Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a video game created by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. The player can interact with villagers, build relationships, farm, raise animals, solve quests, and more in this pixelated RPG game
Music in Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley music does a good job at having the music both reflect and build the world through its use of musical trends. Primarily a farming simulator, Stardew Valley uses many instruments that are regularly seen in country music, such as the banjo. The composer and creator of the game, Eric Barone, said that originally the music was much more similar to the classic "video game music" we tend to think of, like Super Mario Bros. However, "he decided to move away from that in the end. He lifted the music up alongside the graphics, making it more orchestral and realistic – though it retains some of that video-game feeling in the synths and digital sounds that permeate the soundscape" (Peppiatt).
Much of what makes Stardew Valley music so appealing is not only its origins in more "realistic" music that we're familiar with in the real world, but how each season has its own mini soundtrack to give the sense that the player really is walking around in, say, the fall. Below are themes from each season.
“Everything in Stardew is done by feeling,” explains Barone. “When I’ve explained these tracks as ‘lonely’ or ‘melancholy’, I didn’t mean that in a negative way: there’s beauty in loneliness, there’s a beauty in the melancholy of the seasons. Especially the darker seasons. I see these things as awe-inspiring, not negative.” (Peppiatt)
By crafting the songs to the emotions of each season, Stardew Valley gains a necessary part of its atmosphere. As we have seen throughout this project, video game music's primary goal is to immerse and inform the player. The music in Stardew Valley does just that with its deep connection to the crafting of the game.