maggplays

[maggplays]

I made a little mod today, adding frogs to the lillypads in the lakes and rivers.

[maggplays]

This Immersive Sebastian v4 update has been so cursed, my apologies for all the bug fixes. I'll have a new version up tonight to fix Sam and Maru's birthday events.

In the meantime, have three variations of Seb eating a tortilla.

[maggplays]

I have barely begun my playthroguh with Sebastian v4 but I utterly adore it so far (the introduction scene with the artwork is so cool, I loved that addition! It caused me to laugh at how poor Robin just witnessed it lol) I cannot wait to see more of it.

Thank you!! I like to think seeing Sebby's reaction to farmer got Robin's wheels turning and she's already planning all the farm expansion projects to come ;D

[maggplays]

I just wanted to say holy moly Sebby v4 is amazing. I've played through V3 and I loved it, but I waited for V4 to use it again in my first SVE playthrough. I'm now in Fall of Year 1, and I just want to mention what a delight it has been to be surprised when Victor has input in the cutescenes! Especially since he's part of the friend group, I was worried that he would be left out and separate considering Immersive Seb is standalone but BOOM! You thought to integrate him. That alone really shows your attention to detail and how much work you put into the mod and update. (I also want to inquire about your HC for Seb's tattoos, I caught a peak of a sleeve in the lollipop splash art)

Thank you!! I always play with SVE so I wanted to integrate Victor more. I haven't decided yet, but I might do a dialogue expansion for him in the future.

Sebastian's tattoo is an ouroboros, so the symbol of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. So other than just looking cool, it symbolizes his death to the past and rebirth into a new worldview and future. Also, the snake symbolizes transformation and renewal in ancient Egypt since it sheds its skin. So it's a representation of new life, goals, and generally moving forward.

The tattoo was a last-minute addition, so I haven't fully integrated it yet, but I plan to add some dialogue and maybe an event around it.

[maggplays]

OC Killian Update: Portraits

I have Killian's seasonal portraits and sprites designed and done for at least the basic poses, I might do festival ones if I have ideas for them.

[maggplays]

I finally downloaded your immersive Sebastian mod and I'm obsessed with it already. I'm only on day 6 of spring year 1 and it's quite literally my favorite mod I've ever downloaded. Also the emo Sebastian portrait and sprite mod, chef's kiss. No notes. Absolutely obsessed with the snakebites. It's clear that you put a lot of thought into everything about this mod. It makes me really happy to see someone to see something like this come to life. I'm sure it was a lot of hard work but from what I can see it was well worth it. You are incredibly talented.

Thank you!! I'm so glad you're enjoying it! <3

[maggplays]

https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/20499

I found this Sebastian portrait and screamed a scream i will forever be ashamed of 🫣. And there were other users in the post section who made seasonal portraits and sprites in the slightly cuter aesthetic with this version. His stardew valley fair and winter outfit? Have you seen it? I'm on my knees.

I have seen the long-hair Sebastian, it's really good especially if you have something along the lines of Asian or tribal ancestry head canon for his father.

My personal head canon is that his father was Shoshone (or similar in Stardew land), which is where he got his high cheekbones and dark hair from, so long hair certainly makes sense for that! I even added a long hair variant in my sprite mod for him XD

(No false offense from anyone out there please, I have family members who are tribal members so I know what I'm talking about)

[maggplays]

Splash art in game??

Art in games, who knew it was so polarizing!! Do you love splash art or is it just a waste of space? I'm back to working on Killian and Lance so here's a poll!

[maggplays]

From the new introduction event for Immersive Sebastian v4, I love grunge and we're going all in on grunge with artwork <3

[maggplays]

So I just wanted to say, I really really like your writing kinda regretted playing with the friendship version of your mods because I enjoyed them so much that they made me fall in love with the characters again when I wasn't even planning on romancing them! Super excited and patiently waiting for your Lance expansion.

Thanks!! Now that the Sebastian update is out, I’ll be diving in to Lance and Killian (after a break to play games for a few days, haha!)

[maggplays]

Just want to say thank you for the work you put in to the Seb expansion. I've already started playing and I'm really excited about this. I just wanted you to know I appreciate it. I won't play this game without it anymore.

Thank you!! I always way more into these updates than I originally intend :D

[maggplays]

Immersive Sebastian v4 is LIVE!

I am incredibly nervous about this version, it's very close to my heart and I hope you love it!

[maggplays]

Awww thank you!! Such a great beginning! The interactions are wonderful, and each sister has a unique personality <3 <3 <3 So worth a read!

@stardewfanficwritersguild

Harvest Home Farm: Prelude

I would like to start off by giving a big THANK YOU to Maggplays, as her mods inspired me to write again. This will be a multi-part story. This story came to me as I was playing Maggs Immersive Sebastian mod. Please, please, please go check her and her mods out. https://www.tumblr.com/maggplays

“I can’t do this anymore…” Lily muttered as she sagged back into her chair. She looked around her small cubicle and sighed. What was she doing? Her sisters had already quit their jobs. Well, more like Lyleen had quit and dragged Leilani out with her. Not that Lily could blame her; she would have done the same had she been there. She thought about their lives as she left work and took the bus home. Lily was a low-level employee at Joja Corp., idling away her life staring at a screen and filing paperwork eight hours a day. Lyleen and Leilani had worked at the cafe across the street. Lyleen had been a barista, while Leilani had worked as both a janitor and a stocker. 

“I’m home!” Lily sang as she entered the small apartment she shared with her sisters. She hung her key by the mirror and fixed her blonde curls.

“In here,” Lyleen called. Lily turned the corner into their living room and spotted them on the small couch, reading a letter.

“Did Mom send another, not-so-gentle plea for us to come home?”

Leilani bit her lip before turning her gaze to her sister. “No… We’re reading Grandpa’s letter.”

“Wha!? Pop Pop has been gone for around twenty years.”

Lyleen rolled her eyes before gesturing for Lily to take the letter. “No, genius. He didn’t send it from beyond the grave. This was in the envelope he gave to us the last time we visited him.”

“Oh…” Lily cringed at herself before taking the letter and reading it over. Her jaw dropped as her eyes bulged.

“Since the whole… no. Even before the fiasco at the cafe, Lyleen and I have been feeling discontented, and we know you do too. Lyleen remembered what Grandpa told us when we were little, and we dug this out of the lockbox.” Leilani stopped fidgeting with her ginger pigtails and handed over another sheet of paper. “This is the deed, looks legit.” Lily took the document and read it over. Leilani was right, it was real.

“Pop Pop left us his farm!?”

Lyleen rolled her eyes as she stood. “Get with the program, Lil’. Yes, Grandpa left us his property. Said we should follow in his footsteps if we found ourselves in this position.”

“Oh! This is so great! I was just at work, racking my brain on what to do; I was even considering giving in to Mom’s pleas. When are we moving!?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said we’re moving? We haven’t discussed anything yet.”

“But Leilani said you two read the letter because we’re all unhappy here. We pretty much hate our lives. Why not start over? This is perfect!” 

“Lily, what do any of us know about farming? I’m pretty sure the closest we came was growing a flower back in first grade.”

“It grew, didn’t it?”

“Lily…” Lyleen groaned into her hands. Leilani stood and took the letter back. She read it over again before speaking. “I think… I think we should give it a shot.”

“Not you too!”

“Ha! Two against one, we win!” Lily stuck out her tongue at a grimacing Lyleen. Leilani giggled before handing the letter back. “Since you’re so excited, why don’t you see if this number still works and call Lewis? Grandpa seemed sure that he would help.” 

“On it!” Lily then dashed around the corner to her bedroom.

“We are going to crash and burn…” Lyleen sighed as she fell onto the couch and covered her face with a cushion. Leilani petted her head. “You don’t know that. Sure, we don’t know what we’re doing… but neither did grandpa. And besides, wouldn’t you like to take care of some farm animals? You always get so excited when you see a cow.”

“Do not! I’d have to feed them or whatever. Don’t wanna take care of some dumb animals.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am not!”

“Your cheeks say otherwise.”

Lyleen felt her face… yep. She was blushing. “It’s so stupid! Why couldn’t you or Lily get this quirk?”

“Because then you could tell when we were lying.”

“Exactly!”

Leilani giggled before heading to her room.

~~~~~

“Longest… bus ride…  ever…” Lily groaned before stretching. Leilani looked up from her game. “Has it been that long?” 

“About two and a half hours or so,” Lyleen answered as she ran a hand through her chestnut locks. Lily sighed before eyeing the spare earbud hanging from Lyleen’s cord. “Lyleen~”

“No.”

“Wha!? I just said your name!”

“I know that tone. You can’t listen to music with me.”

“But you’re only using one bud!”

“And if I let you use it, you’ll complain about every song and annoy me into changing the album.”

“Name one time I’ve done that.”

“Every day during the first week of taking the bus to work. You’d get bored and beg to listen to music with me, and then you would complain until I changed it.”

“Name another time!” Lily said unabashedly. Lyleen groaned before sticking the spare earbud in her other ear.

“Rude!” Lily whined as Lyleen continued to ignore her. She then turned her attention to her other sister. “Leilani~” 

“It’s a one-player game.”

“Oh, c’mon!”

“We told you to bring something to do.”

“I didn’t think the ride would be so boring.” She sulked. Leilani sighed before leaning around so that Lily could watch her play. “I’m about to take on a dungeon, would you like to watch?”

“Yes, please!”

~~~~~

“These bags are so heavy!” Lily complained as she tried to drag her luggage off the bus. Leilani sighed and rearranged her luggage before reaching over, grabbing one of Lily’s heftier bags, and throwing it over her shoulder. 

“My savior~” Lily praised as Leilani giggled. Lyleen rolled her eyes and walked off the bus, her sisters in tow.

“Hello! You must be the triplets, Lily, Lyleen, and Leilani.” A woman with hair similar to Leilani called as she spotted them. “I’m Robin, the local Carpenter. Mayor Lewis sent me here to fetch you and show you the way to your new home. He’s there right now, tidying things up for your arrival.” Leilani shuffled behind her sisters, trying not to be seen. 

Lily took the initiative and shook Robin’s hand. “Hi! Yes, that’s us! We’re so happy and excited to be here.” Lyleen snorted behind her. Lily shot her a look before continuing. “I’m Lily, this is grumpy- I mean, Lyleen. And Leilani is the one making no noise and pretending she doesn’t exist.” 

Robin laughed as Lily suffered kicks to the back of her shins from her sisters. As her giggles subsided, Robin gestured for them to follow. “You three must be tired from the trip. The farm is right over here, if you’ll follow me.”

~~~~~

“This is Harvest Home Farm!” Robin said enthusiastically as she gestured to the land before them. The three girls had similar reactions to the state of the place. Lyleen put her face in her hands, Leilani grimaced, and Lily practically jumped. The whole plot of land was overgrown; you could barely see anything past the debris. 

Robin noticed and gave a curious look. “What’s the matter? Sure, it's a bit overgrown, but there’s some good soil underneath that mess! With a little dedication, you’ll have it cleaned up in no time.” 

Lily swallowed the lump in her throat before giving an awkward chuckle. “Heheh… yeah.” 

Robin then led them up to the small, rundown cottage. “And here we are, your new home.” As soon as she finished, an older man walked out and greeted them. “Ah, the new farmers! Welcome! I’m Lewis, Mayor of Pelican Town.” Leilani once again shuffled behind her sisters. Robin seemed to take notice and gave her a comforting smile. Lily once again took charge and introduced herself and her sisters. 

Lewis came down the stairs to shake their hands. “You know, everyone’s been asking about you three. It’s not every day someone new moves in. It’s quite a big deal!” Lily seemed to bounce with excitement over the news, Lyleen was indifferent, while Leilani seemed to cringe. Lewis seemed not to have noticed. “A… good friend of mine graciously offered to help get you three started. The old coop over there is now set up with two baby chicks, and I’ve also gone ahead and gifted some hay to help keep them fed for a little while.” Lyleen finally perked up and looked over to the coop; it seemed the chicks were still inside, however. Lewis then turned to the house and sighed. “So… you’re moving into your grandfather’s old cottage. It’s a good house, very rustic.” 

“Rustic? That’s one way to put it…” Robin mused as they all looked over the… admittedly rather old building. “Crusty might be a little more apt, though.” She giggled as Lewis told her off for being rude.

“Don’t listen to her, girls. She’s just trying to make you dissatisfied so that you buy one of her house upgrades.” Robin scoffed and crossed her arms. “Hmmph.”

“Anyway, you must be tired from the long journey. You three should get some rest. Tomorrow, you ought to explore the town a bit and introduce yourselves. The townspeople would appreciate that.”

“We’ll be sure to do just that! Thank you, Lewis, and you too, Robin!” Lily said as she saw them off. Lyleen was back in a foul mood when Lily returned. “I told you this was doomed.”

“Oh, c’mon, we expected the land to be a little run down.”

“The keyword there is ‘little.’ This place is a giant dump!”

“C’mon, lighten up! Why don’t you go tend to the chicks while Leilani and I get our rooms set up?”

“Grr… fine. But don’t come crying to me when we fail and end up having to crawl back to our parents.” She grumbled as she stomped towards the coop.

“Whew… now that grumpy pants is out of our hair, let's get set up!” Lily then dashed inside the house, leaving Leilani to stand dumbfounded before sighing and grabbing all of the luggage her sisters had left behind.

[maggplays]

I think you inspired more people and left a bigger dent in the Stardew Modding community than you think, maggs :) I'm actually seeing a lot of mods with a configurable "sweet/spicy rating" and a lot of configurations I think people just didn't think about until you did them :D And as someone who has been following you around since around a month after your first release of the expanded sebastian mod, I find it so endearing. It's so sweet :D

AND IM SO EXCITED TO SEE YOUR ART IN THE MODS YOU HAVE SUCH A UNIQUE STYLE THAT BLENDS TRADITONAL AND DIGITAL SO WELL I LOVE IT I LOVE IT MMMWAH MWAH MWAH MWAH

Thank you!! The splash art is fun to make! This version will have a new dependency for a framework that just dropped a few weeks ago, so they will soon be getting a ton of downloads! It allows Seb’s proposal event to change your status to engaged without needing a pendant <3

[maggplays]

Immersive Sebastian v4: Update!

Immersive Seb is on track for release THIS WEEKEND, yay!!! I'll be so glad to get this one out, it sort of grew out of control. This version includes splash art by yours truly, and I'm a little (a lot) nervous about putting it out there, but hopefully you all will like it! I don't want to spoil it, so the title splash I posted earlier is an example of my style. The special art will be in a small handful of choice events. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with sprites. :D

And for you Nyapu sprite lovers, the lovely artist of that mod has created patches for all my immersive mods, they will be added to my Seasonal Sprite mod patch!

[maggplays]

hellooo! i love your work and i really do love like legit everything. The dynamics between Sam and the Farmer is sooo cute! I finished a 3 yr play through and I was wondering about the progress of Lance and Kilian? I'm really looking forward to them and I was wondering if you could possibly give a vague description of what to expect (i.e, dynamics, drama, etc) and their completion rate (i.e, 60% 80%, and so).

Thank you for all of your hard work!

Hmmm let's see... For Lance and Killian, Lance is an expansion of the SVE Lance, expanding on his existing story and character. He will have much more integration with the rest of the world, but is keeping his established personality and schedule. His mod will be similar to my current mods, with an overall character growth story and a lot of new events. Currently, I don't have his full arc mapped out, I'm editing and expanding the current events and dialogue first.

For Killian, his mod will require SVE to be installed, since he is integrated into the SVE magic system. He and Lance grew up together, so are like brothers. Killian trained under Magnus, so there will be an expansion of Magnus' character included in this mod. Killian has an eccentric, impulsive personality, he's somewhere in the chaotic good to chaotic neutral area. His story is more of an adventure since he has no existing story in the game. (I can do what I want, haha!). The story expands the magic world lore and system based on SVE and RRRR. He is an "Alchemist for Hire" and heavily involved in magic experimentation and investigation, focusing on Void magic. The story will have some very dark events, but is balanced by a lot of humor. I cannot write anything without shenanigans! So Killian will have the feels, there's a lot of emotion and description of senses in his story (sight, touch, that sort of thing).

There will be friendship versions of both mods, so similar to my current mods, you can run the one that works for your save. There will be restrictions on poly since the story does not work well for that, especially for Killian.

Right now, I have Killian's story arc mapped out and all the major events written along with some dialogue. His home base map is also completed, it's a full new area. There is a lot to creating an OC, every single asset must be made - maps, interior decor, exterior decor, all character sprites, etc. and I'm adding quite a bit for the magic aspect like new forageables, potion recipes, and furniture. So this is a major undertaking and I have no idea when it will be done. I'm hoping by the end of the year, but really don't have a better estimate yet.

Once the Sebastian v4 update drops the end of this week, I'll be back to Killian and Lance and start posting updates for them. <3

[maggplays]

Hi, firstly, I am LOVING this mod and thank you so much for working on it! Weird question, though. If you get to the cutscenes where Seb proposes the relationship/engagement, does that mean you've already seen all of the cutscenes leading up to that? Or is possible for scenes that would come before that to still be triggered? I'm trying to play without having to use a guide for what the cutscenes are supposed to be and am not sure if I'm missing out by not following a roadmap. Thanks!!

Unfortunately in the current version, it doesn't mean you've gotten all the dating events. With the new update, I'm going to chain the events so this isn't an issue. The update should be coming out the end of this week!