Haunted Chocolatier Larger Than Stardew Valley, Says Creator

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has confirmed that his upcoming game, Haunted Chocolatier, will be "larger" than the already expansive Stardew Valley.

But how much larger, or in what way? Barone didn't elaborate, unfortunately. His full statement was simply: "The world of Haunted Chocolatier is larger than Stardew Valley." If he's referring to game length, it's worth noting that How Long To Beat lists the average Stardew Valley playthrough at over 50 hours for the main story and around 168 hours for completionists.

Unsurprisingly, these ten words sparked immediate excitement across his fan communities. One fan exclaimed: "[Concerned Ape] STOP TEASING. I MEAN- DON'T STOP TEASING. I MEAN- I DON'T KNOW, I'M SO EXCITED BUT I DON'T WANT YOU TO RUSH. TAKE YOUR SWEET TIME. WE LOVE YOU."

Last month, Barone shared that he "didn't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy," which is why he's now focused on Haunted Chocolatier. However, don't expect a release date soon — Barone recently admitted there's "still a lot to be done," especially since he feels the new game "has to be better" than Stardew Valley.

That said, he also hinted that he might "eventually make a Stardew Valley 2." Before getting too excited, though, the developer noted it's "so much easier to just add more content to Stardew Valley than to create a whole new game from scratch."

"All the major systems are already in place. Building those isn't the fun part. When I work on an update for Stardew Valley now, it's about adding this or that — like green rain, just random, whimsical ideas."

Barone first announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021. Similar to Stardew Valley, it will be a top-down, pixel-art simulation game, and it appears to carry the same distinctive charm as ConcernedApe's previous work.