to plant & when & how long they take to grow, what animals to raise, what machines to buy/build, when to spend and when to save money.
I know players who have built up a huge bank of knowledge about the in-game details, they're like walking encyclopaedias and it's pretty amazing to witness!

You wouldn't think it in what initially appears to be just another farming sim game but the themes of faith, hope, courage, wisdom, and admiration really help make the game meaningful and enjoyable and keep me coming back day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year!

I'm also hoping I have enough courage to share this post with folks at sunshine_challenge!

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I hope you shared it as well :)

[stardewdreaming]

I did in the end, yes! And the world didn't stop spinning which was a relief.

[vriddy]

My friend is intensely into Stardew Valley and keeps returning to the game every few months, even if she takes a break from time to time. She seems to find it deeply comforting! I haven't had a chance to try it yet though I think I will someday, if only to understand her interests better :)

Thank you & congratulations for sharing this lovely post! <3

[stardewdreaming]

I find it so relaxing - both playing it and watching it, although you can lose a lot of time because an in-game day is only about 20 minutes, so you keep just saying 'oh, one more day'...

[enemytosleep]

I have a few friends who are intensely into this game! So I know that it's not your average farming sim else they wouldn't have such dedicated posts about it. I also know they have worked on and adopted mods for the game: some popular fandoms apparently have mods to turn the villagers into characters from other properties, like The Adventure Zone or Critical Role. Modding is certainly an act of fannish love as I imagine it takes quite a lot of time to build the codes.

Also, I guess I never quite realized before this post that there were ways to die in Stardew Valley! I've always been told it's a very cozy game. :D

[stardewdreaming]

'Die' was a little strong, to be honest because you don't actually die but when you're in the mines and combat with monsters, you get a health bar which goes down as you're injured and if you get too injured, you pass out and wake up in the infirmary, with super low energy and no health for the rest of the day

I have seen so many amazing modded games when I've been watching on Twitch and the latest update the creator is working on actually includes making it easier for people to mod. I'm not very technologically minded so I'm not even going to TRY to figure out installing mods in case I break something!

[silveradept]

Stardew Valley looked like a game that is approachable and easier to pick up and try things with and keep trying things with, at which point it reveals itself to be a game of surprising depth and complexity and more than a few different kinds of things lying there waiting for you to discover that you can, in fact, do that, even if you don't necessarily know that you want to do that (or you're doing it because you're curious rather than because you know that's what you want.

[stardewdreaming]

That very much sums up Stardew Valley in a nutshell. It's only really a basic farming sim on a surface level - when you start getting to know NPC characters, and learning about their backstories, some of them are heartbreaking. One of them has a depression storyline complete with an ingame unaliving attempt. There are witches and wizards and fairies and dwarves and shadow people and merpeople. And those are just the things I've discovered so far!

[silveradept]

That's a very alive world. It sounds like once you have the farming stuff done or sufficiently automated there's an entire world out there to spend most of your time exploring and doing your best to follow.

[dreamkist]

I love Stardew! Beautiful way to tie the game's themes with the prompt!