Haunted Chocolatier, Stardew Valley Creator’s Next Game, is “Still Gonna be a While”

Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has written himself into the annals of gaming history, having developed Stardew Valley, and while the beloved farming sim seems to be showing no signs of slowing down where its sales are concerned, the developer has shifted his attention to his next project. Last year, he announced Haunted Chocolatier, a game that will see you play the role of a chocolatier who finds themselves living in a haunted castle, but with updates having dried up since, many are wondering how long it’ll be before the game releases.

As you may have expected, it’s not going to be anytime soon. Speaking in an interview with Screen Rant, Barone revealed that he’s been working on Haunted Chocolatier for nearly two years at this point, and added that judging by the fact that he worked on Stardew Valley for four and a half years, his second project is still going to be in development for a while before it’s ready to launch.

“It’s going well, but it’s a big game,” he said when asked about how the game’s development was proceeding. “I have a big, ambitious vision for it. It’s a little bit daunting, the amount of work that it’s going to be. But Stardew Valley took me four and a half years; I’ve been working on Haunted Chocolatier for about a year and a half or maybe two years now. I announced it a little bit over a year ago, but it’s still gonna be a while. But I think it’s going good. So far. There’s a lot of good things so far.”

Barone also went on to add that like Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier will likely be receiving consistent substantial updates even after launch. That said, that isn’t something that’s set in stone just yet, and may or may not happen depending on certain factors- like whether or not the game has a playerbase that’s large enough to justify that.

“I think that’s very likely,” he said when asked if Haunted Chocolatier would follow a similar post-launch plan to Stardew Valley. “It kind of depends on how the rest of the development goes, and where the game is at when I launch it. It depends somewhat on the players’ reaction to the game. If no one plays, then maybe I’ll move on to something else. But if people are really excited about the game, that gives me the energy and the inspiration to keep making updates for it. That’s why I’m still attached to Stardew Valley, because there’s so many people who play it still.”

Haunted Chocolatier is in development for PC. Versions for other platforms haven’t yet been announced.