Earlier this year, Eric Barone was approached by singer-songwriter Molly Rankin of power-pop group Alvvays. The game developer, best known as the one-man creative force behind the hit farming simulator Stardew Valley, was asked if he would like to contribute some art for the band’s new single, Many Mirrors. Never one to limit himself, or to do things by halves, Barone created a whole music video instead. “That’s just how I work,” he tells me. “I don’t hold back.”
You can tell from his work that Barone puts the whole of himself into it. Now almost seven years old and still hugely popular, Stardew Valley is an extension of who he is. When you work on the graphics, the programming, the audio, the systems and the writing all at once, you project a fairly complete image of who you are on to the world. For some people that would be daunting, but Barone embraces it.
