I'm talking about the games that take the seed of the farming game idea and expand on it. Many of these games have a lot to offer beyond their shared genesis, and although some are just straight-up ripoffs, like Warm Village on Steam, I'm not talking about them, because they're bad and boring.
Now, I don't mean to be disparaging by calling these games "Harvest Moon-likes" (or, as Rock Paper Shotgun calls them, " Stardewbuts" - Stardewbut on the moon, Stardewbut it's about cats). Why not attempt to perfect a genre that you love more than anything? Why not make an entry into the oeuvre that adds everything you've ever wanted to see in a farming simulator? There are many reasons that a developer might want to put their stake in the farming game genre - it's a cult favourite, after all, and you might be surprised to hear that many developers actually enjoy playing games themselves. Of course, that's a pretty cynical way of looking at it, even if it is true. Stardew Valley made, at a conservative estimate, a buttload of money for its sole developer Eric Barone. That's enough money to buy an actual farm. Who can blame other developers and studios for wanting to get in on that giant cash mountain? For many of these developers, that gamble is already paying off, in the example of Coral Island wrapping up their Kickstarter with $1.6 million raised. Stardew Valley made, at a conservative estimate, a buttload of money for its sole developer Eric Barone, AKA ConcernedApe. It's not hard to understand one of the driving purposes behind this bumper crop of farming games.