Stardew Valley creator confirms a secret no one has found: “I don’t think they ever will”

There’s still a secret in Stardew Valley that no one has found, and creator ConcernedApe isn’t confident any player ever will. We’re taking that as a challenge.

This month marks a full decade since Stardew Valley went live. The cozy farming game has blossomed into one of the most popular indie hits ever, with tens of millions of sales and a loyal community eagerly awaiting any new content.

While ConcernedApe is toiling away on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, he’s been speaking up about what’s to come in Stardew’s 1.7 update. Amid an interview with IGN, he confirmed he actually started working on a full-fledged sequel at one point. But that’s not all.

ConcernedApe has confirmed there’s still a mystery yet to be solved. Despite the countless hours poured into the game, one secret remains under wraps. The dev has all but challenged the community to track it down.

Stardew Valley still has a secret no player has discovered

“There is still a secret that no one has ever found. I don’t think they ever will,” ConcernedApe said in speaking with IGN.

Exactly what this big mystery is, of course, he refused to say. But the popular game dev did give a few hints as to where players should be looking.

“Maybe I’ll reveal it someday, but the problem with the secret is that it’s… It’s basically a secret message in the game, and it reveals something that actually isn’t even true anymore.

“It was revealing a thing about… Do I want to reveal it or not? Well, that’s all I’ll say.”

Although it’s incredibly “obscure,” ConcernedApe explained how he kept the secret hidden all this time. If it were an item or even a file in the game, it would’ve been unearthed by dataminers right away. But as the dev said, “there are certain ways to hide messages that can’t be datamined.

“If you hide something in code, it’s going to all be found because people decompile the code and look at everything. If you say hide it in art or something, if it’s a secret message that’s hidden in the artwork somehow, then people can’t really discover that as easily. They have to see it.”

Thus, wall art, visual assets, anything in the environment, it’s all worth keeping an extra-close eye on the next time you boot up Stardew. Though even with these new cues, ConcernedApe remains all but convinced it won’t be found.

“I feel like no one will ever find it, but I hope someone does. It’d be interesting.”