Eric Barone

Stardew Valley (2012–present)

Barone began working on Stardew Valley in 2012 and released it in 2016. He created the game entirely on his own^[8] as its sole designer, programmer, animator, artist, composer, and writer. To complete the game, Barone worked an average of 10 hours a day, seven days a week^[9] for four and a half years.

Barone initially released Stardew Valley on the PC before later porting it to other consoles, and has been assisted in its development by a small team since 2019.^[10] As of February 2026, the game has sold over 50 million copies.^[11][12]

In 2016, Barone released Stardew Valley: Original Soundtrack, which contains the game's official soundtrack.^[13] He followed this on August 15, 2020, with the orchestral album Symphonic Tale: The Place I Truly Belong (Music from Stardew Valley), directed by Kentaro Sato and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, which includes 15 tracks from the game's original soundtrack.^[14]

In February 2021, Barone and board game designer Cole Medeiros released Stardew Valley: The Board Game, a cooperative board game adaptation of Stardew Valley.^[15] After the first printing of the game went on sale, it quickly sold out. Sales were later reopened with several changes.^[16]

Barone collaborated with Norihiko Hibino on Prescription for Sleep, an album series that remixes video game soundtracks with piano and saxophone; the Stardew Valley installment was released in May 2021 and includes 10 tracks from the game's original soundtrack alongside one new track, "Beauty in the Seasons".^[17] He then announced two concert tours: Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons in October 2023, featuring a selection of the game's music performed live by a chamber orchestra,^[18] and Stardew Valley: Symphony of Seasons in November 2024, featuring new arrangements of the game's music performed by a 35-piece orchestra.^[19]

Barone was the co-author of The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, released on May 14, 2024, which includes more than 50 recipes adapted from the in-game recipes featured in Stardew Valley.^[20] His musical compositions from Stardew Valley have also been featured multiple times on Northwest Public Broadcasting's video game music radio program, Press A To Play, beginning with the program's second episode, Pacific Northwest Independent Games, and continuing in later episodes Indie Darlings and Games We Played in 2020.^[21]

Haunted Chocolatier (2021–present)

In October 2021, Barone announced that a new game, Haunted Chocolatier, was under development.^[22] In the game, the player will run a chocolate shop. It will have a greater focus on combat than in Stardew Valley. Barone stated that "almost everything in Haunted Chocolatier, including the combat, is completely coded (and drawn) from scratch."^[23] He continues to support Stardew Valley while working on the new title.

Other projects (2008–present)

In 2008, Barone released his first game, known as 17CF Quest, which was also a promotion for the music group 17 Colorful Feathers; the game's main character is found as a piece of furniture in Stardew Valley.^[24] In 2011, he created a comic book series called Wumbus World.^[25]

In 2014, Barone took a month-long break during the development of Stardew Valley. During this break, Barone used his time to piece together a small mobile game to release on Android. The game was titled Air Pear and was released on March 6, 2014.^[26] In the game, players would need to guide a purple pear on a hoverboard between obstacles and compete for a high score.

In 2022, Barone collaborated on an animated music video with indie pop band Alvvays for the band's song "Many Mirrors". Barone was responsible for the video's animation, and it was his first time working with 3D animation.^[27]

In 2024, Barone announced that he played in a Seattle-based steelpan band.^[28] The following year, he voiced one of the characters in the video game Hollow Knight: Silksong, which was released in 2025.^[29]

Industry

Inverse and Destructoid both credited Stardew Valley with revitalizing the farming-simulation genre and helping popularize cozy games more broadly, more than two decades after the Harvest Moon series established the genre.^[30][31] Writing for Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese argued that although the original Harvest Moon games established the farming-sim format, Stardew Valley became the standard against which later entries in the genre, including newer Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons titles, are measured.^[32] PC Gamer writers Wes Fenlon and Kara Phillips similarly described the game as the foundation of the modern farming-sim genre, noting that new releases in the genre are routinely compared to it; they pointed to titles such as Disney Dreamlight Valley and Coral Island as among the games that followed in its wake.^[33]

Critical reception

Stardew Valley received generally favorable reviews from critics on release. On Metacritic, the PC version holds a score of 89 out of 100 based on 30 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.^[34] OpenCritic gives the game a "Mighty" rating with an average score of 90 across 76 critic reviews, placing it in the top one percent of games tracked by the site and noting that it is recommended by 99 percent of critics.^[35] In 2019, GamesRadar+ included Stardew Valley among the games that defined the 2010s, praising its ability to draw players in over hundreds of hours.^[36]

In December 2016, Gamasutra named Barone one of its ten best game developers of the year, crediting him with single-handedly reinvigorating a genre long dominated by the Story of Seasons series.^[37] Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon, has praised Stardew Valley as carrying on his own series' legacy, and Barone has described a signed copy of Wada's original Harvest Moon cartridge as one of his most treasured possessions.^[30]

Commercial reception

By its tenth anniversary in February 2026, Stardew Valley had sold more than 50 million copies, a total exceeding the best-selling individual entries in franchises such as Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, and Call of Duty.^[11]

Awards and recognition

In 2017, Barone was named by Forbes magazine in its list "30 Under 30: Games" for his work on Stardew Valley.^[38] He is also the recipient of the 2019 University of Washington Tacoma Distinguished Alumni Award.^[39][40]

Stardew Valley has received the following industry awards and nominations:

Video games

Other credits

• 2021 – Stardew Valley: The Board Game (co-designer, with Cole Medeiros; board game adaptation)^[15]
• 2025 – Hollow Knight: Silksong (voice role)^[29]

Music

Concert tours

• 2023–present – Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons^[18]
• 2024–present – Stardew Valley: Symphony of Seasons^[19]

Literature