Stardew Valley’s multiplayer won’t be out until early next year

It’ll have player-to-player marriage, though!

Recommended Videos

Multiplayer in Stardew Valley has been a long time coming, and it’ll be a while yet.

Chucklefish has detailed what we can expect from the cooperative mode now that the developers have “pinned down the main technical issues” bogging down their progress.

“Shortly after you begin the game, Robin will offer to build up to 3 cabins on your farm. Each cabin will house a farmhand, controlled by one of your friends.

Farmhands can do almost anything the main player can do. They can farm, mine, fight, fish, forage, marry NPCs and take part in festivals. Each player has their own inventory. When a farmhand is not connected, their inventory can be managed through a chest in their cabin.

Certain decisions can be made only by the main player: when to sleep, when to start and end festivals, and whether to side with Joja, for instance.

You won’t need to set up a server to run multiplayer. Friends can be invited onto the farm through Steam. The invite mechanism for non-Steam versions is TBD, but likely to be similar in most cases.”

Chucklefish stressed that there won’t be local multiplayer or split-screen (drat!), or PVP, at least not initially. The plan is to hold a beta test “at the end of the year for Steam users,” followed by an “early 2018” release for the patch. “Consoles will get the patch too, starting with Nintendo Switch. This will be a bigger patch than usual, so be aware that it will take a while to roll out to each platform.”

As for the holdup, “Effort so far has been focused on overcoming the biggest technical hurdle: synchronising multiple games over the Internet. Almost every source file has been touched, and 15,000 lines of code have been rewritten. Retrofitting multiplayer into a game that didn’t have it originally is notoriously hard.”

It’s slow going, sure, but this will be a free update. In other hands, features like co-op could have and probably would have been held for a full-blown sequel. I’m thankful we’re getting this at all.

Stardew Valley Multiplayer News [Stardew Valley]


Destructoid is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Helldivers 2 players receive Quasar Cannon and Heavy Machine Gun Stratagems to support Automaton obliteration
helldivers 2 heavy machine gun HMG quasar cannon stratagems unlocked
Read Article The Witcher 4 development is forging ahead at CD Projekt Red
The Witcher 4 update
Read Article Bungie reveals Into the Light weapons are time-gated and Destiny 2 players aren’t happy
Related Content
Read Article Helldivers 2 players receive Quasar Cannon and Heavy Machine Gun Stratagems to support Automaton obliteration
helldivers 2 heavy machine gun HMG quasar cannon stratagems unlocked
Read Article The Witcher 4 development is forging ahead at CD Projekt Red
The Witcher 4 update
Read Article Bungie reveals Into the Light weapons are time-gated and Destiny 2 players aren’t happy
Author
Jordan Devore
Jordan is a founding member of Destructoid and poster of seemingly random pictures. They are anything but random.