Stardew Valley developer makes animated music video for Alvvays

Alvvays is an indie pop band based mostly out of Toronto, and their newest music video is created by an surprising artist: ConcernedApe, also referred to as Eric Barone. Barone is the developer of traditional farm sim Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier, an RPG at the moment in growth.

The surprising collaboration was the results of a collection of fortuitous occasions. Molly Rankin, vocalist and guitarist for Alvvays, despatched the developer an electronic mail asking if he can be occupied with contributing a bit of artwork to the sport. Barone accepted, and began arising with concepts whereas listening to Alvvays’ Blue Rev album. “I felt like, ‘I can’t simply draw a picture, I gotta go all the best way,” Barone says in a name with Polygon. “It’s simply the sort of particular person I’m. It’s exhausting for me to restrain myself to a quite simple factor.”

Whereas Barone is understood for pixel artwork, just like the little avatars and portraits that characterize the farmer’s pals in Stardew Valley, he took a extra experimental course of with the music video. The characters journey by way of a collection of surreal and textured environments impressed by side-scrollers.

“I needed to study new stuff too, as a result of there’s a 3D part, and I’ve by no means executed 3D stuff earlier than,” says Barone. “I needed to study utterly new ideas for that, however that was enjoyable. And I’d be capable to use that sooner or later — I all the time thought I’d by no means make a 3D recreation, however after this I really feel like I might and it could really be sort of enjoyable and fascinating.”

Alvvays performs Stardew Valley usually on tour, bringing a number of Switches on the street. “I feel there’s like a component of humanity and empathy in Stardew,” says Rankin in a name with Polygon. “It’s meditative and simply type of this universe you may get misplaced in for an extended time frame the place nobody actually dies and all the things is pretty mild.”

The band was stunned at Barone’s initiative in creating a whole music video, however it synced nicely with the themes of the album. “It’d be secure to say we don’t need to make music that appears like being on the web,” says Alec O’Hanley, guitarist, in the identical name. “We actively do attempt to create work that displays an earlier indeterminant period. A lot of our favourite works accomplish that, whether or not it’s an album or a portray or a online game. We strive to not delve too deep into nostalgia, however we additionally don’t think about {that a} soiled phrase. By any stretch.”