![\"Stardew](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/aftermath-of-success-stardew-valley-darkest-dungeon-and-valheim.jpg\")
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<\/article>\nFirst Steps<\/h2>\n
When asked about how they envisioned the future when\u00a0they started their Vancouver-based company in 2013, Red Hook Studios co-founders Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman answered almost in unison: \u201cWe didn\u2019t.\u201d The duo left their previous employers behind to launch the Lovecraft-inspired studio, but, as Sigman explains, \u201cit was always about the game, it was never about the company.\u201d The game he\u2019s referring to is Darkest Dungeon, a gothic, dungeon-crawling RPG where your party\u2019s mental status is just as vital as their physical one. And, though the project has now surpassed 5 million copies sold, and its hotly anticipated sequel recently entered Early Access on Epic, the first step to getting there wasn\u2019t what anyone would call glamorous.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was three of us in a room, in another studio that they were letting us borrow,\u201d recalls Bourassa. \u201cThere were rats in that building and human poop on the doorstep the first day we went to take possession as it were \u2013 and I use that term in the broadest possible sense. We would listen to the other studio argue, sometimes explosively, about games, and we just kind of put our heads down and were trying to work away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, Eric Barone, creator of Stardew Valley, didn\u2019t begin by thinking about a development studio. In fact, he didn\u2019t even begin by thinking about a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started out as kind of a practice to get better at programming,\u201d Barone says, talking about the earliest inception of his mega indie hit. Unable to land a job out of college, he decided to increase his skill set by making a small title in the C# programming language. The initial plan, Barone explains, was to make something he could put on his resume to impress possible employers.<\/p>\n
Employment is no longer a concern for the developer. Stardew Valley recently crossed the 15 million units sold milestone, with sales showing no sign of slowing down even years after the Harvest Moon-like farming simulator\u00a0first launched in 2016. But back in the early days of development, it would have been difficult to guess that the training exercise would become a household name.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very scrappy,\u201d says Barone.\u00a0\u201cIt was just me in the corner of our studio apartment on a cheap IKEA desk and my budget computer, just working on it. It never crossed my mind to get an actual studio or anything like that \u2013 especially because I was a completely solo developer \u2026 It\u2019s kind of a miracle that the whole thing came together because I really had no idea what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Henrik T\u00f6rnqvist, co-founder of Iron Gate Studio\u00a0\u2013 <\/span>\u00a0which is making Valheim, a Viking-influenced, open-world game that stitches together base-building, resource collecting, life simulation, survival, exploration, and boss-battling action \u2013 vividly recalls having a tough time coming up with the studio\u2019s name and navigating the paperwork required to get the company set up in 2019. However, filing a mountain of forms and frustrating brainstorming sessions are a small price to pay for what became an almost overnight blockbuster.<\/p>\n Valheim is still technically unreleased, being an Early Access title, but the 2021 sensation was already on the way to selling 8 million copies last summer. Its development began in 2018 when Richard Svensson, Iron Gate\u2019s other co-founder, started playing around with the Norse-inspired world. Impressed with the game and ready to move on from his previous employer, T\u00f6rnqvist joined Svensson a year after development began. Despite being confident in the game\u2019s potential and having the backing of publisher Coffee Stain Publishing, T\u00f6rnqvist says, \u201cHonestly, we were just developing the game we wanted to make, and we were hopeful, but realistic, about the prospects of a lo-fi Early Access survival game made by mostly one person [Svensson]. We thought it would appeal and resonate strongly with a very niche audience, but we had no idea it would resonate with millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Darkest Dungeon\u2019s Kickstarter campaign launched in 2014, and the developers watched in disbelief as the project flew past its goal in the first 24 hours. \u201cIs this not the best of things?\u201d Bourassa asks when thinking about that time in the title\u2019s history. \u201cThe game that you care about has an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n He and his studio co-founder explain they were careful to keep a sense of perspective even as the pledges continued to pour in. \u201cWe didn\u2019t start losing our heads with fantasies of a massive, sprawling game and a huge audience,\u201d he says. However, Bourassa did succumb to the immediate surge of joy at Darkest Dungeon\u2019s later successful Early Access release, at least for a moment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first time I kissed a man,\u201d Bourassa says. In response, his fellow founder, Sigman, raises his hand, declaring, \u201cI received it.\u201d The euphoria faded fast, however. Sigman says, \u201c[The success] changed it immediately from, \u2018Okay, I think this game will have been worth doing, and we\u2019ll be able to pay ourselves something,\u2019 to \u2018Oh, s—, we have a tiger by the tail.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The first fruits of overwhelming success were hard to process for the Valheim and Stardew Valley developers as well. \u201cIt was a bit of a blur!\u201d exclaims T\u00f6rnqvist when asked about his reaction to Valheim selling one million copies in its first week of Early Access. \u201cAt Iron Gate, we were so focused on development and scale-proofing the game that it didn\u2019t really register; I still don\u2019t think it really has.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, Barone remembers Stardew Valley\u2019s \u201csurging popularity\u201d and the feeling that \u201ceveryone\u2019s talking about\u201d his game. But his most dazzling memory from that time is meeting his inspiration, Yasuhiro Wada, who began the Harvest Moon series, which then evolved into Story of Seasons. \u201cMr. Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon, or his people, reached out to me, and he wanted to meet me,\u201d Barone says. \u201cI mean, that was one of many moments where my mind was blown. And it really sank in as to how big this actually was. That I had just achieved way beyond anything I had ever dreamed of and just being seen in the same kind of arena as Harvest Moon \u2013 the game that inspired me to do all this \u2013 was kind of mind-blowing. And I\u2019m still kind of shocked and amazed by that, in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Party poppers litter the floor, and empty champagne glasses clutter tables, but the teams don\u2019t rest after their triumphs. Actually, their work grows more intense. According to Barone, the time after launch \u201cwas probably the busiest time of the entire four-and-a-half years that it took to make the game.\u201d Echoing this sentiment, T\u00f6rnqvist says, \u201cWe had so many incredible opportunities coming in, and suddenly such a big community, and trying to respond to everyone, let alone move these opportunities along, is a full-time job!\u201d<\/p>\n It took a few months for the Darkest Dungeon team to feel the change, but with a game in Early Access where you build a title in full view of the community, it was bound to come. \u201cI think expectations, and managing those expectations, became much more of a clear and present danger during Early Access,\u201d explains Bourassa. This shift came after players had put hours into Darkest Dungeon and began to hold opinions of their own on what the game should be. \u201cAnd we\u2019re much more conscious of having this really big player base, and we want to do well by them,\u201d says Sigman. \u201cBut we also know that the way we got there was by being really true to our own sense of the vision. So, there\u2019s a little more weight now \u00adbecause you can anger 5 million people overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n For Barone, he remembers the public attention becoming conspicuous earlier on in Stardew Valley\u2019s development, right after the project was greenlit on Steam. \u201cThat was when the amount of attention increased a lot,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWhich, of course, can be kind of a shock and can be challenging when that happens, especially for someone who has no prior experience. And I\u2019m a very solitary person in many ways. I\u2019m used to being, kind of, just in my own private bubble working. But it was also exciting because I was thinking this game could actually be a successful game.\u201d<\/p>\n After his hit game was released, Barone found moving on more difficult than he expected. \u201cI feel like my next game has to be better than Stardew Valley,\u201d he explains. \u201cBecause, you know, I want to be seen as someone who\u2019s getting better. I\u2019m improving. The trajectory of my career is going up, not stagnating, or going down \u2013 God forbid.\u201d<\/p>\n For Sigman at Red Hook, Darkest Dungeon\u2019s accomplishment also brought on an unexpected result. \u201cIt sounds funny to say,\u201d Sigman states, \u201cBut I think no matter how much you succeed, it\u2019s always easy to benchmark yourself against someone who\u2019s literally twice or three or five or ten times as successful. It\u2019s funny that your mind can create gnawing doubt, no matter how fortunate you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Each project was staggeringly fortunate, so much so that the Valheim, Stardew Valley, and Darkest Dungeon teams could all afford to scale up their operations immediately after launch, but they didn\u2019t. T\u00f6rnqvist believes subtle adjustments and refinements have helped Valheim continue to thrive. \u201cWe\u2019ve grown with a couple of new additions, but we took our time making sure the team is growing in the right direction and with the right people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Iron Gate recently passed a huge milestone by releasing Valheim\u2019s Hearth & Home update. The game\u2019s fans had been waiting on the new content almost since the original Early Access release, but the team found itself unable to work on it. Overwhelmed by the pressure that millions of unanticipated players placed on the core experience, Iron Gate delayed its expansion, spending months just keeping the base game stable. \u201cThere\u2019s always pressure to introduce big changes,\u201d says T\u00f6rnqvist, \u201cand add a bulk of new content \u2013 and we will \u2013 but we want to make sure that there\u2019s a good foundation there first.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as Red Hook\u2019s Sigman and Bourassa discuss changes in the company\u2019s structure, it\u2019s clear the core of the studio \u2013 the relationship between its co-founders \u2013 has remained unaltered. During our chat, the two often finished each other\u2019s sentences, went off on good-natured, teasing tangents, and even began chatting amongst themselves for long periods. Similarly unchanged from the company\u2019s early days, the duo is still putting their project first. \u201cWe grew to make the game \u2013 to make Darkest Dungeon II \u2013 the way we wanted to make it,\u201d Bourassa says. \u201cWe weren\u2019t growing to fulfill an org chart. So, Red Hook as an entity continues to be second fiddle to the project itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when the company became of value,\u201d says Sigman, \u201cand we realized that to do this game, we should hire more employees directly.\u201d While the two needed to increase the team to tackle their next project, the allure of the early days lingers. \u201cIt\u2019s been a massive, massive shift,\u201d Bourassa says. \u201cIt\u2019s only something you can really perceive in hindsight, I think. Because you add, like, one or two people, and it still feels like a ragtag crew, and then you turn around and realize you\u2019ve added like 15.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just thinking of the Stardew Valley developer,\u201d says Sigman, who didn\u2019t realize Eric Barone was talking with us for this article, \u201cHe could grow to a team size of 200 if he wants, probably, with the cash flow he\u2019s generated, but it\u2019s a conscious choice of what you want to be. And so, we were like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re gonna grow, but we\u2019re gonna still do one project right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Incidentally, Sigman isn\u2019t far off the mark regarding Barone\u2019s thoughts on expansion. \u201cMy original idea, actually, was that I would get a team and hand off Stardew Valley to them, and then I would work on my next game. But that didn\u2019t really pan out because I just realized really quickly that I was not going to be okay with just handing off the game to other people. I\u2019m very particular about Stardew Valley, you know? It\u2019s my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n The first time Barone worked with a team to develop any part of Stardew Valley was on an update that launched in 2019. \u201cIt was definitely a big change for me,\u201d Barone says. \u201cWe got an office, so I was going into a different place every day. I was spending business hours with the other team members, discussing with other people what we were going to do in the update \u2026 it took a while to get used to it and then have a flow that worked. I do think the 1.4 update was a good update; it was successful. And it was kind of a good training for how to work with the team \u2026 but, I definitely think there\u2019s a part of me that loves working alone, and having that 100-percent responsibility for every aspect of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is kind of difficult when you have achieved all of the goals that you\u2019d ever dreamed about,\u201d Barone says. \u201cYou\u2019re in this position of, \u2018What do I do now? Why am I even making another game? Why am I doing this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n This seems to have been one of the biggest challenges facing the now well-known developer who only started down this path to find a job.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to just retire,\u201d Barone says. \u201cI want to work; it gives my life meaning. But many of the factors that drove me to work so hard on Stardew Valley are now \u2013 you can kind of check them all off. I want to keep making games because I want to share my ideas with the world. I want to create a legacy for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s exactly what he is doing. Barone has been working on two new titles. One is ConcernedApe\u2019s Haunted Chocolatier, which recently caused a flurry of excitement when Barone dropped an unexpected, early gameplay video on social media. \u201c[Haunted Chocolatier] is another completely solo game, kind of like Stardew Valley, where I\u2019m doing literally everything,\u201d he says. \u201cThat one will probably come out first.\u201d His second game is a collaborative work, which will give Barone the ability to flex his muscles developing as part of a team. Working simultaneously as a lone developer on one project and with another developer on a second one has given him \u201cthe best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the freedom he has to pick his projects, Barone recognizes his first hit will follow him throughout his career. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to make the next big indie hit,\u201d Barone says. \u201cI realize and appreciate that, when my next game comes out, I\u2019m going to have a lot of people who play the game, just because it\u2019s from the guy who made Stardew Valley \u2026 I was almost considering \u2013 it might be interesting to release the game under an alias. And people don\u2019t even know it\u2019s me, and then to see if it could actually just be successful on its own merits. But I feel like that\u2019s a bit disingenuous; I\u2019m not going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n For\u00a0the Valheim crew, the focus is still on their Early Access title, and\u00a0there is still plenty in the works for the game, according to T\u00f6rnqvist. \u201c[The Hearth & Home] update was always meant to be the foundation we can build on with subsequent content updates \u2013 with the Mistlands update\u00a0our next major one \u2013 but the process has taught us that big updates can snowball,\u201d he says. To combat that effect, T\u00f6rnqvist and his team want to focus on gradual changes,\u00a0and less dramatic content drops that hit in between large expansions.<\/p>\n Red Hook\u2019s co-founders have made more progress with their follow-up project than either Barone or T\u00f6rnqvist. Darkest Dungeon II entered Epic Games Store Early Access on October 26, though the full release may still be some ways away. While the sequel has mixed up the game\u2019s art style and gameplay features, Sigman insists, \u201cit\u2019s also a Darkest Dungeon game. I\u2019m really excited about what we are doing in [Darkest Dungeon II], you know? Like fleshing out and getting deeper into the heroes themselves. We\u2019ve had a chance to honestly improve in various ways.\u201d Like Barone as he moves on to his next project, Bourassa also notes how important it was for Red Hook not to simply chase success.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could have just added Metroidvania elements to the dungeons,\u201d says Bourassa recalling the earliest brainstorms for the sequel, \u201cand called it Darkest Dungeon II, but it didn\u2019t feel like we could get as excited about that. What\u2019s most important, and the way we found success the first time, was to channel our passion and excitement and our fear into this product. So, by taking the risks, we\u2019re actually delivering something closer to the feeling of the first game, without delivering the exact same game.\u201d<\/p>\n While the success of the studio\u2019s first game certainly casts a long shadow, Sigman takes some comfort from it as well. Even if players don\u2019t take to the sequel in the same way, he says, \u201cAt the end of the day, nobody can take away Darkest Dungeon now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/aftermath-of-success-stardew-valley-darkest-dungeon-and-valheim-1.jpg\")
The oldest known photo taken during Stardew Valley’s development <\/article>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/aftermath-of-success-stardew-valley-darkest-dungeon-and-valheim-1.png\")
<\/article>\nUnbelievable Accomplishment<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nNow What?<\/h2>\n
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Red Hook Studios attends the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards <\/article>\nGrowing Pains<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nMoving Forward<\/h2>\n
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