Solo developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone says he’s “committed to not working on Stardew Valley” until he’s “done with Haunted Chocolatier”… but, other updates will probably still come after.
Pixelated farming sim Stardew Valley first debuted almost a decade ago, and has since gone from strength to strength. Last year, Barone released Stardew Valley’s bumper 1.6 update, which essentially boosted the game to an almost 2.0 status, introducing a vast number of features to the base game such as new NPC dialogues, home renovations and turtle pets.
In addition to Stardew Valley, Barone is also working on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, which he announced in 2021. In May of last year, Barone said he’s “not too concerned with the pressure” of releasing Haunted Chocolatier, stating “it’s better to have a delayed game that’s actually good than a bad game that’s on time”.
But, while he may not be concerned about the pressure, he of course still does want to get Haunted Chocolatier out there at some point. So, now that the dust is settling on Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update, he is shifting his focus over to his next release.
“I do love Stardew Valley and I care about the fans and I want the fans to have a great experience,” Barone told PC Gamer during GDC. “So I’m always concerned with Stardew Valley and making sure that it’s doing well, and that pulls me away from devoting all my time to Haunted Chocolatier.
“I think at some point I’m going to have to completely cut off everything else. 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’.”
The developer added he is currently “committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I’m done with Haunted Chocolatier”, stating that his farming sim is now in “a good place” for players old and new.
“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,” Barone said. He also noted that he doesn’t think he will ever be able to “completely cut off” Stardew Valley, except for maybe when he “[passes] away”. Then, we can say the “book is closed”. This echoes comments Barone has made before.
Continuing, Barone said he has been working on Haunted Chocolatier for “a few years”, and now “it’s like, I look at some of the stuff I did at the beginning and I’m like, ‘Oh man, here we go again. I’m gonna have to redo all of this'”.
This doesn’t mean Barone thinks what he has done is bad, by any means. It’s just that, “part of the problem of being, like especially a solo dev, is it takes so long to make a game”. Barone said he is “literally a different person in four years”, and so his opinions and feelings change.
“My aesthetic sensibilities have evolved,” he said. Later, he joked about adding a dentist to Haunted Chocolatier’s village, as well as healthy superfood chocs to savour. You can check out the full interview below.
In January of this year, Barone revealed that, as of December last year, Stardew Valley had sold in excess of 41m copies across platforms. Of those 41m, over half are on PC, with 26m copies sold. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch accounts for 7.9m Stardew Valley sales.
If you still fancy more Stardew Valley news, a new concert known as Symphony of Seasons was announced in November. The concert tour will be coming to the UK in 2026.
