As Stardew Valley fans enjoy update 1.6, Haunted Chocolatier hopefuls hold onto a scrap of info from Eric Barone: "I had this in mind from the beginning"

Stardew Valley
(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

While Stardew Valley fans are busy with the new 1.6 update, Haunted Chocolatier hopefuls are holding onto a scrap of info about the developer's other game.

Ahead of the launch of Stardew Valley 1.6, Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone shared a series of patch notes to give fans a taste of the content that was on the way. We got several interesting sneak peeks during this time, including news that the new update will let players chug a jar of mayonnaise - which I'm not completely sold on.

On March 13, Barone shared his daily patch note and captioned it: "Ever notice that swinging the sword downward put you at a big disadvantage? It's always bugged me, but I had tuned it that way so that the area of effect would match the visual." He continues: "For 1.6, I decided that game feel is way more important than precise visual accuracy." This is interesting on its own, but what followed is what's got Haunted Chocolatier fans' attention. 

In response to this tweet, a fan replied to ConcernedApe, writing: "Did you have the same issue in Haunted Chocolatier and that's why you changed this after all this time or are the swords just visually bigger in HC so you never had this problem there?" 

Following this, Barone replied and explained: "For HC I had this in mind from the beginning and drew the player animations in a way that should match with the hitboxes better." The developer continues: "I'm being way more deliberate about making sure each direction you face is equally viable. But yeah I think it did cause me to rethink Stardew's."

Although it's only a small mention of the developer's next game, it's enough to land it on the Haunted Chocolatier subreddit. Here, fans are celebrating the game being referenced by Barone - who last shared an update on it back in October 2023 - and are enjoying the fact that, by working on two games, the developer can use his experience on both of them to improve them. Let's hope this is also true for the Stardew Valley dev's other mysterious project.

If you're already done with 1.6, find out what else is out there with our games like Stardew Valley list. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.