Stardew Valley Creator Shares New Update on Haunted Chocolatier (& Why It’s Taking So Long)

It’s been almost five years since Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, aka Concerned Ape, first announced his next game. Since then, updates about Haunted Chocolatier have been few and far between. Given just how beloved Stardew Valley remains to this day, many fans are eagerly waiting for Barone’s next game. But that wait has been a long one, and it’s not likely to end any time soon. Still, the hype is real, and it amps back up every time Barone shares any new info. And today, we got another quick update from the Stardew Valley creator.

Before you get too excited, let me rip off this band-aid: we don’t have any new Haunted Chocolatier screenshots this time around. In fact, Concerned Ape even took the time to explain why he doesn’t like sharing too many screenshots from a work in progress like Haunted Chocolatier. But even without new images to look at, this new post reaffirms that things are moving along with the highly anticipated cozy game. It also digs a bit into why development is taking so long (and it’s not because of Stardew Valley 1.7).

Concerned Ape Shares New Details About Haunted Chocolatier‘s Recipe Book

The latest post on the Haunted Chocolatier blog is titled “Still here, still grinding…” As that title suggests, it mostly just reaffirms that Concerned Ape is, in fact, still working on the game. He also talks a bit about the process, specifically what he’s been spending the most time on lately. According to Barone, the game is taking so long because he is “being very thoughtful about every aspect of the game,” trying to ensure that the core features are “seamless, clear, intuitive, satisfying, aesthetic.”

A key element for the game will be its chocolate-making recipe book. Barone shared that this aspect of the game has already seen many iterations, since it is a core UI for Haunted Chocolatier. I’m the type of cozy gamer who devotes way too much time to unlocking every recipe, so I can definitely understand why Barone wants to put a perfect polish on this element. He says he wants the final version of the Haunted Chocolatier recipe book UI to “delight the player.” And that means he keeps making adjustments to this core feature to make it both intuitive and appealing for players. Barone has shared screenshots of the recipe book before, but it sounds like the final product will look quite a bit different from these early previews.

Concerned Ape has previously shared that Haunted Chocolatier will be a much bigger game than Stardew was at launch. And that means there are “many things for [him] to fuss over.” But ultimately, he wants to make a game that he, and the many eagerly waiting fans, are satisfied with. To that end, he doesn’t want to show off too many screenshots because so much about the game could change before release. Sharing what’s in progress could risk setting expectations that won’t be delivered with the final progress. While I’m disappointed not to get a new look at the recipe book after so much discussion, I can certainly understand this perspective.

At any rate, it sounds like Barone is very much still hard at work on Haunted Chocolatier. We still have not even a whisper of a release date for the slightly spooky cozy game, or for the next major Stardew Valley update, for that matter. But given just how enduring Stardew has been, there’s no doubt that players will be ready and waiting to play Haunted Chocolatier whenever it does come out. I know I will be.

What do you think about this latest update on Haunted Chocolatier? Is this game still on your radar? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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