The game was inspired by the Harvest Moon series but has achieved overwhelming success on its own merits, selling over 10 million copies worldwide.
Stardew Valley has always been a peaceful game. The focus of the game is the player's farm, which they improve over time by expanding it to produce more crops and updating it with better tools to care for it more efficiently. Along the way, the player can spend time taking part in idyllic activities like fishing and participating in town festivals with the charming residents of the quaint little town where they reside. It's a complicated game, with a lot of different materials and tools to craft, but it's never overwhelming because it's all so pleasant and calm. While the game does have combat, it's relegated to the mines, where players can go toe to toe against adorable slimes and similar creatures.
Fan and modder Aedenthorn is turning Stardew Valley's peaceable atmosphere on its head by introducing a mod called Murdercrows. As can be expected, Murdercrows overhauls the scarecrows in the game by making them violent and murderous. Each variety of scarecrow in the game has an attack it can perform; the basic scarecrow will shoot rocks, collectible "rarecrows" can shoot flames, and the most valuable scarecrow in the game, the Deluxe Scarecrow, shoots green bloblike projectiles. Two additional scarecrow types are added, the gold and iridium scarecrows, which each have even more powerful attacks.
To give these scarecrows an outlet for their new destructive capabilities, Aedenthorn has implemented another feature; monster hordes. From 9 am to 6 pm, hourly waves of increasingly powerful monsters will appear to attack the player's farm, destroying crops, structures, and anything else they can reach. By strategically placing scarecrows, players can turn Stardew Valley into a tower defense game, standing firm against wave upon wave of deadly monsters with their stalwart scarecrows at their side. In the mod description, Aedenthorn humorously mentions that the inspiration for this mod was a summer design contest with "waves" as the theme.
Video game mods truly give players the freedom to do just about anything to the games they love. A wave-based combat experience couldn't be more out of line with Stardew Valley's original, tranquil style. It's unlikely that Mario Kart racetrack in Breath of the Wild to unleashing murderous scarecrows and armies of monsters on the unsuspecting farmers of Stardew Valley, modders represent the most wildly creative corners of the internet.
Stardew Valley is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile platforms.
Source: Aedenthorn/Nexus Mods
