ConcernedApe Shares New Development Update On Haunted Chocolatier

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone revealed his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, back in 2021. We've only had the odd development update in the years since, but this week, we have received another one — albeit one that confirms we're still going to have to wait a while.

Shared in a new blog post on the Haunted Chocolatier website, Barone stated that the Stardew Valley 1.6 update has been taking up most of his time of late (naturally), so his follow-up game has had to take a back seat. That said, he is still plugging away at the fantastical chocolate-maker sim in the meantime:

Even though Haunted Chocolatier has only been revealed publicly to a tiny degree, in my own private world it’s a special place, and I’m very attached to the characters, themes, and ideas. Also, I’ve already done a ton of work on the game. Before I took this break for Stardew 1.6, I had created a “vertical slice” of Haunted Chocolatier, essentially a skeleton of the game with most (not all) of its bones in place.

The creator notes that his next task is "to tweak the existing bones until I’m happy with them, add all the rest of the bones, and then flesh it all out with all the content that will need to be in the game". A pretty sizeable task, then, but, as Barone clarifies, "I’m addicted to the grind".

The update also reconfirmed that this is another ConcernedApe solo project. The creator is coding the entire thing in C# from scratch since that's the way he feels the most comfortable working — and hey, it worked for Stardew. "I may get help with some technical things later on," Barone clarified, "but I want the game to be essentially complete before I think about anything like that".

So, what about any idea of a release date? Well, the blog post specifies that it "will still take a while". Perhaps not the news we wanted to hear, but, Barone states, "I will not release a game unless it is complete and I am very happy with it, and I think that’s what most people would want, anyway". Honestly, fair enough.

I know many people are excited to play Haunted Chocolatier, and may be disappointed to hear that it will still take a while, or that I took time away to work on Stardew Valley. I understand. I will be very happy when the day comes that I can finally release Haunted Chocolatier. However, as with Stardew Valley, I will not be doing any “early access”, crowdfunding, or pre-orders, so I don’t feel a ton of external pressure to finish the game on a timeline. The major source of external pressure is the fact I announced the game kind of early (I had my reasons for doing this), which built up excitement, meaning that if I take a long time, people might become sad. And that is a real pressure to me. But ultimately, I will not release a game unless it is complete and I am very happy with it, and I think that’s what most people would want, anyway.

The blog post wraps up with a message that the updates may not come thick and fast in the coming months, but that's not to say that anything has been cancelled: "if I don’t post for a while, it doesn’t mean I have abandoned the game".

"My preferred approach is to disappear and work in isolation," Barone continues, "and only emerge when I have something complete and worthy, rather than share a bunch of stuff that is unfinished, and therefore not in accordance with the final vision". That said, he says that he will still post updates now and then, and reaffirms that "the game will eventually be finished and come out". Phew.

You can head over to the Haunted Chocolatier website to read the latest update in full and get a closer look at the new screenshots (which Barone states are "'work in progress' and likely to change before release") that we have inserted above.

Haunted Chocolatier is still only 100% confirmed for a PC release at the time of writing, however, at its initial announcement, the creator noted that he has "every intention" of bringing it to other major platforms as well. Considering how well Stardew has performed on the Nintendo hybrid, we'd wager Haunted Chocolatier is well on the cards for a Switch release... dare we even say 'Switch 2'?

For more from ConcernedApe, you can check out our recent interview with the Stardew Valley creator in the article below.

Are you excited for Haunted Chocolatier? Are you banking on a Switch/Switch 2 release? Let us know in the comments.