Stardew Valley Expanded exceeded its creator’s wildest dreams
Devin Hedegaard first saw Stardew Valley in passing in 2017. “I had recently graduated college and moved back home with my parents to find a job,” he says. “My brother was playing some farming pixel game on his PlayStation 4.”
Fast forward six years, and Hedegaard is better known as FlashShifter, the developer of the incredibly popular mod Stardew Valley Expanded. With dozens of new characters, including six new marriage candidates; changes to the map, including a whole new continent to explore; and countless additions to events, crops, fish, furniture, and more, Expandedrevitalized the game for many who had already put hundreds of hours into their farms and communities. With over 1.8 million unique downloads on Nexus Mods, it’s far and away the most popular content mod for Stardew.
It began, of course, with Hedegaard himself sinking that much time into the game. After seeing his brother playing, he noticed it again when browsing the Nintendo eShop. He knew it was somewhat like Harvest Moon, a series he loved, and it wasn’t expensive. “So I decided, why not try it out?” he says. “Little did I know that it would be the equivalent of Alice falling down that rabbit hole.”
After 100% completing the game, Hedegaard turned to modding for a fresh experience. “I wasn’t done yet. I wanted more,” he says. So he turned to the abundant number of mods on Nexus Mods, finishing the game again, but with numerous mods installed. But even that wasn’t enough. “I still wanted more, but there wasn’t anything left,” he says. “So I started teaching myself how to make my mod.”
Hedegaard had graduated with a degree in accounting. He had no experience in the many, many skills he would need to create Stardew Valley Expanded. “I taught myself how
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