Missives From Isolation For Real This Time #2 – Escapism

Despite the fact that I’ve now had/still have COVID, I’m feeling much better this weekend. It’s been rough, but I’m on the mend, and all being well I’ll be allowed outside next week.

But until then I’m still stuck in my room. The only outside world I’ve seen in a week was for two minutes this morning when I was allowed to take the bins out.

Not that that matters at all, of course, because I’ve got a whole separate outside world of my own right here. It’s called Stardew Valley, and it’s basically the reason my mental health has remained largely intact.

In Stardew Valley, your character leaves their soul-crushing city job for the countryside, and the old farm that their grandfather left them years ago. You get to rebuild that farm from the ground up – you clear weeds, plant crops, keep animals, and befriend your many new neighbours in the adjoining town. As the seasons change and your farm grows, you get access to new crops and materials, expand your farmhouse, and make more friends, all in a beautifully drawn and realised game-world. It’s simple, but effective. All the more so when you remember that it was all made by one person, the redoubtable ConcernedApe.

Keep animals, grow crops – however you want to play the game, you can. But you should get animals. They’re adorable.

It’s a long-term game. Crops take weeks to grow, and there are 28 game-days in each season, so you have time to take things slowly as you build up your farm. For perspective, I’ve played for almost 60 hours now, and I’m only just at the halfway point of my second year. But there’s no pressure whatsoever to rush things in Stardew Valley. There’s no pressure to do anything at all. You can fish, or farm, or mine, or just forage flowers and berries from the bushes if you want to. There are little quests to do, but no consequences whatsoever if you don’t complete them. The only negative thing that can really happen to you is accidentally giving another villager a gift they hate and making them sad.

Put simply, it’s… breathing-space. It’s comfort food. It’s a joy to play, however you decide you want to play it.

You can just sit down and let the world pass by around you.

A good friend of mine called it “the game equivalent of a Studio Ghibli film”, and I couldn’t agree more. There’s that same sense of peace and tranquility, in beautifully illustrated worlds that are a joy to look at. And both Ghibli films and Stardew give you space to appreciate the ordinary things in life. A lot of games – most of the ones I play at least – have you running around fighting, or fleeing monsters, or trying to save the world. The act of playing it relaxing, but the world you’re escaping into is still a stressful one.

But in Stardew the most exciting part of an average day is going fishing, or bringing in a crop of blueberries. Maybe you’ll have a conversation with one of the townsfolk, or make a new piece of machinery. Even when you do fight monsters, it’s not usually that stressful.* You’re basically relaxing while relaxing, and it feels great.

Stardew is good for the soul. It’s without doubt the most mindful game I’ve ever played. It’s kept me sane, in a time when I’ve been on the verge of going entirely stir-crazy. So if you find yourself getting too stressed out and need somewhere to escape to, pay the Valley a visit. It’ll help.

Cheers, ConcernedApe.

* Except for you, weird green dragonfly things in the Skull Cavern. You can bugger right off.