Stardew Valley's creator admits he announced Haunted Chocolatier too early, but says he's "been very productive lately"

Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone confirms Haunted Chocolatier “is still in development” and that he’s making great progress on the project, despite relative radio silence on the highly anticipated follow-up to his megahit Stardew Valley. There was a period in time where Barone was regularly dropping hints about the new life game, yet we haven’t heard much about it for some time now. Rearing his head as a show of reassurance, the developer sets out “to debunk a few myths and false assumptions,” including fears that Haunted Chocolatier was on the chopping block.

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t have announced the game so early,” Barone admits, “but I had my reasons.” We last heard from him back in September, when he said that work on Stardew Valley 1.7 might push Haunted Chocolatier back “a little, but not as much as you might think.” Now, he acknowledges that “it’s taking a while to finish the game,” but adds, “that’s oaky.” I presume he means ‘okay’ there, but it’s a rather fitting typo nevertheless.

In fact, Barone says, “I’ve been very productive lately on Haunted Chocolatier.” He says that he keeps development of the two games separate, and doesn’t think about one while working on the other. Dispelling rumors that recent Stardew updates were simply a testbed for the next game, he writes, “I wouldn’t ‘test something out’ in Stardew Valley because that would be unfair to Stardew Valley, and I also don’t want to spoil idea for Haunted Chocolatier by adding them first to Stardew Valley.”

Barone stresses that the two games are very different from each other, so trying to test ideas for one in the other wouldn’t work well. He also says that his reason for returning to Stardew isn’t due to burnout, and simply that “it’s a very popular game with a large, ever-growing playerbase, and I still have additional ideas for how to improve it.” Get those conspiracy theories and rumors out of your head; Haunted Chocolatier is still going strong.

“I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier,” Barone continues. “But even if I did, I am not going to add it to Stardew Valley.” The two are entirely separate games, he explains, meaning it wouldn’t even be feasible from a technical perspective. “Haunted Chocolatier is written from scratch, it’s not the same ‘engine’ as Stardew Valley. You can’t just copy and paste Haunted Chocolatier into Stardew Valley.”

So when is Haunted Chocolatier coming out? Barone doesn’t know, and he’d rather stop being asked about it. Addressing reports of a 2030 date, he stresses, “I didn’t say that. I was asked in 2025 if it would come out within the next five years, and I said, ‘I hope so.’ This is very different than saying, ‘it’s coming out in 2030.'”

“The bottom line is, I don’t want to give a release date,” Barone concludes. “The game will come out when it’s done. Anyway, the only thing that really matters is that I keep making progress on the game and release it, so I’m gonna get back to doing that now.”

Put your concerns to bed, then. Stardew is still thriving and being supported well, and there’s no shortage of other games looking to offer similar experiences if you’re hunting for something fresh. I’m fully content to let Barone cook for as long as he feels he needs to on Haunted Chocolatier; I’d say he’s more than earned that privilege.