Many fans of indie farm simulation game Stardew Valley would likely agree that one of the game's best features is its roster of interesting characters. With a number of NPCs, including the list of Stardew Valley marriage candidates, the game provides its players with a variety of character tropes that add to the game's replayability. However, it can be hard for the game's fans to remember every little detail about each NPC. So it is not surprising that a hardcore Stardew Valley fan has gone through massive lengths to create a bot that identifies these characters and gives players their gift preferences in real-time.
Though the indie title is already five years-old, it is still heavily played globally. Reaching up to 15 million copies sold in 2021, the game is accessible on a variety of platforms. This includes Steam, PS4, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch, and iOS and Android devices. The clamor for the title is so high that Stardew Valley physical copies for the Nintendo Switch were even launched in November 2020. What's more, the game's community pushes each other to remain active, with original and unique content that fans share with each other online.
Though Stardew Valley has simple gameplay that makes it easy to play, many of its fans likely still find the art of in-game gift-giving quite tedious. As a way to help themselves, and their fellow Stardew Valley fans, self-taught developer and programmer Kutluhan Aktar created a bot that is able to scan and identify every Stardew Valley character in order to give players real-time info about them. Using OpenCV, they programmed the application in Python and housed it in a single-board computer called the LattePanda Alpha 864s, which has a built-in Arduino Leonardo.
According to Aktar, the bot identifies the game's characters through OpenCV template matching. When identified, the character's info, Stardew Valley gift preferences, and even individual birthdays will show up on an attached screen. The player will also be alerted by the bot through audiovisual cues such as a buzzer and green LED light. For hardcore players who may be too lazy to check other pages, or do not want to disrupt the gaming experience, this bot is certainly an interesting way to get information about a certain character.
Though Aktar's bot is quite a unique way to play Stardew Valley, it may be quite hard for other fans to replicate the application. Thankfully there are a lot of other resources online that fans can access so that they can continue to play the indie farming sim.
Stardew Valley is available now for mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.