Addressing a Recent Tumblr Post

       A Tumblr post that was recently reblogged contains various false accusations and misinformation, claiming I’ve stolen content from other modders within the Stardew Valley Modding community for financial gains.

       Today I decided to explain my side of the story as I’ve been dealing with this individual and their accusations for over a year. This is the only post I'll make about the subject, since it's been dealt with by staff on multiple platforms and many times in private.

       This is just to present my side of the story in response to that post. Please do not harass or bother the individual whatsoever. I condemn all forms of harassment.

Claim: I redistributed Karmylla’s Immersive Maps mod behind a paywall

       The post claims that I distributed modified copies of Karmylla’s and the individual’s work behind a paywall, and shows this image from the SVE 1.8 beta files:

What isn’t shown is that those folders only contain a few files to overwrite for the SVE beta:

       Before I started development of Stardew Valley Expanded, I contacted Karmylla and obtained permission to use her immersive maps mod (KIM) as a base to build SVE. We were a team, communicating and updating our mods together. Over the course of a year, I made numerous edits and additions to the Pelican Town map during SVE 1.0 ~ SVE 1.8.

       In the SVE 1.8 update, I was adding Marlon, Morris, and Sophia as new NPCs players could interact with. Because of these NPC additions, I made changes to some maps that were from KIM, which SVE was dependent on:

• The adventurer guild saw a change in custom weapon displays (sprite work done by Keychain) plus furniture from vanilla tilesheets.
• The town fair received a new grange display (sprite work done by myself) for Sophia and new adventurers (Sprite work for Alesia and Isaac was done by Poltergeister) who observed Clint’s smithing work.
• The town halloween maze also received the new adventurers who acted as bodyguards around the monster cages.
• JojaMart was added to Karm’s folder since I needed to redesign Morris’ desk in order to allow players to converse with him. JojaMart wasn’t a map added through Karmylla’s mod.
• The Wizard’s house was also slightly edited with vanilla furniture at the last minute in preparation for Morgan, a non-binary magical child who becomes a pupil of M. Rasmodius in year 3 (added in 1.10).
• To reflect the SVE artwork changes for the new adventurers and grange display, the SVE tilesheets needed to be overwritten in her mods directory. I named the folder the same as hers for easy overwriting.

       At the time, the individual had recently started maintaining KIM and I should have communicated more with both Karmylla and the individual about the changes. In retrospect I shouldn’t have included the map files for these edits, and I apologize for that. Instead, I should have conditionally patched them or used vanilla interiors. I swiftly corrected this in SVE 1.9 after our mods cut ties one week later.

       I want to be crystal clear I would never intentionally upload someone’s mod for financial gain. I only wanted to make the beta functional so players could experience the new NPCs and help test them prior to release. The beta testers still had to individually download KIM and install it.

Claim: Patreon link on SVE page violated Nexus Mods policy

       The post touches on Nexus Mods policy regarding my Patreon link on the SVE mods page. I added the link after noticing many other mod pages had their own Patreon and Ko-fi links. I was contacted by a Nexus community manager who explained why SVE in particular couldn’t have the link up due to SVE beta access. I understood the reasoning, agreed, and removed it.

Claim: SVE redistributed copyrighted music behind a paywall

       For a time, SVE incorporated four tracks from one of my favorite video games, Octopath Traveler. These tracks were used in two character events and in a late game area called the Crimson Badlands, a corrupted desert landscape populated with strong monsters. One track in particular was called “The Sunlands”, which was my favorite. I wanted to drive home a particular experience for players.

       I contacted Yasunori, the composer, on Twitter. He mentioned I needed to reach out to Square Enix’s Legal Department for permissions. It seemed like a bit of a hassle, so the music was promptly removed. Today, I’m developing my own music using FL Studio. I have a handful of my own songs in SVE and have recently finished another song.

Claim: Patreon tier offers private access to SDV Discord

       The benefactor tier on my Patreon is meant for people who want to contribute more towards SVE. The “ability to chat with me” was not worded well; by no means did it mean that it’d be in a voice channel on the Stardew Valley Discord or that someone needed to pay to talk to me. You can check my comment history on Reddit, Twitter, Nexus Mods, and Discord and it’ll become apparent I help and talk to everyone. Rather it was just meant to offer the option of more dedicated one-on-one discussion, and the Stardew Valley Discord was where I could be found to initiate it. To avoid further confusion about this, I removed it after it was brought up.

Claim: I stole doghouse assets from another mod

       In regards to designing a doghouse that’s similar to another mod, I referenced the vanilla farmhouse to draw it. I’m not aware of any other mod with my design, I don't know which mod the post is referring to, and I have never been contacted about it.

Claim: I deliberately added SVE content that conflicted with another mod

       The post includes a screenshot from a discussion with the mod author of “More New Fish”. The screenshot was only part of the conversation. The rest of the conversation occurred over private messages where we further discussed the mod conflict, began working on compatibility within the hour, and finished it shortly thereafter. The conflict was a mistake on my part and I was in the wrong, but the issue was quickly resolved. I’m surprised the conversation was brought up, since the individual reached out to me over PM and I informed them we resolved the issue.

Claim: I redistributed other mods without permission

        The post claims I reuploaded and modified the “Harvest Goddess" mod without permission. That mod replaces the wizard completely with a harvest goddess similar to the game Harvest Moon, so I modified the mod to make it compatible with SVE. My intention was just to let more players enjoy the mod since compatibility was frequently requested by SVE players. I didn’t realize at the time that permission from the mod author was needed to add compatibility. Not asking for permission first was my mistake and I rectified that when it was brought up.

       The post also includes a screenshot of a discussion with spacechase0, the author of “Magic” and other popular frameworks, mentioning that their mod assets were being redistributed. This was another case where I made a compatibility patch without permission, this one for a single event to fix a clipping issue in the wizard tower. As I mentioned, that was a mistake and I now ask for permission before making any such changes.

       With spacechase0's permission, here's a discussion where I apologized again for not asking for permission first and Spacechase0 reassured me that the whole ordeal was blown out of proportion. SVE has also been edited to make our mods permanently compatible without needing any changes to Magic.

Claim: SVE includes unexpected mature events

       Stardew Valley already covers mature topics such as Shane’s depression and suicide attempt. My intention was to add to the mature topics already covered in the game in a respectful way.

       However I received mixed feedback on the mature events when they were enabled by default. Some players enjoyed them and some didn’t. Because of the mixed feedback, a couple were permanently disabled eight months ago (and can only be viewed by manually editing the mod code), and the rest must be enabled in the mod configuration now.

Accusations against moderation teams

       The post specifically calls out the moderators of the Stardew Valley Discord and of Nexus Mods for not intervening. The moderators have not been ignoring the conflict; they've been very engaged since the incidents started and have continued to be involved since then. The Discord and Nexus moderators have talked to both the individual and me multiple times. At several points they tried to mediate to find a peaceful resolution, which I've always been open to, but the individual has consistently declined.

       The post mentioned that I was allowed back on the SDV Discord, but I was never banned. I simply took a hiatus because I no longer felt welcome due to this conflict. I later rejoined the Discord to help provide user support for Stardew Valley Expanded and make it easier for players to contact me.

Compatibility with other mods

       The post also discusses how SVE takes over NPCs, maps, dialogue, events, and sprites, making it difficult for other mod authors to make their modded content compatible.

       To some extent that's unavoidable since Stardew Valley Expanded is a major game expansion by design. However, I'm happy to work with other modders to provide compatibility patches or help avoid mod conflicts. I am only one person and it’s impossible to be aware of hundreds of mods that might have issues, so mod authors are welcome to contact me directly to discuss as needed. I am working hard to ensure players can tailor their game experience with many different mods.

Conclusion

       Anyone can mod Stardew Valley. The modding community is generally very friendly, ConcernedApe is very supportive of the modding community, and Stardew Valley is my all-time favorite game. My intention is not to piggyback and profit off the game, but to have fun and expand on something that I hold dear. The money I earn is from people who believe in my ability and appreciate my personal fanfiction. I'm humbled and honored that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy what I've created. Just because SVE is popular doesn’t mean that I’m riding on the success of CA’s game. I work on SVE each and every day. This whole experience has changed my life and has allowed my skills to blossom, and I hope to work on my own game one day.