⭐ Weekly Update ⭐
🧺 SDV Mods: 🧺
- Extra Portraits & Assets Mod: I added a couple more simple foliage manual replacement files to my Extra Portraits and Assets Mod. I’m planning to slowly add more of the personal edits I’ve made over time, but I’ve been double-checking permissions before posting anything. I also made some corrections to the farmer portrait mod I created. I had to fix a couple of expressive reactions with certain NPCs.
- Seasonal Cute ES: I finally finished this mod! Although this definitely isn’t the end of my East Scarp modding journey. There are still a couple more seasonal mods I want to tackle before I feel like the seasonal characters are truly complete. The Seasonal Cute ES mod had some really great designs for the base characters (sadly, no ESR characters were included). Unfortunately, once I finished the portraits and started coding everything in, I realized there were a few missing sprites and edits (Eyvindr and Victoria). Overall, though, I think it turned out pretty well. I’m a little nervous because I wasn’t able to fully test Eyvindr’s or Jasper’s portraits. I haven’t completed the required events for Eyvindr to appear yet, and Jasper’s seasonal outfits apparently only show up after a major cutscene. At first, I thought something was broken, but after digging through the code, it seems to be intentional. I’ll probably be taking about a week-long break from ES portraits before getting back into them.
- Coal Farm: I’m so close to finishing this one that I can practically taste it. I just wrapped up Spencer’s base portraits, and Isaac had a couple new expressions that I needed to work into my existing sheets. I’m hoping to focus on finishing this project this upcoming week, but no promises.
🎮 Games: 🎮
- Pragmata: We finished this game Friday night, and honestly? It was amazing. I had a lot of fun helping my husband search for things while he handled all the difficult combat. Not going to lie — we both teared up at the ending. (Curse those onion ninjas.) With all the unlocks we got after finishing the game, we might even do a New Game+. I’d definitely recommend this one.
- Mega Modded SDV: I’ve been having a lot of fun just relaxing with this save in the mornings. I’m taking a very laid-back approach to it and mostly using it as inspiration for future mod ideas and personal edits. I did add another NPC mod after saying I wouldn’t (I have no self-control apparently). This time it was Heir Hero Spirit, but it conflicted with the Ornithologist’s Guild. Since I’m stubborn and liked both mods, I ended up moving the Ornithologist’s Guild building so everything would work together. The building now sits on the lower-right side of the Forest Lake. It’s not a perfect location since Better Things is nearby, but both areas are still accessible, so it’s a win in my book.
- Simple Red SDV: I haven’t played this save much lately, but I squeezed in a couple of hours while resting in bed. After the sprite and portrait edits I made to our child (Reid) looks ridiculously cute in the crib. I’ve also been renovating and decorating the house. Even though I’m trying to keep the mod count low… I still added a few more mods. I’m trying really hard to stick to the red aesthetic without making everything feel overwhelming. I’m also considering downloading a recolor mod if I can find one that works well with Stardew Valley Expanded and Ridgeside Village. Right now, I’m stuck on the RSV Blessed Artifact request and kind of bottlenecked by the Ghost Greenhouse quest. On the bright side, romancing my last two planned husbands (Lance and Raphael) is going very well. I seriously want to make fan art for this save at some point. There really needs to be more hours in the day.
- Ball Pit: There was a huge Golden Week sale, and a lot of the Square Enix games were massively discounted. I picked this one up because people kept comparing it to Balatro, which is one of my favorite games of all time. If you enjoy “numbers go up” type games, I’d highly recommend this one. It’s super addicting, runs smoothly on basically everything, and has a really satisfying gameplay loop.
- Core Keeper: Still playing weekly with my friend. I finally moved all of our crafting materials into a much larger base and made sure there was plenty of room for expansion. My friend has also been supplying me with an endless amount of awesome items, so naturally, I’ve been put in charge of decorating. Overall, the base is looking really awesome now, and I’ll probably post screenshots at some point.
- PowerWash Simulator: I picked up the Alice in Wonderland DLC and finished it while I wasn’t feeling well this week. On sale, I’d say it was definitely worth it.
- Deponia:
I bought this point-and-click game a while back during a sale and finally decided to try it while resting my wrists. Then I quickly remembered why I’m not usually a huge fan of point-and-click puzzle games. Some of these puzzles make absolutely no sense. That said, the art style and voice acting are really charming so far. I’ve only completed the first scene though, so I can’t say too much about the story yet.
📖 Reading: 📖
- Creature of Flame: I just finished this reverse harem novel again, and I was surprised that my old rating was four stars. After a reread, I thought it deserved a solid three but not more than that. The concept itself was decent, but the execution felt a little messy and all over the place. I also didn’t feel like there was much romantic development before the intimate scenes started happening. I think I might just be getting burned out on romantic erotica in general and may switch back to slower-burn romances for a while.
- Of Glass and Lavender: I’m currently in the middle of this one and really enjoying it so far. The character development is strong, and I like the pacing quite a bit. The world-building can be a little confusing at first, but things gradually start making more sense as the story progresses. My biggest issue so far is the dialogue. The love interests all have distinct personalities, but sometimes their dialogue sounds so similar that I lose track of who’s speaking. Overall, though, I’m enjoying it enough that I’ll probably pick up the rest of the series.
- The Outsiders: This was the pick for my classics club. So far, I think it’s a solid read about rebellious teenage boys and the struggles they face. I’ll save my full thoughts for once I finish it.
💖 Life: 💖
Honestly, I’m surprised by how much I managed to finish this week despite spending a couple of days completely bedridden. I think I’m finally starting to get better at pacing myself and working within my body’s limitations instead of constantly fighting against them.
I also have way too many ideas for future projects, both inside the Stardew modding community and outside of it. Part of me really wants to start making comics again, and I think once I catch up on some of my backlog, I might finally return to that hobby.
Anyway, that’s it for me this week. I’ll talk to you all next time.