'Stardew Valley' News: Multiplayer Update Details Revealed Ahead of Release

Publisher Chucklefish recently revealed new details about the long-awaited "Stardew Valley" multiplayer update.

Over a year since the game's release, Chucklefish has been hard at work to shake up the farming simulation's gameplay. Their latest offering for fans is a multiplayer update, which is essentially a cooperative version of the original game.

Upon starting the game, players have the option to add three cabins to their farm. Each of these establishments can house a friend who can help with farm work.

While the update is tentatively scheduled for an early 2018 release, Chucklefish already unveiled some of the new features fans can expect from the upcoming update.

Aside from the farmhands feature that allows players to seek help from friends, the update also offers the ability to marry other players. This has been heavily requested by fans, but how it will exactly work remains unclear.

Additionally, the publisher pointed out that the biggest challenge for them right now is synchronizing multiple games online. Chucklefish revealed that 15,000 lines of code have been rewritten. Much work has been done because almost all source files have been impacted as well. However, they also noted that the work on that part is almost completed, so they will now move on to the process of "polish[ing], testing and optimization."

"We currently expect to be able to start a beta test at the end of the year for Steam users to help us test the game," Chucklefish developer Tom Coxon wrote in an official post about the new update. "Mod authors will be encouraged to update their mods during this beta period. Then, in early 2018 we will release it as the 1.3 patch on Windows, Mac and Linux."

The developer added, "Consoles will get the patch too, starting with Nintendo Switch. This will be a bigger patch than usual, so be aware that it will take a while to roll out to each platform."

"Stardew Valley" is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The Nintendo Switch version is scheduled to arrive later this year.