Since the developer seems to read these forums, I thought I'd put some feedback here. I love the game.

SPOILERS BELOW

Feature requests

I have heard of people losing their save files after their computer crashed while playing. The crashes weren't caused by the game. I think it would be good if the game kept backup save files. Perhaps with three simultaneous options: go back a day, go back a week, and go back a season. This helps to protect the player against game-breaking bugs that might otherwise be too late to recover from: something significant enough that the player would be willing to lose a week or a season's worth of progress.

Please change the colour of the clouds that pass over the farm. When they pass over tilled soil, the soil looks like it's been watered.

I only had two rainy days in my first spring: one near the start and one near the end of the season. I spent all my energy watering crops and didn't have a chance to go fishing or into the mines. Could you guarantee at least one rainy day a week so that the player can have some variety in their early-game activities? Perhaps gradually increase the chance of rain the longer it's been since the last rain, and guarantee a rain on the seventh day after the last rain? And if the guaranteed rain is pushed aside by a festival, then just make it rain the day after.

Bugs

It was the wedding day. I watched the ceremony and the day began. I watched the cooking show, fortune teller and weather report on TV. I went outside, did some stuff and then closed the game before the day ended. After I reloaded my save and watched through the ceremony again, I watched TV but the weather report was bugged. The second dialog box, which reports tomorrow's weather, was blank. Typing X or clicking closed the box only for it to appear again. The image on the TV also had a large square on the top-left corner of the screen. I closed the game in explorer and reloaded it to the same result. The third time, I went through the day without the weather report and the next day worked fine.

During the Stardew Valley Fair, I tried to leave the fair. The dialog popped up asking if I really wanted to leave. I changed my mind and wanted to stay, so I clicked to stay. The box closed and my character animation moved forward a frame and the dialog popped up again. This happened repeatedly. After about 5-10 clcks, I clicked to leave the fair and things proceeded normally.

Sometimes crops seem to disappear for no reason. The plants were definitely protected by a scarecrow. I have heard suggestions that it's due to lightning strikes. However, I have also heard of people losing items placed outdoors in their farm, such as rarecrows and entire chests. Sometimes those items are replaced by one-space stones. I have found suggestions to place cobblestone tiles beneath valuable objects, but have also heard of people losing items placed atop tiles. EDIT: I can now confirm that in the current GOG version, patch 1.05 from 10 March 2016, that items placed outside can sometimes be replaced by stones. A tile in my highway made of stone floors was replaced by a stone when the season changed. I reloaded a backup save and double-checked that the highway had been fully intact a couple of days before.

I had a copper watering can and watered my crops using the three-space feature. Sometimes I would use the one-space feature because I missed a spot or I planted out of pattern. One or two plants fell a day behind the other crops planted in the same batch. For example, one blueberry bush in the middle of a 5x5 field of blueberries planted on the same day would bear fruit a day after the others. Is this because when the watering can only has 2 charges remaining and I use the three-space feature, the third space looks watered but didn't actually receive any water?

I noticed this even with Iridium Sprinklers, in rare occasions, a single crop fell behind a day, even though the soil was watered by the sprinkler.

The same can happen in the Coop (happens less often in the Barn since it is larger) when several animals get stuck near the exit and you have to wait till they untangle themselves again. At that point I just restart the day.

Since you brought it up, I have yet to hear a really good reason to build a coop, or anything else animal related.

All the wikis talk about what a pain it is and the folks in here I talk too recommend I stick with just crops.

I'm on my first playthrough so I built everything just to see how it all works. Money-wise it is probably not worth it but some of the cooking ingredients don't seem to be obtainable any other way.

Yeah, I'm on my 1st playthrough...kind of. I keep making huge mistakes and starting over. :P

I'd love a coop because the girl I'm trying to marry is an egg freak but evidently they are a giant money pit, even if they produce.

I thought the coop was a giant pit as well. Buying hay at 50 a piece, and eggs selling for less than 50

What I found is, you need to talk to your chickens every day, not talking to them means no eggs. And a silo means you don't have to buy hay all the time. Now it's not such a money sink. You get eggs every day, and if you spend a bit of time making them into mayo you can make a good bit of money on it.

Can't automate it the same as with crops and sprinklers. You need to go feed the chickens, and pull hay out of the box to feed the chickens, but usually it's rather swift.
And getting stuck...wasn't that fixed, if you hold the direction 3 seconds you'll pass through NPCs, I'm sure I read that in one of the previous patchnotes.

Not everything in the game is about making as much money as possible. You have to think about what you want that money for. It's not as though money is hard to come by in this game.

Animals aren't as profitable as crops, but their products are useful in other ways. Cow milk can be turned into cheese, and normal cheese restores 125 energy and 50 HP, making cows a consistent source of an effective food item. Eggs are used in cooking. Eggs can be used to make fried eggs, a simple meal that isn't as effective as cheese, but chickens are cheaper and less effort than cows.

Getting stuck on chickens annoys me too. You can phase through people by walking into them, but for some reason the feature doesn't extend to animals. The animals try to get out of the way, but it's hopeless when there are other animals in their way in a crowd at the door.

I've liked having chickens for the winter months: They produce eggs every day for me to turn into mayonnaise, along with my prestocked fruits and hops to become preserves and ales. It gives me a little something extra to do in the mornings and leave to convert while I'm off foraging, fishing and mining.

They're not, if you have few animals and/or a part of your farm is wilderness.

I have 6 animals (2 chickens, 1 ducky, 1 goat, 1 cow, 1 bunny), and I never had to buy hay once. During spring/summer/fall, they eat grass in their courtyard (something around 8x8, I think?), and during winter or rainy days, they eat the hay I got from fighting encraching weeds around my fields.

Hell, I don't have enough animals : They don't keep the grass under control, and II often have to scyte around the animal yard ^^

So no money pit (although the initial investment is huge), unless you go too far. But they are a time sink, though, if you want them to be happy and productive (open/close barn door, pet them, get milk and eggs, make cheese and mayo, etc...). I'd say they need around 2 hours of my time every day.