For a long time I played Stardew Valley. I played all the way through the game, reached the bottom of the Skull Cavern, earned multiple candles for accomplishments, made friends of nearly everyone in the game, grew every crop, cooked recipes, sold honey and wool from my own animals. It was good.

Then I spent over a year modding the game, adding characters, locations, recipes, crops, animals. I learned how to edit text files to alter the game, how to decipher error alerts, and how to get mods work together. I chose not to learn how to edit maps; that would require a separate program to change backgrounds, buildings, and obstacles. There are mods that allow for editing a map while playing the game; those I learned how to use. I could therefore make small changes as needed. I did not write my own mods; there are hundreds already available, written by fans of the game.

It was a fascinating time. There are several sites online where you can gather mods; a lot of people have put time and effort into adding their pet projects into Stardew Valley. Some are entire towns built by collaborators who may never have met except online. Some are famous characters from other games and videos. Hatsune Miku, an animated singer, and Aang, the avatar from Avatar: the Last Airbender, are two characters people have modded in.

Initially I wanted to add all the crops and products, with additional lands to grow them. I soon found more added land than I could manage. There are less than four dozen fairly standard crops in the base game. Modded crops, though, include everything from carrots on up to trees that grant wishes. There’s lots of food normally grown around the world, a variety of fantasy crops, and some truly odd things, like coal trees and plants that produce steak. Mods add dozens of animals to raise and hundreds of fish to catch.

I enjoyed finding new mods. I liked adding new characters, crops, houses, farms, mines, and caves; I puzzled over getting them all to work together. I tried to fit as many in as possible and still have the game work. Eventually it overwhelmed me. My computer couldn’t handle hundreds of crops AND 150 new people with their own homes and dialogue. I had to choose.

Turns out there’s more to do than can ever be done, even in a fantasy world.