Stop putting hats on your pets, asks Stardew Valley creator

Back in the misty reaches of time (March) popular farming sim Stardew Valley got a big update that added more pets to the game (it also let you drink mayonaise but let's not get sidetracked). Those new cats, dogs, and turtles had the cute distinction of being able to wear hats, should you choose to kit your wee friends out. Now, following many months of smaller updates to the game, it seems those hats are causing a problem. "[If] you are experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6, remove all hats from pets," said creator Eric Barone in a xeet. When asked the lore-accurate cause of this problem, he blamed: "a strange rash".

"There's rumors of a strange rash affecting pets' ears in Zuzu City," he said in response to a player jokingly asking for deep Valley lore, "and we just want to make sure those ears can breathe for a few days."

This isn't the first time in recent days the big man down on the farm has given lore-appropriate reasons for a bug. A couple of days ago it became clear that chickens were vanishing from some players coops. "Lore: There is a wild coyote on the farm day 1 rn," explained Barone. This would surely horrify our own battery chicken farmer Alice B (RPS in peace). Thankfully, that bug has since been fixed, while the too-many-hats-on-animals issue is still being worked on. "We will address the problem as soon as possible," he said.

Like all good games, Stardew Valley has had some funny bug fixes over the years, as can be seen in the many patch notes that accompany the regular updates. "Players now close their eyes when they go to bed," reads one note from update 1.4. "Trees no longer grow on top of placed furniture items," says another in update 1.5.4. "Spouses will no longer stand around looking at rug-type furniture items," states a change in update 1.5.1. This last one caused players to get stuck when the love of their life would freeze at the sight of a floor divider and stare at it like they suddenly knew their entire life was a cosy farm simulation for anxious people.

Meanwhile, the developer is still working on the follow-up life sim, Haunted Chocolatier. Although splitting time between both that and Stardew updates is unsurprisingly difficult. He's previously teased a scene from the upcoming game and has said it will have "a greater focus on combat" than life on the farm.