The Passionate Journey of Stardew Valley’s Creator: A Deep Dive into Panicked Chocolatier’s Development

Stardew Valley’s creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone has an early Christmas surprise for fans excitedly anticipating his next game: a blog post that outlines exactly what is happening with Haunted Chocolatier. In summary, the game hasn’t been discontinued, and significant progress has already been made, but much more work is necessary before it can be officially released.

“Even though Haunted Chocolatier has only been minimally shared with the public,” Barone states in the blog entry, “in my own personal realm, it’s a unique place, and I’m very fond of the characters, themes, and concepts. Also, I’ve accomplished a considerable amount of work on the game. Before I took this break for Stardew 1.6, I had developed a ‘vertical slice’ of Haunted Chocolatier, which is essentially a framework of the game with most (but not all) of its components in place.”

Barone mentions that his “next step will be to refine the existing components until I’m satisfied with them, integrate all the additional elements, and then enrich it with all the necessary content for the game. Yes, it’s still going to require a lot of work, but that’s fine, I’m quite passionate about the grind.” He also emphasizes that he is developing Haunted Chocolatier in the same manner he created Stardew Valley, programming the game in C# and handling the entire production single-handedly.

“I understand that many are eager to experience Haunted Chocolatier, and they may feel disheartened to learn that it will still take some time, or that I took a break to work on Stardew Valley. I get it. I will be very pleased when the day arrives that I can finally launch Haunted Chocolatier.” Unlike Stardew, this new game does not offer early access, crowdfunding, or pre-orders, which means Barone does not “feel a lot of external pressure” to release Haunted Chocolatier within any specific timeframe except his own.

“The primary source of external pressure is the fact that I announced the game relatively early (I had my reasons for this), which created excitement, implying that if I take a long time, people might become upset,” Barone explains. “And that is a genuine pressure for me. However, ultimately, I will not release a game unless it is complete and I am thoroughly satisfied with it, and I believe that’s what most would prefer anyway.”

Barone also mentions that his “preferred strategy is to retreat and work in solitude, emerging only when I have something complete and worthy, rather than sharing numerous elements that are unfinished and therefore not aligned with the final vision.” However, he hints that more blog updates like these will provide additional insights into the progress of Haunted Chocolatier in the future. “Regardless of dev blog timing, understand that the game will eventually be finished and will be released.”

Barone recently discussed that Haunted Chocolatier is not merely a ‘copy and paste’ of his renowned farming simulation: ‘They haven’t experienced the game, so they don’t truly understand.’