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Stardew Valley Multiplayer On Track For 2018 Release
Stardew Valley captivated audiences when it released on PC last year, letting players farm, mine, and become part of a relaxing Harvest Moon-like community. As rewarding as it all was, it felt a little lonely at times. Developer Chucklefish recognized that, and announced that it was working on a patch to incorporate multiplayer into the experience. Today, we've got an update, which includes some details on how things are coming along and what kinds of activities players can expect to share with their friends – including, quite possibly, marriage.
When it's finished, players will be able to build up to three cabins on their farms, for up to three farmhands (friends). Farmhands will be able to do just about everything the main player can do, aside from scheduling festivals or determining when it's time to sleep. Otherwise, they can pitch in to farm, mine, fish, forage, and more. There's no plan for local multiplayer, so you'll need to connect online.
Players can marry NPCs (drama alert!), and Chucklefish says they might be able to marry friends, too. "It’s an idea we like a lot, and want to make available as a feature," they wrote. "Player-to-player marriage won’t use the mermaid pendant, but rather an alternative method that requires a similar amount of effort to wooing an NPC. We’re still working out what that will be.
According to the post, putting multiplayer into the game after its release has been difficult, time-consuming work that's resulted in rewriting 15,000 lines of code. That part's nearly done, however. Chucklefish is planning on a PC beta at some point near the end of the year, with a release in early 2018.
Console players will have to wait until next year, too. It'll be first on the long-awaited Nintendo Switch port, with other platforms to follow.
[Source: Stardew Valley]
Our Take
Don't get any ideas, Ben Hanson.
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