Earlier this year, developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone surprised fans with news that Stardew Valley was making the jump to the tabletop with an official board game adaptation. Unfortunately, the first batch went fast - but those that missed out on the initial run now have a second chance at acquiring the game, with orders re-opening this Wednesday.

Online orders will once again only be available for shipping within the US, but Barone says he's teamed up with a number of distributors in the UK, the EU, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand this time around, and that copies will be available directly from local stores in these regions. "It's not possible for us to keep track of which stores specifically," he adds, "so the best way is to contact your local store and ask if they are carrying copies.

For those within the US, the Stardew Valley board game will be available for purchase online from 12pm PST on Wednesday, 3rd November. Do note, however, that orders may not be delivered in time for Christmas given ongoing issues impacting shipping.

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As part of its decidedly leisurely ID@Xbox indie showcase this evening, Microsoft confirmed another batch of titles heading to Game Pass between now and some currently unspecified future point, including Stardew Valley and nefarious management sequel Evil Genius 2.

Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone popped up midway through tonight's showcase for a bit of a natter, confirming toward the end of the segment that his much-loved village life sim would be heading to Game Pass for PC and Xbox some time this autumn.

Also still awaiting a Game Pass arrival date is the adorable Pupperazzi, a first-person photography game that - as you may have already surmised from its title - tasks players with taking cute snaps of (and petting!) canines as they go about their doggy lives in a colourful holiday paradise. As with most of the below, details on specific Game Pass platforms weren't shared during the show, but I'll update the story if any clarification is forthcoming.

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A little context: back in the early 20th Century, there was a peculiar trend of highly-romanticised farming books that plagued English literature, referred to now as the "loam and lovechild" genre. You'd probably recognise its tropes, even if you haven't read any of it. Think rolling hillocks under golden shafts of sunlight, think tanned lotharios toiling manfully in the fields, think torturously-serious power plays and social drama playing out in the local village hall. Very high in melodrama, yet low in self-awareness.

In 1932, novelist Stella Gibbons ended the trend at a stroke. Her book Cold Comfort Farm is such a perfect, icy satire of the loam and lovechild narrative that it pretty much killed it there and then with all the vicious efficiency of a velociraptor. In Cold Comfort Farm, our hero, Flora Poste, is a sharp-witted city girl who decides that she has no intention of earning an honest living in the wake of her parents' deaths and moves to the country to mooch off the Starkadders, her distant relatives at Cold Comfort Farm, a little patch of miserable land on England's South Downs.

Within moments of arriving, both you and Flora realise that the Starkadders are all completely detached from any sort of reality. Amos is a spittle-flecked preacher who couldn't write a birthday card without damning the recipient to eternal hellfire. Seth is an eternally-horny farmboy, lascivious to the point of gross absurdity, seemingly always with another button on his shirt to twist open. Aunt Ada Doom, the elderly matriarch, is a twitchy, domineering old bag, permanently and determinedly traumatised by some unclear event in her childhood. Meanwhile, the farm itself is always on the edge of collapse, choked by sukebind weeds and with Starkadders dying so frequently that the family has to perform a yearly count just to work out who's still around to work, and who fell into a well when nobody was looking.

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Gentle indie farming sim Stardew Valley was a pretty soothing experience already. Now, however, its tuneful MIDI-esque soundtrack has taken on an even more soporific sound, via an album of cover lullabies.

Prescription for Sleep: Stardew Valley is a 12-track album produced by creator Eric Barone and written by Gentle Love - a duo comprised of Metal Gear Solid composer Norihiko Hibino and Etrian Odyssey pianist Ayaki.

This is the latest in a line of similar lullaby albums featuring video game music from Gentle Love, with previous titles remixed including Celeste, Shovel Knight and Undertale.

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Stardew Valley has now been updated to version 1.5 on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, bringing with it a raft of new items, events, and local split-screen co-op.

Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, the game's creator, surprised fans by announcing the news this morning via Twitter. We knew it was coming, but not when.

Stardew Valley 1.5 launched for PC just in time for Christmas, bringing with it split-screen co-op, a new beach-themed farm layout, late-game home renovations, new characters and events, new music, "remixed" game options, and more.

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Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has said that while there "isn't currently" a Stardew Valley 2, he "would not be surprised" if we eventually got a sequel.

While he wouldn't be drawn on his upcoming plans, Barone said that while he was unwilling "to commit" to Stardew Valley 1.6 - which isn't a surprise, given 1.5 is still in development - he wouldn't be surprised if there was "another Stardew Valley update, or multiple updates, or a Stardew Valley 2".

"I'm not willing to commit to Stardew Valley 1.6," Barone recently told Game Informer (thanks, Comic Book). "I will say that I definitely love Stardew Valley. I love it as a world and a universe. I don't think [1.5] will be the end of Stardew Valley. I would not be surprised if there's another Stardew Valley update, or multiple updates, or a Stardew Valley 2. Who knows?

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To mark the end of the 2010s, we're celebrating 30 games that defined the last 10 years. You can find all the articles as they're published in the Games of the Decade archive, and read about our thinking about it in an editor's blog.

Developed solely by Eric Barone, known as ConcernedApe, Stardew Valley is an embodiment of what one game developer can achieve through hard work, dedication and a lot of determination. For four years Barone didn't just program the game, but also created every sound effect, music track and piece of art. Inspired by the Harvest Moon series, now known as Story of Seasons, Barone wanted to create a game that not only paid homage to the series, but fix several problems he had with the series.

At times Stardew Valley can feel like a nostalgic trip, taking you back to the days of classic Harvest Moon games, like Back to Nature and A Wonderful Life, but Barone's desire to innovate always shines through. The multiplayer mode works fantastically well, allowing you to create a thriving farm, or simply chaos, with your friends. You can marry partners of the same sex, which, as a lesbian, I personally love - playing as a male character purely to romance the ladies gets boring after a while. Stardew Valley even manages to avoid becoming a repetitive slog, where you follow the same self-made routine day in, season out.

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UPDATE 27/11/19: ConcernedApe has now released the full changelog detailing all the new content to hit Stardew Valley this week.

On top of all the changes mentioned in the article below, there are interesting new additions like new events, clothes tailoring and dyeing, hundreds of new items, and some all new areas to explore.

There's a new mineshaft dungeon right next to the quarry with new Haunted Skull and Sludge monsters, and if you reach the end of this dungeon you're rewarded with the new Golden Scythe. I accidentally found this dungeon playing last night and discovered these new enemies are pretty tough, though I also learned (from them killing me) there's a quality of life change when you "die" in Stardew, where it will show you a list of the items you've lost.

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Phenomenally popular farm-life sim Stardew Valley's next major update is on the horizon, and developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone is starting to open up about what's in store - including a new farm map and more.

Stardew Valley's forthcoming update, if you haven't been keeping track of your version numbers, will be known as 1.4 (1.3, you might recall, added a very-long-awaited multiplayer mode to the game) and Barone describes it as "a big one".

Part of its various additions include a brand-new farm map titled Four Corners, which will be available both in multiplayer and solo games. And if you're curious, there's the tiniest glimpse of its layout in the screenshot below, first shared on Barone's Twitter feed.

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Ever thought that Stardew Valley could be spiced up with a little battle royale action? Nope, me neither, but someone's done just that by developing a mod for the PC version of the farming sim and it's perfectly entitled Stardew Royalley.

A lot depends upon how many people you can get into the server at one time, but gather up to 100 antisocial farmers together and you can all fight to death. "Last farmer standing wins" and just like Battle Royale stalwarts PUBG and Fortnite, there's even a shrinking zone to keep you on your toes and moving towards your murdery foes.

"You can find swords, slingshots, bombs, healing items and sometimes horses or even hats in chests spawned around the map," describes the mod author, (thanks, PC Gamer). "Chop trees and craft fences to use as cover. Hide behind trees/bushes/etc. for surprise attacks. The world border will gradually close in on a location."

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