If you dream of owning a farm and leading a happy family life in a peaceful town, you must have played Stardew Valley. Since its debut in February 2016, the award-winning game developed by Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone has been a roaring success selling 10 million copies on various platforms. There have also been more than a million mobile downloads. Swayed by its popularity, many developers came up with similar games for both Android and iOS devices.
A pixel-style game simulating farm life, Stardew Valley puts you in charge of maintaining a farm. While playing the game, you’ll have to get a run-down farm you’ve inherited from your grandfather up and running.
You’ll have to grow and harvest crops, craft goods, look after livestock, and also mine ores to help the farm flourish again. As you get involved in turning things around at the farm, you can make friends with people in the town by giving them gifts. If romance blooms between you and someone you like, wedding bells might ring as well. It’s a feel-good game that’s a lot of fun!
Let’s take a look at some other similar games if you wish to try something new.
Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories
Developed after being directly inspired by Stardew Valley, The Harvest Moon Series comes right at the top in games similar to Stardew Valley. You’ll find two Harvest Moon titles on both Android and iOS, and Seeds of Memories is the first one to be made available on mobile.
This game has you shifting base to Chestnut Town and get busy in transforming its barren farm into a lush green fertile one. The twist in the game is that every folk in the town has lost their memory, and as you progress in the game, you’ll be creating new memories for the townsfolk and yourself as well. Everything is very similar to Stardew Valley, and Harvest Moon has you tending to the farm and taking care of the local community.
You can also try the Harvest Moon: One World, which offers a similarly splendid experience.
Harvest Town
Harvest Town is another popular game that draws inspiration from Stardew Valley. Like Stardew Valley, you’ll see pixel art here and the change of seasons. Giving you a dynamic experience, the environment and objects in the game keep adapting to the four seasons.
What’s the story? Well, after pining to return to your hometown, you get a second chance at life and reconstruct your farm. The bonus is that you return home after you’ve become young again. The activities you perform are no different from Stardew Valley, and you’ll be farming, adopting pets, exploring caves, and caring for livestock here.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Here’s another game like Stardew Valley, but with a twist. You’re on a campsite here with neighbors who are cute yet pretty strange animals with human characteristics.
Pocket Camp is the Animal Crossings’ mobile version released in 2017, and the latest hit on Nintendo Switch is New Horizons.
In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, you can set up a community and make changes to your campsite as you wish. You can be friends with the animal villagers and plant trees and flowers, catch fish and bugs, collect fruits, and also participate in fishing tourneys. There even are special events to keep you entertained!
Safe mobile gaming
Playing games on your computer or device sure is an engrossing experience that gets you completely hooked. Once you have gained the momentum, you hate being interrupted and having to start all over again.
Mobile gaming, like any other activity online, has its dangers. For instance, many free games will show ads to earn revenue. However, not all the promotions you see are harmless. In other cases, the games you notice on the Google Play Store might be malware in disguise. Thus, it is important not to download unknown apps.
Also, do not give away permissions to your Android device. For instance, a simple farming game should not insist on accessing your camera or microphone. Lastly, you should always ensure that the network you connect to is safe. For instance, you should never connect to free public Wi-Fi unless you have a VPN for Android. This tool will ensure that your connections are safe and encrypted regardless of the network you choose.
Conclusion
Stardew Valley’s popularity has spawned many similar-looking games that are quite popular themselves. We have picked the top three from them for you to enjoy. Our picks are a pleasant experience, and you’re sure to love playing the games. The pixel art is nostalgic, and the games have a feel-good factor that’ll help you tide over the Covid-19 crisis in a better frame of mind.
