Last year, Stardew Valley received a massive free update because its creator, Eric Barone, didn’t want to stop improving the beloved cozy farming game even eight years after it had launched. But now, he sounds committed to moving on from Stardew Valley for a few years while he finishes up his previously announced next game, Haunted Chocolatier.
In a new interview with PC Gamer, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone (known online as ConcernedApe) explained that he really does “love” his hit indie game and wants all of its fans to “have a great experience.” So he’s always “concerned” about Stardew Valley and wants to make sure “it’s doing well.” However, he concedes that this has pulled him away from Haunted Chocolatier, a game he started development on in 2020 and announced formally in October 2021.
“I think at some point I’m going to have to completely cut off everything else,” Barone told PC Gamer. “Honestly, I’ve thought about, maybe I should just go into a cabin in the woods and completely get off the internet, and just say, ‘Okay guys, I’ll see you in two years. You won’t hear from me at all and I’m going to finish this game.’”
And while he might not actually go live in a cabin in the woods for a few years, he did make it clear that Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update is “pretty settled at this point” and most bugs have been squashed or fixed.
“I’m committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I’m done with Haunted Chocolatier…I think it’s in a good place. I feel very solid about it,” said Barone. “I think if anyone picks up Stardew Valley for the first time in 2025, I’m very proud of it, and I think they’ll have fun with it if they like this kind of game.”
As for Haunted Chocolatier, Barone says that after working on the game on and off for nearly five years, he’s had to go back and completely “redo” parts of it.
“And it’s not it’s not like it’s even bad, it’s just—part of the problem of being, like especially a solo dev, is it takes so long to make a game. I’m literally a different person in four years, so it’s like my whole feelings about everything have changed—my aesthetic sensibilities have evolved,” said Barone.
While people wait for Haunted Chocolatier, they can play Stardew Valley on basically every platform under the sun, including consoles, mobile devices, and PC.
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