Why Stardew Valley Became Our Perfect Family Game

Not only are we sending more time as a family together, our kids are learning valuable life lessons, too.

Currently, my family has over 150 hours playing Stardew Valley together. It is rare that we find an activity that the whole family enjoys this much, but Stardew Valley has become that. My kids will now not ask for just screen time—but instead ask for Stardew Valley family time.

All of this has caused me to think about why this is such a hit for my kids.

Stardew Valley is, at its core, a 2D farming simulator, very similar to the old Harvest Moon games. It also contains elements of a relationship simulator, top down Zelda combat, resource gathering, fishing, and crafting. Each of those gameplay elements has been simplified, but they all work together to create an experience where you can easily shift between different types of gameplay. It is this variety of gameplay and level of polish that I can see why Stardew Valley is still going strong even after 10 years.

The game is really easy to control.

My kids are twin eight-year-olds and although they are beginning to dabble in more complex games, they haven’t quite mastered camera control or complicated button pressing. From the beginning, they understood what every button did. The simple controls allowed them to not focus on the controller and dive into all the other aspects of the game.

It also has the right blend of individual and team objectives.

Right now, we are working to complete a very hard optional task of collecting rare seeds from a man named Mr. Qi. This demands the whole family working together to accomplish the task. Before we started this, my son was working on raising his fishing level, and my daughter was trying to find the resources to craft different outfits for the whole family. Now we are all focusing on this one task. That is what makes Stardew Valley really great for the entire family.

At some points, we are working together as a team on a shared goal, at other times we can each work on our own individual goals.

There is a perfect blend of shared and individual goals, and though we encourage our kids to help with the larger goals, it is never forced upon them. They have the freedom to choose what to do, and it is this blend of goals that seems to keep my kids interested. My wife and I encourage their freedom and are really proud when they agree that they should be helping the family with a large shared goal.

Importantly, the game also gives my kids the ability to express themselves in many different ways.

My son likes to dress like a real farmer, and has a cabin to match this aesthetic, while my daughter likes to do something more stylish and has themes for each room in her house. (She also has tailored outfits for each of us for each season.) This creativity not just in aesthetics, but in game play really means they can play how they want, while also contributing to the overall family farm.

One last thing that I am grateful to Stardew Valley for is that it is teaching my kids responsibilities, chores, and contributing to the family. Each Stardew Valley day my daughter is in charge of the animals, and my son is in charge of harvesting crops, mushrooms and sap. They know this is their morning responsibilities, and that if they want to do anything else with the rest of the day, they can—after they finish their morning chores.

It has gotten to the point where they do these chores each morning, without having to be reminded. This behavior has carried over to doing chores in real life, where they don’t complain about doing them, because they relate that, just like in Stardew Valley, they need to contribute to the family.

My wife and I have seen Stardew Valley teach them not just to do chores but that everyone has their own responsibilities within the family.

I am so glad that Stardew Valley has come into our lives and given us this amazing family game. Each night before bed, we usually do one or two Stardew Valley days. It is family time for us, doing something everyone in the family enjoys.

I don’t know when my kids will want to play or do something else, but for now, my wife and I are loving our time with them on our farm in Stardew Valley.

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