Stardew Valley is one of the games that have helped define the last decade of gaming. It started out small and then became one of the biggest things around. Partly because the dev/publisher teams of Concerned Ape and ChuckleFish were able to work together to make things happen. But now, ChuckleFish is bowing out and one of their leaders posted a farewell message to fans:
“It was 2014 when we first discovered Stardew Valley. Chucklefish’s director Finn found an early version of the game on Steam Greenlight, and reached out to Eric to discuss how we could help support it. Our team fell in love with the game instantly, but even when we agreed to work together in 2015, none of us knew just how big the game would become!
Stardew Valley has come a long way since we first saw the early version, but even back then everyone on our team was hooked by the gameplay and were incredibly excited to work on the project. When Eric shared a near final build, we spent hours playing the game, and knew instantly it was something special. There were a few people in the office who played enough to declare it was their favourite game ever – even before it was released.”
They expanded upon all the things they did together, but then stated why it was time to leave:
” We originally entered into our agreement with Eric for a two-year term – with a plan of transitioning publishing duties and responsibilities after release. Today we handed over responsibility for Stardew mobile, which was the final platform we were acting as publisher for – now ConcernedApe is set up to self-publish for all platforms!”
So while the partnership is done, the intent behind it, to make the game even more than it was when they found it, was indeed worth it, and it wouldn’t have been as popular without these two groups working together.
Source: ChuckleFish
