Featured Image Credit: Eric Barone
Topics: Stardew Valley, Indie Games
There can't be many gamers left who haven't found themselves obsessed with Stardew Valley over the last few years.
Since the farming sim launched back in 2016, Stardew Valley has been ported to multiple consoles, mobile devices, and slowly taken over the world.
Why? Because it's brilliant, that's why. Stardew Valley create Eric Barone effectively single-handedly created one of the most satisfying farming games of all time, combining an engaging gameplay loop with brilliant writing and near-endless variety.
It doesn't help that he keeps updating the damn thing, giving us new reasons to go back and start new farms.
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While Barone continues to work on Stardew Valley, it's no secret he also has a spiritual sequel in the works. The Haunted Chocolatier was announced back in 2021, and looks to be a sequel to Stardew Valley in all but name.
While Stardew Valley sees players tending a farm, Haunted Chocolatier will instead task us with building and running our own sweet shop in a town filled with ghosts and ghouls. I'm sold already.
We haven't heard much on Haunted Chocolatier since the game was announced, given Barone has been working on updates for Stardew Valley, but it's safe to say fans are counting down the days already.
"Between Stardew, Chef RPG, and Animal Crossing I don’t know how I’d fit this in," one fan commented on TikTok recently.
Another argued: "People being mad about how similar it is to Stardew surprise me because it’s the reason I’m so excited about it. Same comfort, different story."
Gamers over on Reddit are similarly excited, especially given Barone has made it clear he won't rush the game to meet an arbitrary release date.
"The man continues to develop and iterate on what is imo one of the best games to come out in the last 20+ years," one Reddit user wrote. "He has a fantastic relationship with the games community and does it without any extra payments.
8+ years of continued support for a 1 man indie dev. There is zero doubt in my mind that he will deliver on what he has said and more. I dont think I've ever had more faith in a developer."
Basically, we have no idea when Haunted Chocolatier is coming, but we all know it's going to be more than worth the wait.