Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is famous for having put out one of the best indie games of this generation with his incredible farming life sim/RPG hybrid Stardew Valley, a game that continues to keep on growing with consistent updates. But for those wondering what’s next for Barone after Stardew Valley, he’s out up an update on the game’s site that explains exactly that.
Barone explains that he’s been working on a new game for a while now, and while he isn’t ready to share anything about it till its concept is “fully realized”, he does know that it will take place in the same universe as Stardew Valley.
“As many of you know, I’ve been working on a new game for a while,” Barone wrote. “I haven’t revealed anything about it, except that it takes place in the same universe as Stardew Valley. I’ve been deliberately secretive about it because I want to be able to work on it without any pressure for the time being. I also want to make sure the concept is fully realized before revealing anything, because once it’s out there, I’m going to have to fully commit to it. I’m a pretty cautious person when it comes to this sort of thing.”
He also says that though he’s considered moving on from Stardew Valley altogether, he admits that that’s something that won’t go down well with fans of the game, or with himself. To that end, he’ll be handing over responsibilities of future updates of the game to a team under him, while he works on his new title.
“For a while, I considered being finished with Stardew Valley altogether,” he wrote. “But that would make me (and many others) sad. So I’ve decided that I’m going to form a team to help me work on future Stardew Valley content. The update I’m working on right now (1.4) will be another solo update, but after that I hope to have a team in place that I can work closely with on future content.”
Recently, multiplayer features were added to the game’s Nintendo Switch version, with the PC version already having received them earlier this year. Other versions of the game should likely be getting a multiplayer update sooner rather than later.