At the beginning of April I was pretty much certain that I was going to need an intervention. The things is, it wasn’t gelato, caramel creams, or even prosecco that I potentially needed to be forcibly removed from. It was the video game Stardew Valley. Do you know about this phenomena? Stardew Valley is this amazing RPG that was completely produced by one guy in Seattle. Eric Barone programmed the whole thing, made all of the graphics, the dialogue, storyline, and even the music. Talk about an overachiever… It’s been selling like crazy and since purchasing the game on March 1st I’ve played for 140 hours. I haven’t been this addicted to a game in years!

The premise of Stardew Valley is that you’ve left your corporate drone job to turn a rundown farm you inherited from your grandfather into a thriving business. Along the way you get to know the townspeople, fish, mine, decorate your house, and even get married. I never played Harvest Moon but everyone says it’s a lot like that so if you were a fan back in the day you’ll love this too. As I was playing though it dawned on me that 80% of the game was all about food in some form or another. This fact, in addition to the adorable pixel graphics, made me think that people who claim to not like video games might be able to push that anti-attitude aside and give this unique adventure a try. I’ll now do my best to convince all of my food loving friends that Stardew Valley is your next favorite time killer.

1 – Stardew Valley is all about farm to table dining and seasonal food. Not only do you get to design your farm however you’d like you also have seasons and that means seasonal food (fruit, vegetables, fish, and foraged items) that are only available for part of each year. This