Fans concerned that the tabletop game will not be faithful to the Stardew Valley video game should find many of their fears alleviated by the fact that the game is published by Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone himself. Meanwhile, the game has been designed by Cole Medeiros.

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Barone notes in his blog post announcing the game that the tabletop version contains mostly every element from the video game, from mining to fishing to growing crops and befriending the villagers. Barone also notes that it was important to him that the game not only be fun to play, but visually appealing as well. Whether he succeeded at the latter point is subjective, but it is clear a lot of effort was put into the artistic direction of the game and its components.

The most pressing question with the announcement of a board game adaptation is regarding how it plays. Rather than players competing to see who can make the most profit by a certain time or reach a certain goal the quickest, players will instead being working together in order to save the valley from the Joja Corporation.

Players will work together to complete Grandpa’s Goals as well as the Community Center Bundles. These goals are rather faithful to the source material, but there is one major difference. In the video game, it was a completely viable option to instead side with Joja Mart and complete the Joja Warehouse instead of the Community Center. That option is not present in the board game.

Despite the game being based on a fairly casual farming simulator, the board game looks complex. There is even a warning of sorts when going to purchase the game that the board game is not casual or fast. It is noted that the game is simple once the rules are understood, but the game will still take around 45 minutes-per-player to complete, which unless playing solo means the game will take about a minimum of 90 minutes. It is possible to adjust the game to be shorter, and how to do so is supplied in the rulebook. Speaking of playing solo, it is entirely possible given the goal is to beat the game itself, not other players. Solo rules are mostly the same, but the way the professions work change slightly.

Stardew Valley is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

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Source: Stardew Valley Blog