Fans have expressed concern that Stardew Valley developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone is splitting his time between the classic life simulator and his highly anticipated, forthcoming release Haunted Chocolatier. The outcry comes after he announced update 1.7 for Stardew Valley, a major expansion that will take up a lot of time and energy. However, Barone has published a blog post to explain that 1.7 may only delay Haunted Chocolatier “a little, but not as much as you might think.”
Haunted Chocolatier has been in development for at least four years already, and we know scant few details about it. Naturally, fans want to see as much as possible, as soon as possible. Seeing as Stardew Valley is one of the best life games of all time, it makes sense that fans are ravenous for a follow-up from the same developer.
While we don’t know the exact Haunted Chocolatier release date, many players expect to see it in 2027, and can’t face waiting until 2028 if these Stardew Valley updates delay development any further. However, Barone is on hand to explain why you shouldn’t be worried.
While Barone started out as a solo developer on Stardew Valley, the game’s incredible success has allowed him to hire a team to help with new updates. This has been the case since update 1.3, he says. On top of that, he has taken more of a hands-off creative director role with 1.7, allowing him more time to spend on Haunted Chocolatier.
He even says that Stardew Valley 1.7 might release after Haunted Chocolatier, which I don’t think many fans expected.
While development on Stardew Valley continues with a “small group” of “talented, hard-working” developers, Barone remains the sole developer of Haunted Chocolatier. That’s why he anticipates that his less hands-on role in Stardew 1.7 will only delay his second game a little. However, fans would prefer something more concrete than, “Haunted Chocolatier will be released at some point.” We certainly hope so.
If you can’t wait years for these updates and releases, it’s time to check out the best games like Stardew Valley, which offer similar but unique experiences. If you can’t bear to play a game without Abigail in it, just whack on some of the best Stardew Valley mods and start a new playthrough from there.
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