Eric Barone, the solo developer behind Stardew Valley known as ConcernedApe, gave new details on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, in an interview with GQ published this week. He described the project as "way bigger" in scope than Stardew Valley and leaning more heavily into action-RPG combat, but he still didn't attach a release date to it.
"Everything is cranked up," Barone said of the game's scale, while reiterating it remains what he calls "a town game" at its core — the chocolate shop and its surrounding community still sit at the center of play.
A Bigger Shift Toward Combat
Barone has described Haunted Chocolatier's combat emphasis before, but the GQ interview goes further. "It is still what I call a town game," he said, but added it will be "more of an action RPG — the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights."
He framed the audience for the game in terms of a specific type of Stardew Valley player: "It's for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines. That's what I do, honestly." Reporting on the game's mechanics has previously described a shield-block-and-punish combat loop tied into ingredient gathering, which would tie the action-RPG elements directly into the shop-running loop rather than keeping them separate.
Barone on the Pressure of a Follow-Up
The interview also touched on the weight of following up a game that's sold more than 30 million copies. Barone said he's been "struggling" to recapture the creative freedom he had while making Stardew Valley, when there was no audience watching. "Everyone's watching me, and if I don't do things a certain way, it might disappoint millions of people," he said, adding that Stardew Valley itself started as "just my dumb little project" — something he built mainly to sharpen his programming skills while out of work.
That context matters for a game five years removed from its October 2021 announcement. Barone remains a one-person development team, aside from outside help on marketing, and has said consistently that he won't ship Haunted Chocolatier before he considers it finished.
What's Still Unconfirmed
No release date or release window has been announced. PC remains the only platform Barone has publicly committed to, though he said at the game's 2021 reveal that he intends to bring it to other major platforms once it's further along — the same approach he took with Stardew Valley, which launched on PC first and later expanded to consoles and mobile. No new gameplay footage accompanied this week's interview, and Barone hasn't given a timeline for when the next trailer or public demo might arrive.
Gamingonix will update this article as ConcernedApe shares further details on Haunted Chocolatier.
Emma covers gaming news and industry announcements for Gamingonix, reporting on releases, reveals and the stories moving fast.
