Lovers of potatoes, melons and eggplants will be delighted today to learn that the multiplayer feature of Stardew Valley, announced at the end of the game in 2016, entered the final phase of its development. ConcernedApe, the creator of the game, has released a new message and even plans on a beta scheduled for next spring.
In the latest news, which still dates back from January, Eric Barone shared a LAN party he organized at home with enthusiasm on Twitter. The multiplayer mode still required a little work but the netcode, functional already, allowed four players to indulge in the pleasures of co-op agriculture without much concern.
Work on the new features is done, and we’ve sent all the new text off to be translated into the different languages. Meanwhile, we are working on bug fixes. Once we’ve received the translated text and integrated it back into the game, we’ll begin a serious QA phase involving thorough testing of all new features in both multiplayer and single player contexts. When that is finished, the update should be ready for a public beta. I am still shooting for a spring release for the beta.
When the beta gets closer to launch, I’ll fill you guys in on more specifics as to how multiplayer will work, as well as a more complete list of the new features in the update.