Stardew Valley 2 continues to remain a hypothetical, but ConcernedApe did actually consider making it at one point

You know, sometimes I wonder if Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone ever sleeps. At any given moment it sounds like he’s working on something, whether that be yet another update for Stardew Valley, or the definitely still in development, just wait a while you silly sausages, Haunted Chocolatier. And, as it turns out, somewhere along the line, Barone had even considered making Stardew Valley 2.

Speaking in an interview with IGN to commemorate Stardew Valley’s impending 10th anniversary, Barone was asked whether or not he’d consider doing a sequel as opposed to more updates. “Yeah, I would,” Barone plainly responded. “In fact, I would love to because it would just be fun to work on a whole new set of characters, a whole new world, maybe capture some of that original energy that I had back in 2012, when I started working with Stardew Valley.

“There’s something fun about the number of possibilities in a whole new world, which I think would be fun for me. It’d be fun for my team. We’d be really excited about it. It’s a bit difficult because people are so attached to Pelican Town and to the villagers in Pelican Town. I do fear a little bit that if it’s a whole new cast of characters, people might feel put off by that.”

Barone also floated the idea of setting Stardew Valley 2 in Pelican Town again, using the same cast but with a new story, but believed he’d have the same problem as just setting it somewhere new. “There was a time where I was starting to work on a Stardew Valley 2, but, I don’t know. For various reasons, I moved over to Haunted Chocolatier instead. Haunted Chocolatier you could say is like the Stardew Valley 2, but it’s a bit different of a game, so we’ll see.”

On making that comparison between Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley 2, Barone noted later in the interview how he knows people are expecting his successor game to essentially be a sequel to the beloved farming game, something that weighs on him quite heavily. “That’s been a constant struggle is like, ‘Do I just do whatever I want and not think about the existing player base or do I try to please the existing player base?’ And I feel like there’s just going to have to be a little bit of a balance between those things.”

The full interview is worth a read, as Barone is quite candid about a lot of his feelings and process towards Stardew Valley. Glad it’s him making the thing and not me, sounds like a nightmare.