Stardew Valley has been the center of attention in the realm of cozy gaming for nearly a decade. Created by solo developer ConcernedApe, AKA Eric Baron, on a rickety desk, Stardew Valley has become a juggernaut in the world of cozy games and one of the best-selling games of all time, beating titles like World of Warcraft, Mario Kart Wii, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in of sales. With all this success and attention, Stardew Valley might be holding its developer back from moving on and creating another cozy game masterpiece.

The Stardew Valley added a considerable number of changes to the game but also took up a large chunk of 2024 after porting to consoles and mobile, which took months and months to finish. These lost months might have taken away from the time ConcernedApe and his team could have spent on Haunted Chocolatier, which is disappointing since the game looks like another instant classic.

ConcernedApe Gives Stardew Valley So Much Attention

This Labor Of Love Has Lasted For Almost A Decade

Stardew Valley was released in 2016, but unlike most other games almost a decade old, it is still receiving regular updates from its creator. Ever since 2016, ConcernedApe has been updating Stardew Valley. These updates weren’t just to optimize the game for new generations of consoles and PCs but also to add incredible new content for free.

Since Stardew Valley has remained a project led by a tiny team, creating new additions for an update and porting that update to multiple platforms takes a lot of time. It’s fantastic to have a labor of love like Stardew Valley by a dedicated developer, but massive updates for an older game might detract from an title.

Haunted Chocolatier has been described as an action RPG, where players collect ingredients for making sweets at their candy store.

ConcernedApe and his small team's next title is Haunted Chocolatier, another game with his signature pixel art style but completely different gameplay. Rather than another cozy farming game, Haunted Chocolatier has been described as an action RPG, where players collect ingredients for making sweets at their candy store. There haven’t been many announcements on what the game will be like exactly, but like Stardew Valley, players will be able to romance NPCs and customize the layout of their area, just like the farm in Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley’s 1.6 Update Has Taken A Lot Of Development Time

Porting To Console And Mobile Took Longer Than Expected

The most significant update for Stardew Valley was 1.6, which officially came out for PC on March 19, 2024. The 1.6 update added many new features for players to enjoy, including a new farm type, festivals, NPCs, achievements, better dialogue, and Easter Eggs. The list of additions for 1.6 is absurdly long, as almost every aspect of the game was tweaked in some way, from adding new fishing bobber styles in Willy’s Shop to adding Winter outfits for every NPC in Pelican Town.

It's safe to say that creating and coding all the additions in the 1.6 update took a lot of time and work. On top of that, Stardew Valley is a multi-platform title, meaning this update must meet special requirements for every unique platform. Because of these requirements, it took almost eight months from the release of 1.6 on PC for the same update to come to console and mobile on November 4, 2024.

Haunted Chocolatier Still Has No Release Date After Being Revealed Five Years Ago

1.6 Held ConcernedApe Back For Almost A Year

ConcernedApe announced the development of Haunted Chocolatier all the way back in 2020 and revealed a short gameplay trailer in late 2021, which gave a promising outlook on the game’s development. However, as of early 2025, the game still has no release date. While a game being created by a solo developer, or even a very small team, isn’t expected to have a fast turnaround, the time ConcernedApe spent on Stardew Valley throughout 2024 has undoubtedly slowed down progress on Haunted Chocolatier.

In a blog post on Haunted Chocolatier's blog, ConcernedApe stated that pausing work on Haunted Chocolatier was sad but that he feels “a strong sense of duty and obligation to all the people who have bought Stardew Valley over the years.” He also revealed that 1.6 wasn’t originally supposed to take so much time but that “it kind of snowballed into a pretty substantial amount of new content.” It’s unfortunate that 1.6 has taken up so much time, especially with the issues porting to console and mobile.

While the 1.6 update for Stardew Valley is impressive, it is too bad that it comes at the cost of the Haunted Chocolatier’s development since it will likely be an indie masterpiece. Hopefully, ConcernedApe will be able to focus solely on Haunted Chocolatier in 2025 and announce a release date in the near future.

Source: Haunted Chocolatier Blog