Thank you for joining us FlashShifter. To start off could you please tell us a little about yourself?
I’m glad to be here and grateful to have this opportunity for an interview! My name is Devin. I graduated from university a couple of years ago with a BA in accounting. Moved to Seattle with my girlfriend to seek out employment. I enjoy video games, art, piano, and modding!
You've been a member of our community since 2017, how did you first find Nexus Mods?
I originally joined Nexus Mods for Star Wars Battlefront II mods. My little brother showed me Stardew Valley in 2017 and I played the heck out of it on the Nintendo Switch (over 200 hours). I wanted to experience more of the game, so I became active in the Stardew Valley modding community to enhance my experience.
What would you say are your favourite games and what do you like about them?
Some of my favourite games are Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, LoZ: Breath of the Wild, Bloodborne, Super Smash Brothers, and Red Dead Redemption 2. I love games with exploration and a good story. I also enjoy fast-paced games too!
Stardew Valley Expanded is the biggest and most popular mod for Stardew Valley in the last 12 months, but for anyone who hasn't played it yet. Could you tell us about the mod?
Stardew Valley Expanded is the largest mod for the game. From the mod description
This mod features 17 new locations, 63 new character events, 3 new NPCs, over 500 location messages, reimagined maps and festivals (all maps), a huge remastered farm map, a new world map reflecting all changes, and many miscellaneous additions.
I aim to add over 30 hours of brand-new content, expanding the universe ConcernedApe created.
What inspired you to create mods for Stardew Valley?
Modding for Stardew Valley requires very little to no coding knowledge, so it was easy for me to pick up and learn. There were many things I wanted to add to the game I enjoyed. The project was originally only supposed to incorporate some map edits, but it kept growing and growing. To this day, the mod is still expanding!
Have you ever created mods for other games?
I have not. I am open to the idea in the future, but I am currently focusing on Stardew Valley.
Are you the only one working on the mod or do you have a team of modders?
I am the only developer for SVE and the creator. Mojavia and HopeWasHere have helped me with the portrait art of the NPCs and new buildings. Other developers have added/tweaked their frameworks for SVE. Some people have assisted me in creating compatibility patches for other mods and streamlining installation. I also have used assets from other modders, acknowledged in the SVE credits section. But for the most part, I am the only person actively working on SVE and maintaining it.
Many talented Stardew Valley mod authors have contributed assets and even entire mods to SDVE. What would you say are the challenges in bringing these all together?
The toughest challenges I would say was asking for permission, ensuring proper credit was given, and tweaking/implementing these mods to mesh seamlessly together.
If someone wanted to start making mods for Stardew Valley, what advice would you give them?
My first piece of advice is to ask yourself what you want to add and why you want to make it. The resources I used were primarily the modding wiki, the map editor “Tiled”, the Events Google Doc spreadsheet, and the SDV Modding Discord for help.
What other mods would you recommend when playing Stardew Valley?
I have a Mod Recommendations section on the SVE page detailing what mods I recommend!
Do you have any future plans for your mods you'd like to share?
SVE is still growing! I have plans to add more unique locations, more NPCs, more events, new activities, new festivals, new sprites, and more! If anyone wants to help with portrait art and C# coding, I would love to have a chat with you!
Follow @FlashShifter on Twitter to keep up to date on the development of his mods. You can also join in the Stardew Valley discussion on our forums and the Nexus Mods Discord server!
A big thank you to FlashShifter for answering our questions. As always, if there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to BigBizkit or Pickysaurus.
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingAbsolutely amazing, thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.