Skip to main content

Stardew Valley creator’s next game is about a haunted chocolatier

In a surprise announcement, the lone developer behind Stardew Valley, Eric Barone, revealed his next game. Titled Haunted Chocolatier, the game places players in the shoes of a chocolate maker who has just moved to a new town.

ConcernedApe's Haunted Chocolatier -- Early Gameplay

By just about every metric, it seems that Haunted Chocolatier shares a lot of DNA with Stardew Valley. The game features an extremely similar pixel art style to the farming simulator, all the way down to individual character portraits that show up when players speak to NPCs. Likewise, the game’s UI has the same style as Stardew Valley.

Player running in front of the choclaterie in Haunted Chocolatier.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gameplay seems to be the only area where Barone — who also goes by the studio name ConcernedApe — makes a divergence between the two games. Players won’t farm crops or tend to animals, but rather will keep their small chocolate business afloat. To do that, players will travel through a portal in their house to a forest, where they can collect resources used to make chocolate, all the while fighting off enemies. Haunted Chocolatier‘s combat isn’t complex by any means, again sharing a majority of its DNA with Stardew Valley.

Recommended Videos

Once they’ve made their chocolate, players can decorate their shop with countertops, lamps, and other decor, and put their goods out for the town’s residents to buy. However, it won’t be players putting their goods out, but small ghosts, which is where the “haunted” bit of the game’s title comes into play. The ghosts don’t seem malicious, and instead help players run their shop.

Today’s trailer for Haunted Chocolatier only announced that the game is in development. A release date, along with platforms for the game, has not been announced.

Otto Kratky
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…
The best games like Stardew Valley
A player fishes in their local pond.

Working the farm, forming relationships with the townsfolk, and just enjoying the vibe are what make Stardew Valley such a great game to settle into. Easygoing games like this have become incredibly popular -- especially for those who don't typically play games -- but it can be hard to find more that offer that same type of experience if you don't know where to look. The farming and life-sim genre has become a bit bloated as of late with games not quite as polished or fully featured as you would hope. We've worked the land and harvested only the ripest games like Stardew Valley to satisfy your desire for more farming-sim goodness.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Read more
‘Hardcore’ Stardew Valley mod deletes your save if you open up guides
A wedding in Stardew Valley. The player characters is marrying Haley, who's in a bridal gown. They're standing underneath an arch with all the townsfolk watching.

Stardew Valley is already as challenging as you make it. But have you ever wanted it to be even worse? Well, a new mod that's been making the rounds online could help with that.

The "Hardcore Mode" mod was created by a software engineer called Sylvie Nightshade and released out into the world on Friday (spotted by GamesRadar). It does one simple task: delete your save if you just so happen to open the Stardew Valley Wiki in your browser.

Read more
This oddball game about a psychic infant is already winning awards
A baby levitates a bottle in Goodnight Universe.

There are some video games that just feel impossible to follow up. That was the case with 2021’s Before Your Eyes, an incredibly unique indie that players controlled by blinking thanks to eye-tracking technology. It’s a thematically ingenious game that turns “blink and you’ll miss it” into a gameplay mechanic. It’s a perfect idea -- almost too perfect. How can you possibly match something so tightly crafted?

The developers at Nice Dream knew more than anyone what a challenge that would be. Rather than telling the same story twice, the studio knew it would have to both be more creative and perhaps a bit less high concept. The end result of that thinking is something both familiar, but also entirely out of left field: Goodnight Universe. While it evolves Nice Dream’s face-tracking tech, the story leans more into screwball comedy as it puts players in control of a psychic infant at the center of a sci-fi mystery. That change seems to be working out; the project already won its first award at this year's Tribeca Fest, beating out anticipated indies like Skate Story and Neva.

Read more