Stardew Valley Creator's New Game May Be Coming Later Than…

Summary

Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone hopes to release Haunted Chocolatier by 2030.
The Stardew Valley creator isn't yet ready to commit to any concrete timeframe for his next project, which he says still requires a lot of work.
The development of the Stardew Valley 1.6 update previously halted progress on Haunted Chocolatier, which Barone is making completely on his own.

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone said he hopes to release his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, by 2030—though he still isn't ready to commit to any timeframe, no matter how long. His comment suggests that Haunted Chocolatier may launch significantly later than many fans might have expected.

Barone originally announced Haunted Chocolatier in October 2021, describing it as a chocolatier simulation game with action RPG elements and a fantasy setting filled with ghosts. The Los Angeles-born developer has provided multiple status updates on the game ever since, but without attempting to narrow down the timeframe for its release.

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Stardew Valley Dev Explains Why Haunted Chocolatier Development is Taking a While

Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley dev explains why development on the new game is taking time, and gives hints at future Stardew Valley updates.

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By Sarah Fields

During a recent interview with comedian and podcaster Bobby Lee, Barone was questioned about the current development status of Haunted Chocolatier. Asked if the game was coming out in the next five years, he thought about his answer for a second before offering a tentative "I hope so" in response. Elaborating on this notion, Barone explained that there's "a lot that still needs to be done" before the project nears completion.

Haunted Chocolatier Has Been in Development Since 2020

Although Haunted Chocolatier was announced in 2021, Barone later clarified that development began the previous year. In a blog post shared via the project's official website, the developer said he was "making good progress" on the game in December 2021. However, the development then halted after Barone started working on the Stardew Valley 1.6 update, which introduced a massive amount of content and technical changes to his hit farming sim in March 2024. Barone subsequently signaled that he had resumed working on Haunted Chocolatier by late 2024.

In December 2024, Barone said he still had "a lot of work" to do on Haunted Chocolatier—a sentiment that he has now reiterated to Lee half a year later. As was the case with Stardew Valley, the indie dev decided to do everything by himself, and won't employ outside help for Haunted Chocolatier before the game is "essentially complete." For reference, Barone only hired help for Stardew Valley starting from the 1.3 update, which launched in late 2018, two and a half years following the farming sim's original release.

I don’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy.

Over the years, Barone has repeatedly said he'll never close the book on his first game, insisting that he could keep working on Stardew Valley forever. He reiterated this sentiment during his recent interview with Lee, while also emphasizing that Haunted Chocolatier and other projects remain key parts of his future plans. “I don’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,” he explained. In addition to Haunted Chocolatier, Barone has also been collaborating on an unannounced title with an undisclosed developer, as he revealed to Game Informer in January 2022. The current status of this mysterious project remains unknown.

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