Last week, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe on Twitter) finally launched the 1.6 Update for the hit farming sim. The update has been in the works for some time now, so many fans were very excited to finally get their hands on it. However, some fans are more interested in Barone’s next project, Haunted Chocolatier. That game will mix elements from Stardew Valley with a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-like theme. With 1.6 finally available, fans waiting for Haunted Chocolatier were hoping to hear more about the game relatively soon. However, Barone quickly made it clear over the weekend that it’s going to take at least a little bit of time before work continues on Haunted Chocolatier.
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Work on Haunted Chocolatier Won’t Start Until Stardew Valley 1.6 is “Bug-Free”
The Haunted Chocolatier news comes directly from Barone on Twitter. There, he was asked if he had any update on the game from a fan. Barone responded, “I am eager to get back to work on it. But I have to see Stardew 1.6 settled, bug-free, and out to all platforms first.”
That’s a respectable position for a developer to take. If you’re someone who loves Stardew Valley, you’ll be glad to see that Barone remains committed to keeping that game in tip-top shape even if many fans are excited to see what’s next. And with all of the new content that came with 1.6, Barone will likely have quite a bit of work on his hands. After all, he’s already released two more patches following the original drop, showing that he’s working quickly to get to the more important bugs. Remember, more than 30 million players have picked up Stardew. Keeping that fanbase happy is almost as important for Barone’s future games as anything else.
For Haunted Chocolatier‘s part, Barone did show off some new images late last year to celebrate hitting 1 million followers on Twitter. However, the game still doesn’t have a release date, and the last update on the official blog came in 2021. It’s clear that we’re probably still a year or more away from Haunted Chocolatier becoming a reality, but the hope is that work starts to progress a bit more quickly once Stardew 1.6 is fully out the door and in a place where Barone is happy.
What is Haunted Chocolatier?
As mentioned, Haunted Chocolatier is going to share some elements of Stardew Valley. Barone bills it as “an RPG/simulation game.” As of the last major update, Barone is working on the game on his own but has said that he’ll add a few people to help with things like console ports and localization.
Barone describes Haunted Chocolatier as a game where “you will play as a chocolatier living in a haunted castle. In order to thrive in your new role, you will have to gather rare ingredients, make delicious chocolates, and sell them in a chocolate shop.” That sounds very much like Stardew with a new theme, but Barons says ย Chocolatier will be more of an action-RPG when it launches.
