Concernedape is finally done and works at Stardew Valley, at the moment

Stardew Valley creator Eric “Proccymedape” Barone has worked with his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, for a long time. It was announced all the way back in 2021, but we have seen very little of it since, because Barone has struggled to leave his second child for too long. In fact, in December last year he admitted that Haunted Chocolatier had “become dusty on the shelf” because of how much work he was still doing for Stardew Valley.

But now that Stardew Valley is in a fairly decent place after the game's 1.6 update, Barone seems quite happy to leave things alone at the moment. In an interview with PC Gamer, Barone explained that he is now “committed to not working at Stardew Valley” until Haunted Chocolatier is finally done.

Concernedape is finally done and works at Stardew Valley, at the moment

“It's at that place right now, because the 1.6 update is quite settled at this time,” says Barone. “There were ongoing console gates and bugs and bug fixes and all that, but it's pretty settled now, so I'm committed to not working at Stardew Valley until I'm done with Haunted Chocolates.”

Family

Has anyone from a city actually inherited a grandparents' farm?

I am still waiting for that letter, even though my only remaining grandparent does not own a farm.

Of course, he does not completely close the door on Stardew Valley, because he follows it from you can only really consider it part of his life over “maybe when I go away”, but it sounds like his full focus is on haunted chocolate right now.

Although it sounds like a good sign that the game can be released pretty soon, unfortunately, this is not the case. Later in the interview, Barone admits that he is still “completely knee-depth in development”, and that the game “will be for a while”. He explains that the development is slow because he wants to keep things as stress -free as possible, and that his natural concern for Stardew Valley often “pulls me away from devoting all my time to haunted chocolate”.

Barone potentially gives us a time frame, although it is a bit of a distance. Later he jokes that he may need to “go into a cabin in the woods and completely get off the internet” to get the game ready and say “Ok guys, we'll see you in two years”. It is probably a Goof on Barone's side, but I am now a firm belief that Haunted Chocolatians are coming in 2027.