Soundwalking and the Aurality of Stardew Valley

This chapter focuses on the sound culture of the popular indie farming simulator Stardew Valley, and how its game audio reconnects players with nature and ecology, using music and environmental sounds that model ecological principles and facilitate ludic interaction with the materiality of nature. Applying the practice of soundwalking to gameplay revealed the subtle yet significant role of listening in Stardew Valley's gameplay that is not explicitly stated in the directions for the game. Video games demand that we listen past this implicit assumption and come to understand how the "digital" and "natural" converge in productive ways to reframe and extend public discourse surrounding the environment. Stardew Valley and other environmental games take places seriously in their rendering of environments, but also in their detailed weather conditions and the interactions among human and nonhuman-organic and inorganic actors. Games have a growing influence on culture and can be used as tools to inject positive messages and modes of being-in-the-world.