Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe says the "world of Haunted Chocolatier" will somehow be even "larger" than his farming sim – the same one I already have over 1,000 hours in

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has recently been hard at work on his new game, Haunted Chocolatier – one he now says is even bigger than his 2016 farm sim.

Revealing as much in a new online post, ConcernedApe simply states "the world of Haunted Chocolatier is larger than Stardew Valley" – a fact that I can't quite wrap my own head around, seeing as I've clocked well over 1,000 hours in Stardew Valley alone on just Steam. I'm not alone, either, apparently, with fans replying to his post that they "cannot wait" to play Haunted Chocolatier and are now "soooooo excited" for it.

Despite the fact that the upcoming game's world being "larger" than ConcernedApe's has boggled my mind, I suppose it makes sense – after all, Haunted Chocolatier has technically been in production now for quite some time since its 2021 reveal, in which the developer said he felt "more confident than ever in being able to bring an idea to life." While he admitted he had "not touched Haunted Chocolatier in a long time" in 2024, things are back on track.

That's because ConcernedApe first wanted to wrap up his work on Stardew Valley, its big 1.6 update, and subsequent patches. At the tail end of April, though, he said he's "committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I'm done with Haunted Chocolatier" now, which means development on the new sim is finally fully kicking into gear – and while there's still no solid release date, except for hopes of launching by 2030, it sounds like it'll be massive.

Not only is the world apparently "larger," but ConcernedApe has also previously admitted that Haunted Chocolatier "has to be better" than Stardew Valley – a tall order considering the fact that the farming sim currently impressively boasts a perfect 10/10 score on Steam with "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews. As a longtime fan myself, however, I'll be expecting nothing short of an incredible experience come Haunted Chocolatier's release.

It's "more of an action RPG," but Eric Barone says Haunted Chocolatier is still "a life sim" and "similar to Stardew Valley in many ways" but with more "dark and mysterious" vibes.