Stardew Valley Mod Adds Gender-Neutral Villagers
Stardew Valley remains an absolute treat, and has persisted as one of the most replayable farming simulators going. It has also proven itself to be much more than that. ConcernedApe's indie titan has shown that jamming dungeon-crawling, farming, and romance all into one game (made by just one person) can turn out brilliantly.
The game's community is a gem too, with fans constantly sharing their tips on how to reach peak efficiency on their farms and truly take over the world of veggies. Now, a new mod has been introduced in hopes of making Stardew Valley even more inclusive.
Does Stardew Valley Have Gender-Neutral Villagers?
Click to enlargeA new mod from sqbr has made efforts to make Stardew Valley fly the Pride flag by altering the game's character's models to make them more androgynous. The mod was made in an effort to blur the lines between the genders of the characters - showcasing a more inclusive experience if players choose to romance or befriend them.
"What counts as 'androgynous' is pretty subjective and context specific, but my goal was to create art that can be read as intended to be male, female, or ambiguous, within the limits of my ability as a pixel artist," says the creator in the mod's description.
"So I generally removed things like curvy chests, beards, sharp jaws, makeup etc that are strongly associated with only men or women in conventional sprite art, even though in real life the gender associations are more complicated, and there's no single 'androgynous' look." With games like Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, and The Sims making some headway on these issues, modders are doing the hard work for developers.
What's Next For ConcernedApe?
Installing the gender-neutral mod requires the SMAPI mod launcher and the base content patcher. Simply download the mod file, unzip it, and drag it into the Stardew Valley mod folder. You can customise sprites and portraits from there, while sqbr confirms they're also working on a genderswap mod that will alter the title's in-game dialogue.
It's not just Stardew Valley that's going to be defining ConcernedApe's time as a developer - in fact, he's still working on a brand-new game. Haunted Chocolatier is his next project, which seems to have much more of a focus on combat and exploration. The game looks an absolute treat, and we can't wait to get our hands on it. Stardew Valley will tide us over until Haunted Chocolatier, and with a new mod like this, it means that the game is more inclusive for everyone. And that's never a bad thing.
