Stardew Valley’s 10-year anniversary video reveals Clint and Sandy’s addition to the marriage roster in update 1.7. It also traces the game’s development from 2012. See what changed over the years.
Stardew Valley 1.7 Expands Marriage Options
Clint and Sandy Join the Marriage Roster
Stardew Valley marks its 10-year anniversary with a retrospective video from creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone that went live February 26 at 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST on his official YouTube channel, looking back at early builds and major updates before confirming the 1.7 update and two new marriage candidates.
The biggest announcement arrives at the end of the video, where Barone confirms that update 1.7 will introduce NPC characters Clint and Sandy as new marriage candidates. He opens an envelope containing the names of the two new spouses and declares, "It’s their turn. It’s their time." The addition marks the first expansion of the romance roster since update 1.1 in 2016, which added Shane and Emily.
The reveal came as a surprise for many fans, especially given Clint’s polarizing reputation within the community. One of the top comments on the video reads, "Clint's redemption arc better be crazy," while another jokes, "He better crack my geodes for free at least." The reactions reflect long-running player debates about the character’s awkward behavior and unrequited crush on Emily, which some fans interpret as endearing while others find uncomfortable.
Clint is Stardew Valley’s resident blacksmith, whom players visit to upgrade tools and process geodes. Aside from his services, he’s also defined by his shy demeanor and persistent crush on Emily. His heart events and dialogue frequently highlight insecurity and social anxiety, and because his character's progression is more subtle than some others', player opinions of him have long been divided.
Sandy, meanwhile, operates the Oasis shop in the Calico Desert, an area that only becomes accessible after players repair the bus later in the game. In her dialogue, she often thanks players for visiting and speaks fondly about her life in the desert. Because the desert is unlocked further into a playthrough and requires travel outside Pelican Town, Sandy appears less frequently in everyday village life than most romanceable characters.
As with past romance updates, the addition of new marriage candidates typically brings new heart events, expanded dialogue, and unique spouse rooms in the farmhouse, along with small outdoor areas on the farm. In Stardew Valley, romance leads to marriage after reaching 10 hearts and proposing with a Mermaid’s Pendant. Once married, spouses move into the farmhouse, occasionally assist with chores such as watering crops or feeding animals, and can continue building their relationship with the player up to 14 hearts.
Early Development Footage Shows the Game’s Evolution
The anniversary video revisits the game’s earliest development years, beginning with footage from 2012 when the project was only six months into development and still titled "Sprout Valley." At that stage, Barone describes it as "very rudimentary" and "much more similar to the Super Nintendo Harvest Moon game than Stardew Valley is today." His goal, he explains, was "to essentially emulate Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo" as a starting point before expanding outward. Looking back at the early visuals, he jokes, "As you can see, the pixel art basically looks like crap."
Even in that early build, the foundation of Stardew Valley was already visible. The bus that would later unlock the desert is there, and staples like slimes and descending mine ladders were present from the start. Barone sees that version of the game as part of his own growth. "It was my education on being a game developer," he says, adding that there is "something special about the naive perspective of a beginner."
By 2013 and 2014, the project had shifted noticeably. Barone says the game looked "radically different" from the earlier prototype and had begun to resemble Stardew Valley more closely. However, he calls this period "the weirdest time for the game," adding, "I feel like it’s like Stardew Valley hit puberty here." During this phase, players purchased animals and buildings directly from an in-game menu instead of visiting Robin. Barone describes this iteration as "more of like a sandbox idea" and "a little bit more of a simulation concept, I guess, than an RPG."
The build also included a fully viewable in-game farm map—a feature he calls "pretty cool," joking that players might be upset it did not make it into the final version. Features such as "item of the day" and "crop of the week" were eventually removed because, as he explains, "You don’t ever want to incentivize things that aren’t fun. That’s gamedev 101."
Barone also experimented heavily with the mines during this stage of development. He explains that one iteration featured large procedurally generated levels inspired by Terraria "but top down instead of side scrolling." Players would mine into walls to uncover ores and hidden areas. Although he still calls it "a cool idea," he ultimately decided to scrap the system. The approach proved "very bugprone," and he later concluded it may have been "too ambitious of a concept for the scope of this game."
The video also shows other fully cut content, including an underground goblin village. Barone makes it clear that anything seen in these early builds is "not considered to be canonical Stardew Valley." Looking back, he says he does not regret removing those ideas, noting that "just because something sounds cool… doesn’t mean that it’s going to be fun or it’s going to be the right idea in practice."
In August 2015, roughly six months before launch, much of the game had taken its final shape, though several visual details were still being polished. Barone recalls putting significant work into the project during its final stretch, realizing that "the finish line was so close," which gave him "the drive and the motivation to make all these little changes in the last six months to prepare the game for release." One notable late change was the redesign of the farmer character, which he describes as a last-minute adjustment he is glad he made before release.
All of that effort led to the game’s launch on February 26, 2016—"the culmination of four and a half years of work," as Barone puts it. He adds, "A lot was riding on this because if it flopped, I would have been four and a half years behind my peers with no money, no job experience." In the video, he even shares a photo of his modest desk setup at the time, underscoring how uncertain those early days might have felt. Instead, Stardew Valley sold just under 40,000 copies on its first day, which he describes as "already beyond my wildest dreams." After that first day, he says, "I knew that this was going to be a big deal. I knew that I could be a game developer from now on."
He then briefly revisits the major updates that shaped Stardew Valley over the past decade, including 1.1’s new farm types and added marriage candidates, 1.3’s multiplayer update,1.4’s movie theater, fish ponds, spouse events, 1.5’s expansive Ginger Island endgame content, and 1.6’s new systems and old ideas like Green Rain. As for what comes next, Barone has not yet revealed much about update 1.7, saying only that it is "in the works," with no further details beyond confirming the addition of Clint and Sandy.
Barone also pauses to thank the community for their support over the past decade. He says the mods, fan art, letters, comments, and personal messages have "given me a lot of purpose in life."
What’s Next for Stardew Valley
The question of how long Stardew Valley updates will continue has lingered in recent years, particularly as Barone works on his next project, Haunted Chocolatier. Update 1.6 was released in March 2024, and for a time, it seemed like it might be the game’s last major expansion.
In April 2025, he told PC Gamer that he was "committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I’m done with Haunted Chocolatier," leading many fans to assume major updates might pause. Yet in August of the same year, he confirmed during a Symphony of Seasons concert that 1.7 was in development after all.
Earlier in 2025, Barone acknowledged the limits of expansion during an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, saying, "I think a game can have too much content. And I ultimately want Stardew Valley to be the best game it can be. So if I feel like it's starting to become kind of overwhelmed with content to the point where it's detrimental to the game's entertainment factor, I would stop at that point."
However, he did not rule out adding to the game again in the future. "I do want to make more than one game in my life. But I don't want to definitively say that the book is ever closed, because I think I will always have a desire to come back and maybe add a thing or two."
He adds, "I like creating things. I don't think I'm ever going to retire. I think it would be funny to release an update when I'm, like, 90 years old—if I live that long. Let's hope."
Stardew Valley is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series One, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, Android, and iOS. To stay up-to-date on the game, check our article below.
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