Stardew Valley creator posted concept art and fans can’t get enough

Stardew Valley in its seed stage

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone posted one piece of concept art from the indie game, and fans eagerly, and unsurprisingly, demanded more. Barone obliged with several images from his notebook and some context to explain what fans were looking at (thanks, PC Gamer).

The first image shows the community center, full of Junimos bustling around with objects, and some placeholder room labels, most of which ended up being permanent. There’s even a Junimo house in the middle, with a particularly adorable specimen looking out with slight bewilderment, above a block of writing where Barone muses about what the Junimos do with all the goods you bring in.

was going through some things and found my old notebook w/ the original community center concept pic.twitter.com/cXPI77kxpt

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) April 21, 2023

One follower asked if he could share some character art, so Barone dug out a mildly disturbing version of Morris who looks like he might consume your soul as well as the community center. 

I did find this: pic.twitter.com/ZJjOO9AoZe

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) April 21, 2023

There’s two pages of mine layout concepts, complete with stains that Barone apologized for, saying “I always spill everything I'm holidng.”

Another fan said if Barone ever published the sketches as an artbook, they’d buy it instantly – as would I. Barone didn’t respond to that one, but hopefully, he saw it and it planted the seed of an idea. The hit indie game has sold over 20 million copies across multiple platforms, including Nintendo Switch and PC, since it first launched in 2016, so there’s certainly demand for anything and everything Stardew Valley.