Eric Barone will put off work on Stardew Valley to finish Haunted Chocolatier. He’s gonna take us into ''the realm of the ethereal and the creative,'' and I just can’t wait
The latest Haunted Chocolatier development update is here. It looks like we’ll be getting even more paranormal activities than we expected.
Good news if you’ve been eagerly waiting for Stardew Valley updates (also like me). Eric Barone mentioned he’s focusing on finishing his new game before bringing any fresh content to our favorite farming sim.
Still deep in development, yet there’s a silver lining
But let’s not get too excited just yet, there’s still no launch date, or even a release year, for Haunted Chocolatier. All we’ve got is a statement that he’s taking a break from Stardew Valley to put all his energy into the new game. He said he was wrapping up SV updates before, so I wouldn’t take it as set in stone. Still, it’s nice to hear something new about what he’s working on.
In just a few minutes of the interview with PC Gamer, Barone mentioned he had to redo some parts of Haunted Chocolatier since he’s been working on it for four years. At the same time, he itted that’s kind of the struggle of being a solo dev. You start building something, but it takes so long that by the time you're deep into it, your style and tastes have evolved. Even if the original work isn’t bad, it just doesn’t feel right anymore, so you end up reworking it. That’s basically why it’s taking him so long – but that’s just his process. He’s a perfectionist and even calls himself “the harshest critic” of his own work.
Source: Haunted Chocolatier; Developer: ConcernedApe
When asked about where he’s at with Haunted Chocolatier, he answered:
I’m still tweaking the vertical slice. At the same time, I have been working on content, so it’s a little bit of both. I’m still totally knee-deep in development. It’s going to be a while. I’m trying to not rush myself too much.
So, fingers crossed we’ll get a demo at some point!
Barone also said that Stardew Valley still takes up a chunk of his time, which makes it tough to fully dive into Haunted Chocolatier. That’s why at some point, he knows he’ll have to cut everything else off and just focus on the new game. But don’t worry, he’s not abandoning SV completely, as he once told.
Haunted Chocolatier is cooking slow, but it’s gonna be sweetly weird
What’s even more interesting is what he shared about his new ideas for Haunted Chocolatier. Barone said he's been thinking a lot about intuition lately, almost in a spiritual sense. Instead of making gameplay logical and mechanical, like engineering the perfect chocolate, he’s exploring the idea of a more creative, intuitive approach to chocolate-making in the game.
Source: Haunted Chocolatier; Developer: ConcernedApe
In my game you might make ghost chocolate. You might make paranormal chocolates.
Stardew Valley was a very grounded game. With Haunted Chocolatier I wanted to explore more. We have our basic need met with Stardew Valley, now let’s take it beyond into the realm of the ethereal and the creative.
Sounds amazing, if you ask me. After all, Stardew Valley already had its fair share of strange and magical moments. If anything, Haunted Chocolatier is shaping up to be a truly whimsical and one-of-a-kind adventure – and I’m happy to wait for it, even if it takes another four years or more.
