True story: bought Stardew Valley in 2017 and finally started playing this past weekend. Why did I wait almost 8 years before planting my first parsley?" to be honest, I was afraid it would be too much of a time-slip. Judging by the 12 hours I've played in the last three days on my Steam deck, I was right.

In short, this bit of news is particularly pertinent to me, but also to other Stardew players, Steam deck owners, and mod likers: Nexus Mods has begun alpha testing a new app.

"We are pleased to announce the alpha release of the Nexus Mods app (our next generation mod manager)," announced Senior Community Manager Pickysaurus. While the app has limited functionality and is an early build supporting only "Stardew Valley" (more games will be released at a later date), it is a great opportunity for pioneers like you to help shape the future of this app.

Not only that, but the alpha version of the app will be available for both Windows and Linux, and Stardew players will be able to test it on the Steam Deck. So far I'm liking "Dew," but I'm willing to try a few things, including a mod that slows down time in the mine a bit, so I don't have to google a bunch of guides on how to get mods to work on Steam Deck. See, that's why I didn't want to start with it. I'm going to get sucked into the treasure trove of Stardew Valley mods.

The app has been in development for a while now and will eventually take over the site's current mod manager, Vortex, which has been around since 2018. The new app will not replace Vortex 100%, but "eventually the app will become the primary mod manager and Vortex will no longer be officially updated," Pickysaurus said in response to user comments, noting that "we are a long way from that. He noted that "we are.

As for what the alpha version of the Nexus Mods app can do:

The latest build of the Nexus Mods app can be downloaded here or from Github. To test the alpha version, it is recommended, but not required, that you have a free Nexus Mods account.