"I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2," says Eric Barone, but "I just don't care about money" and it's "so much easier" to update the original

I know there are plenty of hardworking Stardew Valley farmers – their bones aching, their knees buckling – who are sick of waiting for creator Eric Barone's upcoming adventure game Haunted Chocolatier, which was first announced four years ago. So I'm sorry to do this, but you deserve to know that there's another game you need to start anticipating: Barone, also known as ConcernedApe, says he might one day make a Stardew Valley sequel.

"I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2, to be honest" Barone says during a recent episode of comedian Bobby Lee's podcast Tiger Belly.

But it sounds like turning that throwaway podcast thought into a tangible Steam purchase would be frustrating.

"It's just so much easier to just add more stuff to Stardew Valley than to make a whole new game from scratch," Barone elaborates. "The major systems are already all done. That's the stuff that's not fun to do. When I make an update, it's like, you know – 'oh, throw in this, throw in that. Let's add green rain.'"

But what about the financial opportunity Stardew Valley 2 presents? A sequel to one of the most popular farming sims in history wouldn't just be a geyser of oil – it would be a flood, right?

"I just don't care," Barone replies when Lee asks him why he won't charge for Stardew updates. "I just don't care about money that much, to be honest."

Barone reiterates that, while he won't count out the idea of a Stardew sequel, "I don't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy. That's why I'm making Haunted Chocolatier." Which brings me back to my first point…

Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe worries follow-up Haunted Chocolatier might "ruin the teeth of a whole generation": "I'm thinking about doing it so you can only eat like two chocolates per day."