Birthdays are incredibly important inStardew Valley. Like other cozy games, one key part of the game is building friendships with the NPCs that live in or around town. There’s no better way to rapidly earn hearts than by gifting someone their very favorite item (in the best quality available) on their special day. In fact, the giant calendar posted outside of Pierre’s store really only serves the function of telling players when the next birthday is and what season they’re in.
With this level of importance assigned to other characters' birthdays,it’s surprising that the player doesn’t get a birthday of their own. Players receive random gifts in the mail from villagers, and exchange gifts at certain feasts, but there’s no special day just for the farmer to blow out their own candles.
Players Don’t Have Their Own Birthday On The Calendar
Celebrating The Player Isn’t An Option
When creating a character inStardew Valley, players get to pick out and customize everything about their farmer. Gender, hair, clothes, favorite pet, and even their favorite thing in the world forlater stardrop-related purposes. The one important thing about any character living in Pelican Town thatthe player doesn’t get to choose is their own birthday. Instead of celebrating a special day once a year, like every other character in the game, players go through every season and year without a birthday.
The easy explanation for this lack of celebration for the player is that ConcernedApe, the solo dev behind the game,likely didn’t want player birthdays overlapping with NPC birthdays. It’s possible that conflicting dates may have caused issues, but since more than one event can happen on a day anyway, like a wedding or festival, that may not be the reason.
Stardew Valley Would Feel More Like A Community With Player Birthdays
Villagers Could Come Together To Celebrate The Farmer
Stardew Valleyis a game built on community. Nurturing friendships, accepting quests from neighbors,going to the movies, and giving gifts to everyone are both fun and important things to do every day. It would be nice if players could receive some of that love back in the form of a birthday celebration. Like theFeast of the Winter Star,Stardew Valleycould assign a villager to give the player a random gift on the morning of their selected birthday.
Alternatively, the game could follow theAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsapproach andhave an entire birthday party to celebrate the player. Having a few villagers — perhaps based on highest friendship levels — gather inside the kitchen of the farmhouse to sing over a cake would be very cozy and help makeStardew Valley’s collection of NPCs feel more like a community that loves their local farmer.
