Haunted Chocolatier looks a lot like Stardew Valley, and that certainly isn’t a coincidence. While we imagine that many things about the game will change during development, Barone has a pretty distinctive pixel art style, so the finished product will probably still look like Stardew Valley in at least some regards. In any case, Barone already has a website set up for Haunted Chocolatier with both a blog and an FAQ. In the first blog post about the game, Barone says that even though the Haunted Chocolatier features spooky stuff like ghosts and a haunted mansion, it won’t be “an evil or negative game.” Instead, Barone says, “I intend for this game to be positive, uplifting and life-affirming. However, if Stardew Valley mostly channeled the energy of the sun, Haunted Chocolatier channels the energy of the moon. Both are vital.”
In the accompanying FAQ, we learn that so far, Haunted Chocolatier is a solo project for Barone, just as Stardew Valley was. Barone also describes Haunted Chocolatier as “another ‘town game’” where players will be moving to a new town and getting to know the people who live there. However, Barone also describes Haunted Chocolatier as “more of an action-RPG compared to Stardew Valley,” so we can expect some changes on the gameplay front.
Barone also confirms that Haunted Chocolatier is being developed in a new game engine, though sadly, he doesn’t want to reveal if it’s set in the Stardew Valley universe yet. He also says that while he intends to bring Haunted Chocolatier to major platforms, he can only confirm the game for PC at the moment. There’s no talk of a release date yet, as Barone says the game is still “relatively early in development.” It sounds like we’ll be waiting a while for the arrival of Haunted Chocolatier, but we’ll let you know when Barone shares more.
Keyword: Stardew Valley creator reveals next game: ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier