I’ve been playing Stardew Valley since 2018, which means I’ve gotten extremely comfortable with a specific playstyle, namely making the most profit possible in the shortest amount of time. In the years since I first picked up Stardew Valley, I’ve switched up almost every aspect of my games. Marrying a different spouse (though I do usually gravitate back towards Harvey), choosing a different farm type, and setting new goals every time. The one goal that never changes is making stacks of cash as soon as I can.
ConcernedApe, the developer behind Stardew Valley, has a new game in the making, and I’m completely prepared to be terrible at it. This new game, Haunted Chocolatier, will be about running a candy store in a town full of ghosts and spirits. In interviews, ConcernedApe has hinted at the fact that it will be less straightforward than Stardew Valley and also much less focused on maximizing profits with perfect products. I’ve become far too used to my gameplay style in Stardew Valley, so I’m ready to embrace a new cozy game that I’ll likely be very bad at.
Haunted Chocolatier Might Be Harder To Perfect
Intuition May Be More Important Than Numbers
In a recent interview with Baldur’s Gate 3 mods to how inadvertently difficult fishing is, while also touching on the development of Haunted Chocolatier and what ConcernedApe wants to achieve with his next game. One important aspect of Haunted Chocolatier that he highlighted is a focus on intuition versus mechanical engineering in how players approach the game.
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“I feel like games are often very left-brain focused. It’s like here’s your ingredients, now engineer the perfect chocolate. I’m thinking, well, what if you do intuitive chocolate making?” What exactly intuitive chocolate making means isn’t clear yet, but based on what has been revealed about the game thus far, it may have something to do with the supernatural elements, like ghosts, present in the game. ConcernedApe continued, “You have to let go of your desire to engineer the perfect chocolate and maybe just accept that there’s a mystery and a whimsy.”
Based on this explanation from ConcernedApe, it seems that Haunted Chocolatier won’t be as easy as Stardew Valley, at least when it comes to making steady, predictable revenue. There may be elements of randomness or vibe-based chocolate making that don’t translate well to always creating the maximum amount of profit. Games are inherently based on math and numbers, so it will be interesting to see how this concept of intuition translates to the actual gameplay of Haunted Chocolatier.
Stardew Valley Empires Lose Some Of The Coziness
Maximizing Profits Is A Common Goal
On the surface, Stardew Valley is a relaxing game that encourages players to take things at their own pace and make whatever progress seems important to them. Players are encouraged to pursue whatever makes them happy on any given day, whether that's planting flowers or spending all day fishing on the beach. Underneath that cozy veneer is a numbers game to mathematically maximize profits within the first year of starting on a new farm. For most players, racking up high numbers in the bank quickly becomes a priority, especially when new buildings and upgrades tend to cost a pretty penny.
When players learn how insanely profitable certain products are, that tends to become the only focus on their farm. The usual suspects are aged starfruit wine and truffle oil, as the incredible profits from those items make planting or tending to anything else seem like a waste of time in comparison. Once players know that these products will earn them the most money, other fun options on the farm are often left unexplored, like only herding sheep or planting corn through summer and fall.
Allowing players to follow their own whims and be rewarded will lend to the feeling that there is no wrong way to play.
When players have spreadsheets to plan out their exact profit margins based on crop growth speeds and available farm space, Stardew Valley begins to lose that laid-back, cozy vibe that initially made it so attractive. It seems that ConcernedApe wants to avoid this type of player behavior in his next title by purposely making it difficult for players to get profit down to a science. Based on his interview, he may be almost forcing players to embrace the imperfect process of creating something creative, specifically chocolate, in Haunted Chocolatier.
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Having seven years of experience in a game makes it almost impossible to unlearn how to play in the most efficient way possible. Even starting a new save doesn’t reset the urge to maximize profits, since a clean slate usually just feels like a new opportunity to enterprise even faster than last time. While the massive 1.6 update did add a lot of new items to help make Stardew Valley even more whimsical and fantastical than before, it also added new items that make it even easier to earn huge amounts of gold with the right strategies.
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Haunted Chocolatier will present a unique opportunity for players who love cozy games but have slowly gotten far too used to a more spreadsheet-oriented style of playing their games. Constantly checking numbers and referencing the wiki might not be as important, or even possible, in Haunted Chocolatier, which might create a much cozier experience without the possibility of always making the best choices based on statistics. Allowing players to follow their own whims and be rewarded will lend to the feeling that there is no wrong way to play.
Based on ConcernedApe’s comments on focusing on more spiritual and intuitive aspects for his next game after Stardew Valley, it seems likely that it will be much harder to always make the maximum amount of cash through creating S-tier products all the time. Collecting the best ingredients and choosing the most expensive option might not always work out. This will make for a more difficult game in one aspect, but it could potentially create a better cozy game experience for players who want to relax in a whimsical world rather than exploit its profit margins.
Source: PCGamer
Stardew Valley
- Released
- February 26, 2016
- ESRB
- E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)
- Developer(s)
- ConcernedApe
- Publisher(s)
- ConcernedApe
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