Stardew Valley‘s one-man dev team, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone, says he regrets announcing his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, so early.
“Yep, it’s taking a while to finish the game,” Barone wrote in a recent update post on his Haunted Chocolatier blog. “I know, I know, I shouldn’t have announced the game so early. But I had my reasons.”
Barone initially announced Haunted Chocolatier — a pixelated simulation game about running a haunted confectionery — back in 2021, after working on Stardew Valley for a decade.
Five years later, the game is still in the works, with no release date in sight. This probably shouldn’t shock anyone, as Barone is a solo developer creating everything from the game’s art and soundtrack to its code, just as he did with Stardew Valley. Speaking of the beloved cozy farming sim, Barone had to temporarily take time off from working on Haunted Chocolatier to oversee Stardew Valley’s massive 1.6 update rollout, which launched in November 2024. In September 2025, he announced a 1.7 update for the game, though it’s not clear when it will be available. Barone is currently working on both the Stardew Valley 1.7 update and Haunted Chocolatier, but says the Stardew update won’t impact Haunted Chocolatier‘s development timeline.
Barone’s blog post doesn’t specify why he regrets announcing the game in 2021, but one can assume it has to do with pressure from fans who are eager for him to finish the game so they can finally get their hands on it, especially given that the rest of the update post is dedicated to dispelling rumors about the game.
Barone used the blog post as an opportunity to address Haunted Chocolatier rumors and provide a few new glimpses at his progress on the game.Image: Eric Barone/ConcernedApe
“First, I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier,” Barone wrote in response to a rumor that his upcoming game would be merged into Stardew Valley. “But even if I did, I am not going to add it to Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier are separate games.”
He added that he isn’t using Stardew Valley to test-run ideas for his upcoming game, and denied accusations that he’s working on the 1.7 update because he’s burnt out on Haunted Chocolatier.
“I’m working on a new Stardew update because it’s a very popular game with a large, ever-growing playerbase, and I still have additional ideas for how to improve it,” he explained. “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.”
Given the fact that it took him nearly nine years to unlock all achievements in his own game, over-eager Haunted Chocolatier fans may want to stop pestering Barone about its release date. He’s been cranking out incredible games (and massive, totally free updates) since 2016, and four years really isn’t that long when you consider the fact that the guy creates every part of his games by himself. On his blog, Barone himself assured fans that he’s “been very productive lately on Haunted Chocolatier.“
“I’m alive, the game is still in development, and it will come out when it’s ready,” Barone said at the end of the update post. “Thank you for your patience.”
