Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, the genius behind Stardew Valley, hopes—fingers crossed—to release Haunted Chocolatier by 2030. But, you know, he’s not nailing down any dates. Nope, not even close. It’s kinda like trying to pin jelly to a wall. Anyway, his cryptic timeline might leave fans hanging a bit longer than they hoped for.
So, back in October 2021, Eric gave us a peek into this new world—Haunted Chocolatier. Imagine a chocolatey adventure, with a sprinkle of ghosts and RPG elements, all rolled into a fantasy setting. Sounds fun, right? Since then, he’s been dropping updates, but none of those juicy release dates we all crave.
Now, here’s the kicker—the whole Stardew Valley 1.6 update thing? Yeah, it sorta threw a spanner in the works for Haunted Chocolatier. Eric’s going solo on this one, doing it all himself. Talk about multitasking.
Recently, while chatting with Bobby Lee—a comedian and podcast wizard—Eric got asked about Haunted Chocolatier’s timeline. The million-dollar question: is it coming in the next five years? Catching his breath, Eric was like, “I hope so.” (Insert a hopeful emoji here.) Translation: this game’s still a work in progress.
Even though Eric announced the game in 2021, turns out he was secretly crafting it since 2020. He spilled the beans in a blog post, saying things were rolling nicely in December 2021. But then, bam! Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update came swooping in, pulling a plot twist with tons of new content in March 2024. And get this, it wasn’t until late 2024 that Eric finally got back to his haunted chocolatey dreams.
By December 2024, he was still going, “Man, there’s a mountain of work left.” Eric’s doing it all alone, just like he did with Stardew Valley. He plans to sail solo until Haunted Chocolatier’s almost done and dusted. If we look back, he only got some help for Stardew Valley after a couple of years in, around the 1.3 update mark in late 2018.
Eric’s said it before, and he’s saying it again—he’ll never completely ditch Stardew Valley. It’s like his perpetual pet project. But he’s also got his eyes on new horizons. Haunted Chocolatier and other secrets are all part of his grand plans. “I don’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,” Eric declared. On top of that, he’s got another mysterious project on the side with some anonymous developer. It’s like some secret sauce he hinted at in early 2022 with Game Informer. Whatever that is, well, it’s still under wraps.
So, we wait. Patiently. Or not. Who knows what Eric will cook up next?
