author: Zuzanna Domeradzka
Stardew Valley Co-creator is Making His Own City Life Sim; Apollo City Looks Charming
Arthur Lee, co-creator of Stardew Valley, is creating a new charming game along the lines of the work released in 2016. The premiere is expected to take place this year.
If you fell in love with the idyllic, pixel-art game Stardew Valley, then apart from the upcoming Haunted Chocolatier, you may also be interested in another similar game.
Arthur "Mr." Podunkian" Lee is working on the discussed game, who was involved in the creation of Stardew Valley. His game does not yet have a title, but it will most likely include the words "Apollo City" - that's how we will refer to the project in this news item.
Return to idyllic life
Mr. Podunkian is happy to share game materials, thanks to which we know that Apollo City will have many points in common with Stardew Valley. In the corner of the screen we see the current time and date, which may be important in the game - most likely all shops will be open during the day, and at night we will encounter unique events. We also know that the seasons in the game will be dynamic.
Cycling promises to be one of the most interesting mechanics in Apollo City. The creator admitted that the purchase of a city bike in real life motivated him to add such an option. Mr. Podunkian claims that it will be possible to customize, among other things, the color scheme of the bike.
Apollo City will be full of smaller and larger activities to perform. We will read the books we find, and after developing skills, it will be possible to enjoy reading in your own bed (presented in the video below). We can get the books themselves in the bookstore run by Laney, who loves to knit various items.
As with Stardew Valley, Apollo City will enable you to breed a variety of animals. You can have your own flock of chickens, whose eggs you will probably sell in a nearby store. There will also be no shortage of cows and running a vegetable farm.
After a hard day's work, the character will go to rest. An interesting option will be a trip to the hot springs, which are a reference to the Harvest Moon series, which,in turn, was the main inspiration for Stardew Valley.
In addition to leading an idyllic life in Apollo City - traveling around the city by subway, fishing or cooking - also a more dangerous part of the game will be present. The character can go to the sewers where various characters roam, including the funny Lunky. In this place (the equivalent of the mine in SV), we will probably obtain items important to the plot or those that can be used to earn money.
We encourage you to familiarize yourself with Mr. Podunkian's profile on X, because you'll find much more interesting materials from Apollo City there.
You've probably already noticed that Apollo City is extremely similar to Stardew Valley in terms of gameplay and graphics. This is obviously caused by the fact that Mr. Podunkian worked on Stardew Valley and the fact that his new project is being developed on the same engine. ConcernedApe (the main creator of SV, still developing the game) gave his permission to the creator of Apollo City and talked to him about it, so we shouldn't worry about possible legal disputes.
Technical matters
The project's creator is convinced that the game will debut this year. We do not know yet exactly what deadline Mr. Podunkian is aiming for, but he claims that he will make a product card for Apollo City on Steam by the end of this week. As the developer would like to introduce support for controllers, eventual release of the game on consoles is possible.
It is worth adding that Apollo City will feature a multiplayer mode - you will be able to play with a friend locally and online. We have to wait for the more details.
