Stardew Valley is one heck of a popular life and farming simulator and this year it’s getting a big update in the form of multiplayer. Oh and it’s also eventually coming to Nintendo Switch too.
We might not yet know when multiplayer will officially arrive in Stardew Valley, but when it does you’ll be able to play with up to three of your friends online. But more importantly, you’ll be able to marry them – just one of them mind, it’s not a game that promotes polygamy.
“A lot of players have requested player-to-player marriage. It’s an idea we like a lot, and want to make that available as a feature,” explained publisher Chucklefish in a blog post. “Player-to-player marriage won’t use the mermaid pendant, but rather an alternative method that requires a similar amount of effort to wooing an NPC. We’re still working out what that will be.”
Chucklefish also went on to outline just how Stardew Valley multiplayer will work when it eventually does arrive.
“Shortly after you begin the game, Robin will offer to build up to 3 cabins on your farm,” explained publisher Chucklefish. “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, 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.”
But interestingly, despite the game’s launch on Switch later this year, the team has no plans for split-screen or local multiplayer.
“Local multiplayer, split-screen and PVP are not planned at this point.”
Apparently there’s going to be a beta test for multiplayer support on Steam at the end of the year and then in early 2018 it’ll be released as the 1.3 patch on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Consoles will get the patch too, starting first with Nintendo Switch.