Barone announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021, but amid ongoing work on his phenomenally successful Stardew Valley, progress on the follow-up has been slow going. Indeed, in June, Barone admitted to feeling somewhat embarrassed to have to keep on saying he was still working away on the game. “Feels kinda dumb posting this same thing over and over, but that’s the reality,” he said at the time.
In a new interview with GQ (thanks, Eurogamer), Barone touched on what to expect from Haunted Chocolatier when it eventually comes out, and it sounds more different from Stardew Valley than I had expected. It’s set in a more “metaphysical” locale, for a start, and in terms of gameplay it’s more of an action RPG.
“It is still what I call a town game,” Barone said, “But it’s more of an action RPG — the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights. It’s for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines. That’s what I do, honestly.”
I’m already buying it, he doesn’t have to keep selling it harder
I hope he refined the combat mechanics in Chocalatier, cause the combat part of Stardew Valley is something I would describe as awkward and mid but serviceable in a game where combat isn’t the main focus.
It looks pretty nice
I really adore how it looks like Stardew Valley. Makes me nostalgic for a game I haven’t even played yet!
The game will eventually be released, but in the meanwhile, I’m pretty sure he will release a few more Stardew Valley updates, because he just can’t leave that game alone.
Not that I am angry, if anything, I find it funny; because he is working on this game but every now and then, he’ll come “Hey, so… I know I said Stardew was done but…” and drops another absurdly big update nobody asked for that makes you go “I know I said I finished playing Stardew but… one more run!”.
I wish some AAA games had half the post-launch support Stardew has…
It’s a lot easier I think, to be one person working on two games that are both passion projects, than to be a large studio working to support a multi-faceted project where the work is distributed across several departments and teams. In that environment, there’s no single person who knows the full ins and outs of the game, so when that post-launch skeleton crew gets to squashing bugs and adding features, they’ve already lost most of the knowledge required to do more unless that post-launch support was intended from the start.
ConcernedApe is also a crazy exception, even for indies. Most games of that scale do depend on at least a few different people, but the guy is a savant for game dev. Stardew being a solo project is absurd.
Stardew stopped being a solo project two or three patches ago. ConcernedApe brought in a few more people to help with updates around the time the new game was announced.
Still massively impressive what he did get done on his own, so I’m really just being pedantic.
Take your time, Eric. I’ll be here when you’re ready.
I look forward to it.
Patiently
yeah its fine to take time. Good work often does.
I can wait another year or two, if it means the game gets better. As long as it isn’t released as a green banana, like so many others.
I trust Barone.
I had forgotten about the game! Looking forward to it whenever it’s eventually released.
Perfect. My favorite way to play Stardew is to freeze time and energy and just attack the mines and skull cavern until I die. With a bit of fishing on the side.
Since there’s no farming focus, I hope they don’t build the day night cycle in Haunted Chocolatier.
unless day/night determines enemy variety, events, and world interactions! that would still be awesome
As lomg as there’s no time constraints forcing me to sleep, I’d be happy
“I hope they dont buil the day night cycle”
What?
*build.
Stardew valley has a day-night cycle that constrains what you can do in a given day. It makes sense given there are actions that happen on certain days like birthdays and festivals, and the seasons need to progress, and you need to grow your crops. But it also meant you couldn’t just spend all your time doing combat in the mines and skull cavern cause eventually you pass out due to lack of energy at 2am.
Getting Earthbound vibes from the screenshot. Nice.
So more like Recettear? Nice, love it!
Nice, I’ve never heard of this one and now it’s waiting patiently on my wishlist. Thanks!
I tried to find a Recettear-like game recently and couldn’t really find one that clicked, so I just replayed Recettear instead! Love it
I play so many shop sims, everything from normal simulators like Supermarket Sim to fantasy dungeon crawlers like Fell & Sell or Moonlighter to gimmicky ones like The Walking Trade, I have never found one that I enjoyed as much as Recettear. It’s a hard act to follow.
I am hungry, RAVENOUS, for high quality life sim, please, feed me CA
I’m terrified that Witchbrook is actually going to suck.
Does anyone know if it takes place in the same universe as Stardew?
Does it take place in the world of Stardew Valley?
I’m not ready to reveal anything like that just yet.
I hope it is!
Aww, that’s disappointing, but thanks for doing the leg work on that issue.
There have been a lot of speculation based on trailers. For example, it looks like there is a Qi fruit in the background, so I’d bet they are linked somehow.
I’m hoping that they are and that at some point there will be be a dlc that links the two games together so you can kind of do it all.
Yes! That would be so cool!
I hope it’s something that unlocks as an endgame feature kind of like in pokemon gold letting you revisit the first games region.
If it’s not official I promise that modders will do it immediately anyway 😂
I dislike the mines in Stardew Valley because the combat feels awkward and frustrating with a mouse and keyboard. Is it better with a game controller?
I don’t mind the combat on android touch screen devices. The weapons auto swing when the enemy is within reach, so the action is more about approaching and dodging the enemy. It feels simpler, but there’s definitely some drawbacks to this method as well.
No the combat is just bad (sorry eric), there are some mods that help add depth to it though with more mobility and different moves.
