Stardew Valley's creator wants you to know that just because he keeps adding to the farming sim, it doesn't mean he's "abandoned" Haunted Chocolatier

Updates for Haunted Chocolatier have been infrequent, but Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has made it clear it's still coming.

You'd think that with all the updates that have come to Stardew Valley over the years that ConcernedApe might have been able to move on from the farming sim at some point, but earlier this year the game's 1.6 update arrived adding even more to it. That has, unsurprisingly, led some fans to wonder what's going on with the indie developer's next game, Haunted Chocolatier. That game was first announced three years ago, and hasn't had many updates since, but in a recent blog post, ConcernedApe has shared some of his thoughts regarding working on both games, attempting to calm fans' concerns over the follow-up's status.

ConcernedApe explained that the 1.6 update kept him busy not just because of the work it took to make it, but also bringing it to consoles and fixing bugs and the like. "This has all pulled me away from Haunted Chocolatier development," the developer wrote. "It’s been a little sad to see Haunted Chocolatier getting dusty on the shelf… but this is the reality of my situation. Stardew Valley is a big and popular game, and I have a lot of attachment to it. I also feel a strong sense of duty and obligation to all the people who have bought Stardew Valley over the years, granting me this rare opportunity to be an indie game developer. So it’s hard to “let go” of Stardew, even temporarily, to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people."

Luckily, ConcernedApe did note that he has a "strong desire to make more games" and that there's more he wants to share about Haunted Chocolatier "and beyond," explaining that "even though Haunted Chocolatier has only been revealed publicly to a tiny degree, in my own private world it’s a special place, and I’m very attached to the characters, themes, and ideas. Also, I’ve already done a ton of work on the game."

The post also showed off a few new screenshots, which'll hopefully act as a nice way to convince folks that progress is happening, but ConcernedApe did want to make it clear that even if he doesn't post about it for a while, "it doesn’t mean I have abandoned the game. Sometimes I feel like sharing things, and sometimes I don’t. My preferred approach is to disappear and work in isolation, and only emerge when I have something complete and worthy, rather than share a bunch of stuff that is unfinished, and therefore not in accordance with the final vision."

Haunted Chocolatier is likely still years away from being done, but to be honest, there's so much to do in Stardew Valley, I imagine you'll be able to keep yourself plenty busy.