You’ve played Stardew Valley. Multiple times, maybe! But according to the game’s creator, you still haven’t seen everything the game has to offer. Nobody has. He hopes that somebody will make this final discovery one day, but with how long it’s been since the secret’s inclusion, it’s possible that nobody will.
Or maybe this is all made up and there’s no special secret to find. But Eric Barone wouldn’t do that, would he?
This information comes to us thanks to an interview Barone did with IGN, celebrating the game’s 10-year anniversary. Amidst discussions of upcoming content and a whole new game in Haunted Chocolatier, Barone gave some extra detail on a hidden Stardew Valley secret that’s been hinted at before.
“There’s still a secret that no one has ever found,” Barone explains. “I don’t think they ever will. Maybe I’ll reveal it someday, but the problem with the secret is that it’s … It’s basically a secret message that’s in the game and it reveals something that actually isn’t even true anymore.”
The secret was, at one point, an announcement for something that Barone has since “shifted gears” on. It’s easy to know what those gears have shifted into, but what came before will apparently be a bit of a mystery.
“It was revealing a thing about- Do I want to reveal it or not? Well, that’s all I’ll say,” said Barone. “I just don’t know if anyone will ever discover it because it’s so obscure.”
How Can Stardew Valley Keep A Secret From Dataminers?
The question of community sleuthing was brought up in the interview, including the powerful tools people have access to on PC. Stardew Valley is vulnerable to all of them, and yet the secret remains elusive. Apparently, that’s by design. Barone had placed the secret in such a way that it would avoid datamining.
“There’s certain ways to hide messages that can’t really be datamined.” Barone says, as he illustrates where the secret isn’t. “If you hide something in the code, it’s going to all be found because people decompile the code and look at everything.”
But then he offers something that may be a hint as to where you can look: “If you say hide it in the art or something, if it’s a secret message that’s hidden in the artwork somehow, then people can’t really discover that as easily. They have to see it.”
Presumably, when he says “they have to see it,” he means while playing the game itself. If this direction really was a hint steering players towards the secret, you’d likely still need eagle’s eyes in order to spot it.
“I feel like no one will ever find it,” Barone concluded. “But I hope someone does. It’d be interesting.”
