Parts of The Isle of Elanor were based on the games Stardew Valley (SDV) and Harvest Moon.
Let’s state the obvious: I copied parts the user interface (UI) design, but not the graphical assets, of SDV. The tabbed main menu in SDV is the simplest, most functional design choice possible. I couldn’t have designed a simpler UI. By copying it, I could work on the fun and interesting areas of The Isle of Elanor that are entirely different than SDV.
There are clear aesthetic differences between the UI and art styles of The Isle of Elanor and SDV. The Isle of Elanor is more subtle: it uses a less saturated color palette and much less “bling” than SDV.
The Isle of Elanor and SDV are different games in many ways. The Isle of Elanor is set in an imaginary time period that predates the modern world of SDV. The Isle of Elanor is a more complex game than SDV. The Isle of Elanor features role playing, combat, economics and other game play areas that are much more complex than SDV.
Using a standard color palette, and without using very plain art assets, it’s physically impossible to make a game with a farming mechanic with 16 pixel tiles that doesn’t look in some part like SDV. It’s not possible to defy the laws of physics. This explains why many SDV game assets look like assets from Harvest Moon. This explains why the farming aspects of a game like Core Keeper look like SDV.
Here are two bed graphics. They are the same size, 32 x 64 pixels. One asset is from Harvest Moon and one asset is from SDV.
Which bed is from SDV? Which bed is from Harvest Moon?
The only distinguishing artistic difference between the two is the lower graphic uses a black outline. Each graphic could be easily fit into both SDV and Harvest Moon. This same comparison can be done with a lot of assets from the two games.
ConcernedApe (the creator of SDV) didn’t steal the design of this asset. He was working within the constraints of 16 pixel tiles. 16 pixels is the graphical unit size in SDV, Harvest Moon, and The Isle of Elanor. When you only have 16 pixels to work with, it’s physically impossible to draw some items that don’t look like items from other 16 pixel tile games.
There’s a huge library of art work created by SDV modding community, and in most cases, this art work fits into the SDV world, not because the mod creators were following a SDV style guide, but simply because the modders were working within the constraints of 16 pixels.
During the prototyping stage of The Isle of Elanor, I made use of SDV art assets. I posted screenshots of these prototypes on reddit and places like the libgdx discord server. Some people who saw those screenshots mistakenly believed that I wanted to use the SDV graphics. Obviously, that would be impossible. Nearly the entire history of the creation of The Isle of Elanor, from its earliest screenshots, is available for anyone to see on the libgdx discord.
Here’s a comparison of a few common sprites in Elanor and SDV. They are clearly different, every pixel.
Stardew is a great game. I will probably play some SDV tonight with my daughter.
Cheers!