"I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier," says Stardew Valley's Eric Barone: "I know, I shouldn't have announced the game so early"

Stardew Valley mastermind Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has been hard at work on both his beloved 2016 farming sim and new game Haunted Chocolatier – a title he assures fans he is indeed "still working" on currently.

Late last year, ConcernedApe revealed that he wants to "take a more 'creative director' role" on Stardew Valley 1.7, the farming gem's upcoming update, so that he can "focus the vast majority" of his attention on Haunted Chocolatier. This word came around the same time he admitted the 1.7 update might delay his new cozy sim "a little," but "not as much as you might think," with "the vast majority" of his attention on creating his next game.

It's been a while since he's updated the community now, but it seems like things are going well in the Haunted Chocolatier development realm.

"I'm still working like always," reads the latest post from ConcernedApe. "Hey everyone, good news: I've been very productive lately on Haunted Chocolatier. Yep, it's taking a while to finish the game. That's oaky," he continues – and yes, he put "oaky" rather than "okay." Intentional? Maybe.

The solo developer goes on: "I know, I know, I shouldn't have announced the game so early. But I had my reasons."

He then works to "debunk" fans' common assumptions and circulating myths (of which there are plenty at this point, let's face it). The first has to do with the potential of him "abandoning" Haunted Chocolatier and instead merging it with Stardew Valley. "No. First, I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier," he states.

"But even if I did, I am not going to add it to Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier are separate games. It doesn't even make sense from a technical perspective, as Haunted Chocolatier is written from scratch; it's not the same 'engine' as Stardew Valley. You can't just copy and paste Haunted Chocolatier into Stardew Valley." That makes sense – these are two different games, after all, despite the similar cozy aesthetic.

The next rumor he responds to is that Stardew Valley updates are being used to test possible features in Haunted Chocolatier. "Nope. When working on Stardew Valley, I'm not thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, and vice versa. I wouldn't 'test something out' in Stardew Valley because that would be unfair to Stardew Valley, and also, I don't want to spoil ideas for Haunted Chocolatier by adding them first to Stardew Valley."

He adds, "Also, Stardew Valley is a different game, so you can't really 'test something' for Haunted Chocolatier in it in an accurate way."

Then comes the point of him supposedly working on a new Stardew Valley update because he's "burnt out" with his new game. "No, I'm working on a new Stardew update because it's a very popular game with a large, ever-growing playerbase, and I still have additional ideas for how to improve it."

Finally, there's the whole bit about Haunted Chocolatier not releasing for the next five years, as ConcernedApe couldn't previously say if it would be out by 2030, when he described it as "the goal." Now, he writes, "I was asked in 2025 if it would come out within the next five years, and I said, 'I hope so.' This is very different than saying 'it's coming out in 2030.' The bottom line is, I don't want to give a release date. The game will come out when it's done."

The dev then concludes, "Anyway, the only thing that really matters is that I keep making progress on the game and release it. So I'm gonna get back to doing that now." I mean, he's not wrong – and I, for one, can't wait to play… whenever it is ready.

Need something to tide you over until then? Browse through some of the other most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.