Stardew Valley creator prioritizing new game over future updates

stardew valley 1.6 — (Image credit: Concerned Ape)

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone has said he doesn't know if the game will receive another update.

Over the last weekend, Barone appeared at the end of a Twitch livestream of the first official Stardew Valley Cup, to answer a handful of questions from viewers (thanks, Eurogamer). Barone was asked about why not everyone in Stardew Valley is available as a potential marriage partner, to which the creator replied that it would take a monumental effort on his part, adding in dialog, events, spouse rooms, and more.

Barone then went on to state that he has two existing characters in mind as potential new marriage partners for Stardew Valley, before hastily clarifying that this doesn't mean they will be made available as potential spouses. "Right now I am focused on my next game," said Barone. "So, we'll see."

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This sounds a lot like Barone is giving priority to his new project, which so far we know relatively little about. However, the creator did tease that he's thinking about announcing it "soon," although nothing has been set in stone right now. "What I will say is it's another pixel art game, a top-down perspective similar to Stardew Valley. And in some ways it is kind of similar to Stardew Valley, but it's not a farming game. It's something different," Barone concluded.

This all follows after the hefty 1.5 update for Stardew Valley launched last year in 2020, adding split-screen co-op, a new farm type, new characters to meet, and new goals to accomplish. Since then, the community surrounding the sim have been left to wonder whether a potential Stardew Valley 1.6 update for Barone's game could be on the way, although now that's looking increasingly unlikely.