WT Lite

Mo (who was last on the show just before Christmas 2023 talking about comfy games) joined Squidge to talk about the ultimate in comfy games: Stardew Valley.

Players

Squidge

Mo

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Content Warning

This episode contains spoilers for Stardew Valley and a few swears.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Because Squidge and Mo needed a long time to discuss Stardew Valley, it had to be split into two halves. Make sure you check out the first part here—you could just listen to the recap at the start of this part, but part one is way more than just the recap.

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

Waffling Taylor’s Lite: the pocket size podcast that packs a gaming punch.

In this second serving of bite-sized banter with a side of gaming goodness, we catch up with Mo from The Squank and the Hag podcast to talk about all things Stardew Valley. We cover everything from multiplayer babysitting, the many uses of food bribery, and zero-g clown physics. Yes, you heard me right.

Without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks, and get ready for this episode entitled "Exploring Stardew Valley: Stories from Pelican Town - Part Two"

Take it away, guys

The episode hadn’t even started properly yet, but Mo leapt in with more helpful hints:

Mo's Avatar Mo:

Yeah. If you can find out, like, there are ways to find out what gifts a person likes and dislikes, if you can find that out every single day, just give them something like, shane loves beer, so I would just give him beer all the time. Beer and jalapeño poppers.

…

So sometimes if you’re talking to someone, they’ll be like, "oh, my God! Did you know Emily likes…" and stuff like that. So you can find out what gifts to give people without having to go online and find. just. Like I said, I know off the top of my head, Shane, because he loves pepper poppers and beer.

And there’s other stuff, too. And then there are some gifts that everyone loves and everyone hates. I forget what they are, but like I said, you’ll learn that out. And, like, the thing is, if you go and you give her a gift and she doesn’t like it, she will tell you.

Multiplayer?!

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

The game’s got a multiplayer element to it. Have you played multiplayer with anyone? And if you did, did you get up to any specific shenanigans, or is it just, like, helping each other?

And Mo had indeed played Stardew multiplayer, but..

Mo's Avatar Mo:

Um, I did a little bit, and I. You can either see it as I shot myself in the foot or I hit gold.

…

It was a few of us, because I think you could have up to four people. So one was our friend Elena, and she loves farming in that game, so she immediately we set up the farm, went to work on crops, set it all up, did it all; and I was like, "I will let you do that."

The other person was Kraken, the co-host of my podcast. And so anytime I talk about Kraken, I do have to preface, he legitimately is my best friend. I love the dude. He’s like a brother, but he drives me crazy like a brother. So it was just running around, stopping him from causing chaos. So basically, multiplayer was just me babysitting.

But it is fun. It is always fun to play with your friends like that. I just, in terms of why I like to play the game is it’s chill and relaxed and all that stuff, which is not what happens when I play games with Kraken.

…

But it, like, it was a lot of good laughs and stupidity, but, yeah, I think it would depend, like, if, you know, if there was another person, like, kind of like Elena, where it was just like, really chill, just doing our thing, cohabitating, you know, we would do whatever.

So, yeah, it really does depend on who you would play with. But I. I think I like that that’s available. I like that it is something that now can happen, because when it. When the game first came out, you couldn’t do multiplayer at all, and now there’s mods and whatnot.

Transposing Our Furry Friends

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

Farm animals play a big part in this game. If you could take animals from any other game and put them in Stardew Valley, what would it be like? How would they interact with things around them, and how would everyone else in Stardew Valley adapt to the creatures you’ve brought into the game?

Mo's Avatar Mo:

So I may have missed the other game part, and I just thought of animals, and I’m sure there’s. There’s a game out there, like, oh, okay. It’s probably in, like, a zoo game or whatever, so we’re fine. It works. Capybaras.

Nothing bugs them, so it’s perfect for starting. Like, they’re just so chill. Nothing bothers them, and everything loves them. Cats, alligators, you know, gerbils. They all love capybaras. And everyone would love them. And probably people who want to come to the farm and visit them and pet them, and they like everybody would like. You cannot tell me that someone would be unhappy to have capybaras on their farm. I mean, I don’t think they produce anything.

Have you ever seen the video of the capybara in the pool? And he’s like, up. It’s like up to. Almost to his nose, and then his body’s really little. He’s just walking along the bottom of the pool and he looks like. He’s like, you know, like an inch tall and is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life

And here’s the video Mo mentioned:

And the Capybara and Guinea pig combo:

They have matching outfits. So cute!
Mo's Avatar Mo:

Now, the other. The other thing I thought of was going the complete opposite direction and I just drew a blank on what they’re called. But the rabid, crazy dog animals from fallout that attack mole rats? No, the bigger ones. They’re, like, huge.

…

Deathclaws!. Thank you. I’m like, "they have death in the name. They have death in the name." I was like, "what if they would bring in something like that?" But I’m like, "no, because then you do face death, and that is not Stardew Valley".

…

I think the talkable ones [from Fallout 2] that are very nice. They would be all like, "hey, I’ll chill on your farm. Do you need me to, like, I don’t know, butcher some meat for you?& Did you kill a cow? I can just chop down some trees. Let me pick up that boulder for you." You know, so I think that one has more viability. Than an enemy deathclaw.

And here’s Mo’s officially licensed cheery face hugger:

How cool is this?!

Sudden Bureaucracy & Infinite Cosmic Power!

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

Out of nowhere and complete surprise to everyone, Mo is suddenly made mayor. What would you introduce to everyday life? As well as, you know, what would you add to existing events, or would you create new events? As mayor, what would you do?

Mo's Avatar Mo:

So, everyday life, I would add knitting that you could make sweaters and hats and scarves and mittens and, like, you could wear them or sell them and, like, maybe even having, like, dies and stuff that you can, you know, like, "I want a pink sweater." So, like, it’s because you get. You get wool, and then it turns into fabric. But, like, why wouldn’t you spin that and make yarn and then make stuff out of that yarn? Like, that is in real life. That is a very common thing. Like, my parents live down the road from an alpaca farm, and they sell yarn from their alpacas.

So, like, yeah, it just makes so much sense to me. Like, and maybe it’s not, like, actually sitting in a rocking chair knitting, but maybe it’s a knitting machine, because those exist, too. But, like, being able to make fibre and then make knitwear that, because there is a winter, you obviously need to bundle up then, and, you know, all that stuff. And maybe you can make blankets for your home. You can make, like, coasters and rugs, and I’ve seen people who have knit shorts. It’s really, really awkward and bad, and they do it purposely because it’s awkward and bad, but you can make anything.

The conversation of what Mo and Squidge would do if they where made mayor of Stardew Valley also included positive mental health activities and goat yoga.

Note from Jay: your mental health is as important, if not more important, as your physical health. Please do consider doing something positive for your own mental health today.

Crop Replacement

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

We are replacing all the crops with a single item for one day only. What would the item be and how would everyone react to it? So, for example, a field full of ice cream cones or a leftover leather boot, that kind of thing.

Mo's Avatar Mo:

So I actually thought about this in, not like, the dramatic factor of it but, all crops for one day would be replaced with different ores, and it would scale like the crops do. So, like, some of them are like, you know, super easy. So that would be like your copper that you get. But then, like, people who don’t like to go into the mines, you could just go and plant these crops and harvest as much ore as you need or want.

…

I was thinking iridium because that one is so hard to get your hands on because you got to go to the desert and then go deep into the… it’s like, "ugh." So, you know, this way you could just be like, "oh, hey, give me some iridium, please."

Now, I think, like, to keep it balanced and all that stuff, it should be kind of, I guess, difficult to get the seeds. Like, either expensive or a little bit of work involved because you don’t want to just immediately flood the town with iridium.

…

Although I would love a field full of ice cream cones, but that’s just me.

Stadrew In SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

In an alternative universe, Stardew Valley is set in space instead of a rural valley. What would the new challenges for farming and quest be? And how would the community evolve and adapt to zero-g atmosphere?

Mo's Avatar Mo:

So this got the space nerd in me really excited, because you have to think about all of the things that plants require to live, which is: water, sunlight, nutrients, you know, food, whatever. And, like, I don’t know if you saw a few months back that they found the tomato on the international space Station. Do you know anything about this story?

…

But, like, you have to think of all the stuff you would need. So, like, if you would go to say it’s a more advanced humanity, like a Star Trek or something like that. So you would have to have your hydroponic space, you would have to have artificial gravity, artificial lighting, you would have to have special nutrient mixes and all that stuff. And your plants aren’t like, first of all, not every plant is going to thrive in that. So you’re going to have to have hardier plants, I’m thinking, probably, like, a lot of root vegetables, those types of things.

And then you also would have to heavily monitor them. So it’s not like down here, you know, on your farm on Stardew Valley, you plant your crops, you maybe check on them once a day, something like that, whereas with something like this, it would have to be heavily monitored. You’d probably have multiple shifts, people, you know, all working together to make sure it’s okay.

…

You would have to, like, split it into different segments. You would have to have your functional plants, like the air scrubbers and the. The stuff that maybe propagates other plants or, you know, somehow has beneficial aspects to it. Maybe they’re medicinal, maybe they’re functional or whatever. And then you would have to have your food plants.

And also, I would think that if you’re going to be going to these lengths, you could also do stuff that’s, you know, cotton plants or bamboo plants or something that produces fibers and materials and stuff like that, so that you’re easily supplementing your lifestyle while you’re on this spaceship or space station. It, like I said, it does need constant monitoring because you’re gonna have to constantly be making sure the soil ph is okay, that the, you know, the zero gravity is doing okay. Like, you have all these different things to monitor, so it becomes a much larger focus than right now, where it’s just one segment of the game, because you’re gonna have to make sure that this stuff doesn’t die.

When Mo said that she was very interested in space, she wasn’t kidding for sure. Though, Stardew in Space sounds amazing.

Wrapping Up

Squidge asked Mo to remind you all about her and her podcast, so here it is:

Mo's Avatar Mo:

I’m a nerd! [laughs]

But, yes, I am Mo. I am one of the co-hosts of The Squank and the Hag with my friend Kraken. And you can find us at the thesquonkandthehag.com.

And I really want Space Stardew Valley.

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

All copyrighted material contained within this podcast is the property of their respective rights owners. Please see the above list for copyright details pertaining to music used.

Games Covered

We mentioned 8 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: