Stardew Valley's Very First Release Is Nearly Unrecognisable

Stardew Valley will be hitting its 10th anniversary next year, and the game has come a long way ever since its original release in 2016.

Eric ‘Concerned Ape’ Barone began development on Stardew Valley back in 2012, after he aimed to make a game that could exist as a modern alternative to the Harvest Moon games.

Barone felt that the Harvest Moon had gotten “progressively worse” over the years, to the point where modern titles in the series no longer resembled the appeal of the earlier franchise, which was a key reason for starting work on Stardew Valley.

He was also inspired by other similar games such as Animal Crossing, Terraria, and Minecraft. With each one featuring sandbox gameplay and “cosy” vibes, it’s an atmosphere that Barone felt was very suitable for the game he wanted to create.

It was released in February 2016, and was pretty much a huge hit right from the beginning. Although it has seen a load of updates and improvements over the years, the version of Stardew Valley that you can play in 2025 still resembles the original version from nearly a decade ago.

However, the original trailer for Stardew Valley from 2012 shows a different game, and it’s still appearing in people’s YouTube recommendations all these years later.

As the trailer shows, the graphics are a lot more basic and the animations feel a lot stiffer. The character portraits also lack the same kind of personality they would get in the final game, and it feels like Barone hadn’t quite finalised the scope of the game by this point (one might argue this is still the case, considering he’s now confirmed a 1.7 update is coming to Stardew Valley in the future).

The original trailer for Stardew Valley was intended as a proof-of-concept, advertising the game’s presence on Steam Greenlight.

Steam Greenlight was a program on Steam that allowed users to vote on games that were in-development that they’d like to see gain a major release on the platform. This was back before Valve loosened its grip on store curation, so having a strong Steam Greenlight presence was important for indie developers to get noticed.

I think most Stardew Valley fans would agree that it’s a good thing Barone invested time and effort into improving the game far beyond this original trailer. Becoming less of a Harvest Moon clone and more of its own thing, it’s very appealing to players who enjoy life simulation games.

And with a constant stream of new content to enjoy, it means we get to enjoy it for years to come.