Eric Barone, the man behind the popular game Stardew Valley, has given players a fresh update on his next project. He is talking about a game called Haunted Chocolatier. He wants everyone to know that the game is still happening and he is working hard on it.

The game was first announced back in the year 2021. It has been a while since then, and fans have been waiting for news. In May of 2024, Barone said he was not going to rush the game. He believes it is better to release a good game late than to release a bad game on time. He wants the game to be the best it can be.

Last year, Barone also made a promise to his fans. He said he would stop working on Stardew Valley updates until he finished Haunted Chocolatier. He wanted to focus all his energy on the new game. He also shared that the world in Haunted Chocolatier will be bigger than the world in Stardew Valley. However, there has not been much news since then.

Now, Barone has written a new post on the official game blog. He said he has been very productive lately. The game is alive and well, even though it is taking a long time to finish. He explained that taking a long time is not a bad thing.

Barone admitted that he announced the game too early. But he had his reasons for doing it. He also wanted to clear up some false stories that are going around on the internet. He wants to make sure fans know the truth about the game.

First, he assured everyone that he is not going to quit working on Haunted Chocolatier. He said that even if he did decide to stop, he would not put the unused ideas into Stardew Valley. He explained that the two games are completely separate from each other.

He gave a technical reason for this as well. Haunted Chocolatier is built with a totally new code. It is not the same engine as Stardew Valley. You cannot just copy and paste the new game into the old one. When he works on one game, he does not think about the other one.

Speaking of Stardew Valley, Barone is still working on a new update for that game, too. He has some new ideas for how to make it better. So, fans of the original game have something to look forward to as well.

Finally, he talked about the release date for Haunted Chocolatier. We still do not know when the game will come out. Barone said he does not want to give a release date yet. He wants to make sure the game is perfect before he tells people when they can buy it.

He said the bottom line is simple. The game will come out when it is done. He wants people to be patient and wait for a great game rather than a rushed one.

Back in January of last year, Barone shared some big sales numbers for Stardew Valley. As of December 2024, the game had sold more than 41 million copies across all platforms. Over half of those sales were on the PC, with 26 million copies sold. The Nintendo Switch version sold 7.9 million copies.