Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone knows his fans are eager for his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, and that some of them are disappointed in the apparent lack of progress and news on that front. He's sorry about that, but in a new update says he's been obligated to keep his focus on Stardew Valley—and while Haunted Chocolatier is still a long way off, he promises it's going to happen.
Stardew Valley's 1.6 update was originally meant to be mainly a technical update, but Barone said it "kind of snowballed" once he started adding new content. He's stuck with it since the release of the update on PC in March, saying he's "been heavily involved with bug fixing, porting, and more," all of which have kept him from Haunted Chocolatier.
"It’s been a little sad to see Haunted Chocolatier getting dusty on the shelf," Barone wrote, "but this is the reality of my situation. Stardew Valley is a big and popular game, and I have a lot of attachment to it. I also feel a strong sense of duty and obligation to all the people who have bought Stardew Valley over the years, granting me this rare opportunity to be an indie game developer. So it’s hard to 'let go' of Stardew, even temporarily, to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people."
Still, Barone said he has "a strong desire to make more games," and even though little of it has been seen publicly, he's grown very attached to Haunted Chocolatier's "characters, themes, and ideas." And significant work on the game has already been completed, culminating in a vertical slice he described as "essentially a skeleton of the game with most (not all) of its bones in place."
A lot of work remains to build it out from there, but Barone said he doesn't mind—"I'm addicted to the grind"—and he's not going to change the processes that worked so well for him on Stardew Valley. Along with the actual development of the game, that also means there will be no early access period, crowdfunding, or preorders, "so I don’t feel a ton of external pressure to finish the game on a timeline." That doesn't mean he won't share insights into Haunted Chocolatier's development, but only when the urge strikes, or if he's got something particularly cool to show off.
Barone acknowledged that the update repeats a lot of points he's made previously—Barone said back in August that he had "not touched Haunted Chocolatier in a long time" because he was focused on Stardew's 1.6 update—but said he "wanted to check in with all of you, let you know that Haunted Chocolatier is still going to be a thing, and re-affirm some of the stuff I’ve said before."
"I look forward to sharing this new world with you," Barone wrote. "When it's ready."
