Given the wide variety of activities to choose from and the ability to continue making satisfying progress over time, Stardew Valley can hold a player’s interest for quite a while. But maybe after rebuilding the Community Center, marrying the character of your dreams, and buying all the obelisks, you’re ready for something new.
Thanks to software development companies like BairesDev, many games have some of the same qualities of Stardew Valley and are similar enough that they’ll likely appeal to Stardew Valley fans. Whether you want to focus on farming, fishing, relationships, or battling foes, one of these games could be your next favorite.
Garden Paws
In this game, your character is a small animal you can customize with different colors and styles of eyes, ears, etc. Your world is a beautifully drawn island where you interact with other, similar creatures. Your goal is to improve your village so other animals will be attracted to come visit. Similar to Stardew Valley, activities include exploring caves, fishing, raising animals, and gathering items to sell.
Graveyard Keeper
Living in medieval times, your character in this game builds and maintains their own cemetery, gathering resources, such as stone and wood, and making improvements along the way. You also interact and do business with locals and participate in community activities. As in Stardew Valley, you can do battle with monsters, fish, or plant a garden and harvest the plants when they’re grown. Parts of the game, such as performing autopsies, are a bit morbid but you still get the satisfaction of seeing your hard work pay off.
Moonlighter
Your character in this game is a shopkeeper who moonlights as a dungeon explorer. You cycle between day and night, engaging in complex combat in the dungeons and a variety of commercial activities in the shop. The game is similar to Stardew Valley in its simple, cartoon-like design as well as in the common interaction with other characters and the ability to progress within the world.
My Time at Portia
This game features a town called Portia in which those remaining in a post-apocalyptic world start to rebuild civilization. Your highly customizable character is a farmer and adventurer who starts and upgrades a farm, crafts tools and explores caves that hold relics from the past. As with Stardew Valley, your activities can be based on your interests, with a focus on fishing, farming, or mining, and you can do battles with foes, engage in romance, or participate in community activities with others in the town.
Ooblets
In this game, you play a human character that has cute creatures called ooblets as friends. Activities include customizing your character and your house and growing a garden. Community events include dance parties and exploring your surroundings. While the crossover with Stardew Valley is limited to gardening and social interaction, the two games have one thing in common: their ability to make you smile.
Slime Rancher
As in Stardew Valley, the game Slime Rancher begins when the protagonist is given a property to take care of. However, unlike Stardew Valley, the protagonist in this game, Beatrix LeBeau, is the same for everyone, the property is a slime ranch, and the action takes place on another planet. As Beatrix, you must protect and feed your slimes, grow crops, and tend to animals. If you like the relationship focus of Stardew Valley, you may miss that component in this game, which focuses more on exploration and customization.
Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands
This game is like Stardew Valley in that you start with very little and build from there. The environment is very different, however. Here, you’re stranded on an archipelago after a shipwreck and you must lead your crew in fighting for survival. You must plant and harvest crops, fish, cook food, build housing, explore the archipelago, search for materials to rebuild your ship, and find a way to escape.
Terraria
Like Stardew Valley in its design style and its inclusion of elements like fishing, farming, mining, and crafting, Terraria involves more combat, exploration, and collecting. If you’re looking for less of a relationship aspect and more direct challenges and battles than can be found in Stardew Valley, Terraria might be a good choice for you.
World’s Dawn
In both looks and gameplay, this game is very similar to Stardew Valley. Set in a seaside village called Sugar Blossom, you can interact with, befriend, or become romantically involved with a variety of characters. You also have the opportunity to build and customize a farmhouse, grow a garden, care for farm animals, fish, and participate in community activities. Also like Stardew Valley, the game cycles through the seasons of a year.
In Summary
Whether you just can’t get enough of Stardew Valley and are looking for a similar game or you’re looking for something different but not that different, these games are a great place to start.
