'Stardew Valley' Creator Developing 2 Games, Both Top-Down and Pixel Art (2024)
Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone is working on multiple games connected to his landmark farming simulator. While Barone has previously announced development of his second game, which is not a farming simulator but takes place in the same "universe" as Stardew Valley, the developer said Tuesday he has "a couple of new projects," including a new tie-in with Stardew.
"Yes, I'm actually working on a couple of new projects. One takes place in the world of Stardew Valley, but is not a farming game. The other, I'm not 100 percent sure about the world yet, but it will tie into Stardew Valley in some way," Barone said in response to a question on Twitter.
Barone described both games to IGN as sharing a similar aesthetic to Stardew Valley, with pixel-art graphics and a top-down 2D perspective, describing the look as "familiar for anyone who has played Stardew Valley." He also confirmed both games would be single-player.
The first game, previously announced, will be "an ambitious project," which Barone described to IGN as fully conceptualized, with graphics twice as detailed as Stardew Valley, employing 32x32 pixel tiles instead of 16x16.
"I have pretty much the entire, polished idea in my head, and just have to put it into the computer," Barone said. "In general, I've been approaching this game with the goal to surpass the quality of every aspect compared to Stardew Valley... art, music, sound, narratives, etc... and I think I have been achieving that so far. I just have to put in the 1000s more hours of work necessary to finish it."
While Barone's next game is deep in development with a lot more work to go, the second described game is a more experimental creation: "a little thing to have fun with," which he is developing in "an organic way."
So far no details are available on how the newly announced second project will be connected to Stardew Valley, since it's possible it won't even take place in the same world. Barone didn't respond to our request for additional details in time for publication.
"I see this blowing up," Barone said, about an hour after posting about the two ongoing projects tied to Stardew Valley, "all I ask is please don't get too hyped at this stage. I want to avoid too much hype or speculation. I'd like to just make whatever game comes naturally to me without too much pressure or expectation."
In a subsequent tweet he went on, describing how he is not trying to emulate the success of Stardew Valley.
"I'm not setting out to make the next indie smash hit, I just want to make another game that I enjoy and am happy with. And to share some of my art and ideas with the world," Barone said. "If it becomes popular, I will be happy, but it's not my focus."
While no release date has been announced for either of the Stardew Valley creator's new games, Barone told IGN that he expects to reveal some of his upcoming work this year, "for sure."
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Barone described both games to IGN as sharing a similar aesthetic to Stardew Valley, with pixel-art graphics and a top-down 2D perspective, describing the look as "familiar for anyone who has played Stardew Valley." He also confirmed both games would be single-player.
The Haunted Chocolatier release date will likely fall sometime in the 2025-2026 release window, based on the rough time scale provided by ConcernedApe. He is currently working on the Stardew Valley 1.16 update, which will introduce a new festival, more NPC dialogue, and other fun additions to the game.
Given that Barone said in a tweet in 2023 that he was taking a break from Haunted Chocolatier to work on the Stardew Valley 1.6 update, we know progress hasn't been made in a while. That said, the Stardew 1.6 is out now, released on March 19, 2024, so work on Haunted Chocolatier will presumably resume.
Haunted Chocolatier: Everything we know about the Stardew Valley creator's next game. Haunted Chocolatier is an upcoming RPG adventure full of ghosts and hauntingly sweet confections.
To complete the game, Barone worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for four and a half years. For part of that time, he lived with his parents to save money before moving out with his girlfriend to Capitol Hill, Seattle.
The upcoming game will also feature a romance mechanic, much like the 2016 masterpiece, but while it would be easy to do something familiar, shrinking the number of available bachelors and bachelorettes could give the game more focus.
Every couple of heart levels (ranging from one to 10), players can happen upon a heart event if they're in the right place at the right time. After reaching 10 hearts, players can propose to the candidate with a Mermaid's Pendant, and they'll automatically have a wedding shortly after.
Haunted Chocolatier is very similar in terms of style to Stardew Valley, like the same pixelated art style for its setting and characters, and will also feature the familiar crafting system as well as some friendly ghosts that seem to help the player manage their chocolate shop.
Stardew Valley is one of the most popular farming simulators around, and it was created by one person: Eric Barone. To achieve this, Barone had to spend four years working on the game, putting in eight to 15 hours a day.
Haunted Chocolatier Could Be A Prequel to Stardew Valley
One of the most significant clues that Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley are set in the same universe is from an in-game screenshot posted by ConcernedApe on social media.
The current title is charming but with an air of mystery to it at the same time, so it's hard to imagine the game being named anything else. However, according to the game's wiki page, the “game was originally meant to be called Sprout Valley.”
Yep, Stardew Valley is basically infinite! You can keep playing even after you finish the main story. There's no actual ending to the game, so you can continue farming, mining, fishing, and socializing with the townsfolk for as long as you want. It's the gift that keeps on giving!
Storytelling is something most people don't really consider when making a game, but it's a lot of work and not many people can do it very well. And most people don't have the time, the maker of Stardew Valley had the benefit of a partner who worked and support him so he didn't have to have a full time job.
Barone was also inspired by other games, including Animal Crossing, Rune Factory, Minecraft, and Terraria, adding features seen in those games such as crafting, quests, and combat. He was the sole developer on the game, creating all of the game's pixel art, music, sound effects, story and dialogue.
It's not an exact clone, it adds onto harvest moon's concept. It was inspired by Harvest Moon, and when the dev was making it he was very much basing it off of Harvest moon games. That being said, it isn't the exact same game, but rather they are in the same genre of game.
Haunted Chocolatier is initially planned for release on PC, though the developer is interested in other platforms as well. It has no set release date. On October 3, 2023, Barone uploaded several images of Haunted Chocolatier to X, formerly known as Twitter, in honor of reaching 1 million followers on the platform.
Stardew Valley's 1.6 content update was released on March 19, 2024 and featured a slew of new features, including new items, a farm layout, and tons of fixes and adjustments. Use this guide as a hub to catch up on all the new things added with the update. Just want to see the patch notes?
So what kind of game is Haunted Chocolatier? Instead of a farming simulation, Chocolatier is a shop sim where you'll be creating chocolate and selling it in your store. Like Stardew, Chocolatier has a local town full of stores and NPCs with their own stories that you'll get to know as you grow your shop.
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