Eric Barone has some news for anyone who spent their time in Stardew Valley skipping the farm work and heading down into the mines with a sword. His next project is built with exactly that kind of player in mind.
Speaking in a new interview about Haunted Chocolatier, the solo developer better known as ConcernedApe put it plainly: “It’s for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines.” He added, “That’s what I do, honestly.”
Most fans probably weren’t expecting a change this big. Since Barone first announced Haunted Chocolatier in 2021, many have pictured it as Stardew Valley with a chocolate shop added on. The game is shaping up to be something different.
Combat comes before confectionery
Barone said the game hasn’t left its roots behind. “It is still what I call a town game,” he said, “But it’s more of an action RPG.”
He also explained where the emphasis lies: “the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights.”
The setting is different as well. Barone called the game’s world more “metaphysical” than Pelican Town. It’s a vague description, but it gives away just enough to make fans curious.
He isn’t sharing much beyond that for now, and that’s deliberate.
The reasons he keeps the game under wraps
Barone has shown very little of Haunted Chocolatier, and his explanation is simple. “Partly, it feels like I’m serving a half-baked bread. I would rather serve a fully baked bread,” he said.
He’s also wary of showing features that might not make it to launch. “Also, I know that many parts of the game will likely evolve and change before release, so if I reveal them early, I risk disappointing players if the final product does not match their expectation,” Barone explained. “Fortunately, I’m in a position where I don’t need to market the game, so I can take my preferred approach.”
That last remark is a bit of a boast, but he’s earned it. Few developers could go years without a round of trailers and still have fans eagerly following every update.
Barone himself admitted in June that those updates have started to sound alike. “Feels kinda dumb posting this same thing over and over, but that’s the reality,” he said back then.
How one recipe book swallowed months of work
If you’re wondering why development is taking this long, look at the way Barone talks about a single menu.
Also in June, he said the parts of the game players use all the time have to be “perfect,” and described them as needing to be “clear, intuitive, satisfying, aesthetic.” The example he gave was the recipe book players will use to make chocolates.
“To me, it’s not a simple task, as I torture myself over every last detail,” he said. “This is a UI you will be using fairly often, so it has to be perfect. You need to be able to accomplish your goal with the minimal number of clicks.”
He went on in more detail, like someone who has redesigned the same screen many times over. “If the data is all clustered together, it will be disgusting to look at,” Barone said. “And this is just the bare minimum, that players will likely take for granted. If all of that is accomplished then the player is now comfortable while perusing the recipe book. But I want more than just comfort. I want to delight the player. All of this typically requires me to iterate on something several times before I’m satisfied with it.”
That much effort is going into a recipe book. If every menu gets the same treatment, fans should expect a long wait.
Stardew Valley still needs his attention
Haunted Chocolatier doesn’t have a release date yet, and neither does Stardew Valley’s 1.7 update. Barone isn’t building 1.7 directly.
Part of the reason he expanded his team was to free up his own time. “Well, part of the reason why I’ve expanded my team a little bit is so that hopefully I can spend more time working on Haunted Chocolatier,” Barone said in a February interview. “And it’s worked out pretty well so far, I would say.”
He described his role on 1.7 as roughly that of a creative director: he passes ideas to the team and then returns to his own game. That setup won’t last through the whole update cycle, though.
“At some point in 1.7’s cycle, I will get heavily involved, because I feel like my hand needs to touch every part of the game, every aspect of the update,” he said. “That’s been a big change from the 1.3 update or 1.1 or something where it’s completely me. I had no time to work on a new game. So that has changed.”
According to Barone, the hardest part is the way his own mind works. “If I’m thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, it’s difficult to be like, ‘Okay, I’m going to one day of the week or two days of the week work on Stardew Valley.’ That’s not how my brain works,” he said. “I’m all in one thing or the other. So I’ve been trying to work on that. I feel like it requires a lot of discipline, which I’m always working to improve on.”