Stardew Valley Creator Shares His Love For Harvest Moon

During an interview with GQ, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone was asked what he thought about Harvest Moon, a game that heavily inspired Stardew Valley, and the thousands of hours Barone poured into Stardew Valley for years.

Here’s what Barone had to say about Harvest Moon..

I liked that you could have relationships with the townsfolk, and even get married and start a family. That was something you couldn’t do in most games I played as a kid, and it made the experience much more personal. That you were living in a world that felt alive, time moved forward with or without your input. It was easy to imagine that the world was very much alive.

And what he has to say about his work to make Stardew Valley a better game..

I put in thousands of hours on pixel art just to get better at it and better at it. 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. …It was definitely a struggle to keep my sanity.