One of yours portly’s goals for his long, indolent, decadent, self-indulgent, succulent summer break is to play more video games. I am happy to report than my reversion into perpetual childhood is progressing nicely, as I’ve already logged nearly twenty hours (rough estimate) in Stardew Valley so far. This week I am also running my annual Minecraft Camp, so I’m pretty much getting paid to play video games with kids all morning.
Stardew Valley is a farming sim game released in 2016. It draws heavy inspiration from the Harvest Moon series (Story of Seasons in Japan; Wikipedia offers a good overview of the legal reasons for the different names). In addition to farming—planting, watering, and reaping crops; raising livestock; clearing land for cultivation; upgrading and building farm buildings—the game encourages exploration and relationship-building. Your character can spend all day fishing, for example, or exploring a network of caves (with monsters and loot!). You can chop down trees, plant new ones, hang out at the saloon, romance the local singles, donate artifacts to the museum, and on and on. You even have the opportunity to rebuild the dilapidated community center—or throw in with the big box chain store in town and bulldoze it.
The Portly Politico 