Stardew Valley Dev Gives Official Development Update on Haunted Chocolatier

Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe has issued an official development update on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, although fans who have followed the game closely are not going to learn much. Preferring to serve “fully baked bread” instead of “half-baked bread,” ConcernedApe’s update is more of an acknowledgment of ongoing development on Haunted Chocolatier than anything new (screenshots, features, etc.).

It’s also worth noting that ConcernedApe and a small team of developers are also working on Stardew Valley‘s 1.7 Update, which among other things, introduces a new farm type and two new romances in Clint and Sandy. Previously, ConcernedApe has indicated that the overlap between work on the two games might impact Haunted Chocolatier‘s progress a little bit, but nowhere near how much some folks might think. He’s also been open in the past about being a perfectionist, which is reiterated here.

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New Haunted Chocolatier Development Update

Per the latest update on ConcernedApe’s official Haunted Chocolatier blog, he opened a new post by saying, “Yep. I’m still working on the game” before explaining how it “feels kinda dumb” for how many times he’s posted this. The post itself is titled “Still here, still grinding…” after all, and he touched on how he’s being very thoughtful about every aspect of the game to make things perfect. As he said,

“I know it’s taking a long time. A big part of that is that I am being very thoughtful about every aspect of the game. The things in the game which the player will be interacting with or using very often need to be ‘perfect.’ They need to be seamless, clear, intuitive, satisfying, aesthetic.”

He did touch on what he’s been focused on lately, though, and that’s the recipe book for making chocolates in the upcoming game. It’s a core aspect of the game and a UI fans will see constantly, so he talked about how he’s been torturing himself over the details: required clicks, the amount of given data, the way the day is laid out and grouped up, how it aesthetically looks, and so forth. Because Haunted Chocolatier is a big game, he states that there are “so many things for me to fuss over,” which is “what it will take to make a game I’m satisfied with.”

the haunted chocolatier world will be bigger than stardew valleys

As a small note at the end, he explained that this iterative and perfection-seeking process is also why there aren’t more Haunted Chocolatier screenshots or revealed features/systems. As with all games, things change rapidly in development, so he doesn’t want to reveal them too early to avoid elevating expectations and risking disappointment. It’s probably not the update that fans of ConcernedApe were looking forward to, but it’s certainly understandable, and communication of any sort should always be appreciated.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other games to play, and Stardew Valley is always a solid option. There’s also plenty of farming sims out there like Stardew Valley, if players are looking for a new treat before sinking their teeth into Haunted Chocolatier, eventually.