Haunted Chocolatier Update Has Both Good and Bad News for Stardew Valley Fans

Eric Barone, the solo developer behind Stardew Valley, has shared a new update about his new and upcoming game, Haunted Chocolatier. Within this update is both good news and bad news for those anticipating the title. According to Barone, the game has been in development for roughly two years. For most games, this would mean it’s maybe a year or two away from releasing. However, Stardew Valley took Barone four-and-a-half years to make, and it sounds like Haunted Chocolatier will take longer because according to Barone, it’s “a big game” with a “big, ambitious vision.” The words “big” and “ambitious” are music to the ears of every Stardew Valley fan, but it’s going to come at a cost. According to Barone, the game is still quite far off from release.

“It’s going well, but it’s a big game,” said Barone about the game’s development and the game itself while speaking to Screen Rant. “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.”

Adding to this, Barone confirmed that it’s “very likely” Haunted Chocolatier will have a post-launch plan that mimics Stardew Valley. That said, this is assuming there’s demand come the time.

“I think that’s very likely,” said Barone about this topic. “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 are so many people who play it still.”

Unfortunately, this is the extent of the update. There’s still no word of a release date or even a release window, nor is there any word of platforms beyond PC.