Forum Discussion

Smellincoffee's avatar
Smellincoffee
New Adventurer
2 years ago

Cottage Living inspired by Stardrew Valley?

First, permission to laugh at me granted. I rarely know about new games coming out because I tend to marry a game -- I find one or three I like, and they're the only thing I play. When Cottage Living came out, I liked the idea of it because I'm always doing little Farmsteads. But then I started noticing Stardrew Valley and all of it imitators, and I thought about the mechanics of Cottage Living -- including quests for townsfolk -- and it clicked. Has anyone played both? I'm curious if any subtle references to the game were made in the expansion pack.
  • SimplyJen's avatar
    SimplyJen
    Rising Spectator
    Stardrew? :wink: Stardew Valley was inspired by Harvest Moon a game that came out in the 90s. Players have been asking for a farm focused pack for a while. Cottage Living probably pulled ideas not only from request but other farming simulators just like SV. There's a few popular farming games that fall into the same category.

    I went through a solid couple of months playing SV non stop but that was years ago now and there's been some huge updates since then. As for any references in the pack... CL was too buggy on launch for me so I didn't get to dive into it very much. I'm sure others will have a better response.
  • I’ve played a bit of SV, and found it be incredibly boring. Though it’s not impossible that some ideas or mechanics are similar. Game developers may get ideas or inspirations from other games, it’s not uncommon for that to happen in the gaming industry or anywhere else
  • amapola76's avatar
    amapola76
    Seasoned Hotshot
    This reminds me a bit of when I gave my youngest sibling a copy of Lord of the Rings when they were in high school, and when I asked "how did you like it?" their response was, "It was ok but it kind of seemed like they were just copying ." :D

    Not that Cottage Living came out first in this scenario. I just mean, there are certain themes that you see over and over and over, not just in games, but more broadly in the general realm of geekdom: be it scifi, fantasy, life simulation, computer games, tabletop games, etc. So, like, the whole general concept of townfolk quests, for example, definitely predates both Stardew Valley and The Sims 1, much less any pack for TS4. Arguably you could date the general idea back to, idk, earlyDungeons and Dragons, maybe? Decades, anyway.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some of the devs who worked on CoL probably did play SV at one point or another, but it seems like a stretch to say that it was directly inspired by it.
  • SheriSim's avatar
    SheriSim
    Seasoned Hotshot
    I’m not sure when stardew valley first came out, but I have been wanting farm animals since TS2 came out. And I can remember when we didn’t have plants either…. I was wanting them before I even played a farming simulator. Like Amapola76 said, I’m sure there are some dev’s who have played these farming games too, but the sims plants and animals have always been way more in depth.
  • Yes I thought the exact same thing, a lot of elements from Cottage Living seem like they've been pulled straight from Stardew Valley. The village and the villagers, the errands, the lore, the simple living lot challenge, and oversized crops all remind me of Stardew Valley with a Sims spin on it.
  • "SimplyJen;c-18267307" wrote:
    Stardrew? :wink: Stardew Valley was inspired by Harvest Moon a game that came out in the 90s. Players have been asking for a farm focused pack for a while. Cottage Living probably pulled ideas not only from request but other farming simulators just like SV. There's a few popular farming games that fall into the same category.

    I went through a solid couple of months playing SV non stop but that was years ago now and there's been some huge updates since then. As for any references in the pack... CL was too buggy on launch for me so I didn't get to dive into it very much. I'm sure others will have a better response.


    Cool! Thanks for the clarification. I saw there's one coming out recently that has a mystery component...one of the villagers is chosen randomly to be a ne'er do well and the player has to suss out who it is.
  • SEREFRAS's avatar
    SEREFRAS
    Seasoned Veteran
    I’ve never played Stardrew Valley. However I always play with my Cottage Living in my Sims 4. I don’t mind if the idea came from another game, it’s fun.?
    It would be so cool if Sims 4 put in a full gameplay that’s closely related to
    Civilization VI & Dream Valley.?
  • I think they definitely got inspired by Stardew Valley since The Sims team always looks out for what‘s popular at the moment.