This past summer when I had the flu and was bored out of my mind, I made the decision to start playing the farming-and-life simulator Stardew Valley, which to this day is probably the best $15 I’ve ever spent. I don’t play a lot of video games—I grew up without any consoles, and my brain-to-controller-button-pressing time is about five solid seconds, making action-based games impossible—but I’ve since racked up about 200 hours playing Stardew. Butt Eater Farm is thriving. I’m rich as fuck. My farmer is currently cuckolding her lazy husband with all of the women in Pelican Town. The cute artist redhead is gifting me statues she’s made for me. I’m aging Ancient Fruit wine, shipping iridium-quality truffles, and straight massacring flying serpents with my Galaxy Sword.
The world of Stardew Valley, while somewhat haunted and extremely two-dimensional, is also quite beautiful and serene. The farm and Pelican Town are an escape from the tedium of everyday life, both for the player character in the game’s storyline and for me out there in the real world. I’ve often wished I could step inside my screen, get my hands dirty in the earth, pet some cows, and not think about a world where the President tells people the sound from wind turbines causes cancer.
Which is why this video, where some enterprising Minecraft player(s) faithfully recreated the world of Stardew almost pixel for pixel, is my moment of zen for the day. The video was uploaded a few months ago, but hasn’t been viewed much yet.
It’s important to note this is not the first time these two gameworlds have collided. There’s a Minecraft mod called Farming Valley that aims to replicate the Stardew Valley experience, and there’s even a hybrid game out there called Staxel that combines elements of Minecraft and Stardew. This Minecraft project isn’t playable, but it’s a fun trip for Stardew fans to see how landmarks like the spa, Elliott’s house, and Pierre’s look rendered in Minecraft blocks.
I haven’t picked up Stardew in a while because I’m still waiting for the fateful day the multiplayer version is released for consoles, but this video is making me seriously want to ditch work for some time on the farm. Enjoy.
