Stardew Valley's creator is working on another life sim, and it looks just as sweet as his first.
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Join the club for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation, and sign you up to our newsletter. Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsis the eagerly-awaited next outing from Stardew Valley creator Eric"ConcernedApe" Barone, which you could probably tell from a quick glance.
While there's a strong resemblance with the beloved farm life sim, Haunted Chocolatier's ditching the farm business for sweeter pastures: It's chocolate shop sim time. Also, there are ghosts. Barone revealed Haunted Chocolatier with a surprise announcement back in 2021. While the unveiling immediately sent the frothing masses of Stardew fans into a frenzy of excitement, Barone quickly retreated back behind the curtain to work on the life sim in secret.
Can't blame him, really. Frothing masses can be a lot. Still, we've gotten a few brief glimpses at what to expect from the Stardew successor. Here's everything we know about Haunted Chocolatier.
Unfortunately, no, we don't have an expected release date or even an expected release year for Haunted Chocolatier yet. If you've somehow heard"2030" from somewhere, Barone reminded us all in one of histhat this is a misunderstanding from him answering"I hope so" when asked if Haunted Chocolatier will come out within the next five years. But hey, at least Barone isis:"I'm not going to release anything that I'm not happy with.
If I don't think it's a great game, I'm not going to release it. So even if that takes years and years, so be it. That's just what I want to do.
"In the same post linked above, Barone also addressed some negative fan speculations about Haunted Chocolatier. Such as it was going to be canceled and just added to Stardew Valley. While Barone shot this down, there's so denying that the looming shadow of Stardew Valley is never far behind.that there will actually be a 1.7 update for Stardew Valley.
When asked if this would slow down development of Haunted Chocolatier,This is due to Stardew Valley having a team that works on it now—it's not a solo project for Barone anymore. Instead, he's trying to take on more of a"creative director role". The first trailer for Haunted Chocolatier looks incredibly similar to Stardew Valley in terms of environment and character design, but instead of tending to a farm you're decorating a shop and crafting sugary treats instead of animal products.
The trailer also shows off a pretty detailed look at combat with new gear like shields and bows, and how that plays into collecting resources to make your chocolate. We're also seen some interactions with a few of the townsfolk, who ConcernedApe has confirmed you'll be able to pursue romance with. Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors Since the gameplay trailer, our only updates have come from the occasional surprise reveal of new Haunted Chocolatier screenshots shared by ConcernedApe Once again, these are pretty limited in what they reveal about the game, but they have still fuelled the anticipation toward the eventual release.
Instead of a farming simulation, Chocolatier is a shop sim where you'll be creating chocolate and selling it in your store. Like Stardew, Chocolatier has a local town full of stores and NPCs with their own stories that you'll get to know as you grow your shop.
"I’m not sure how best to describe it," Barone said in his announcement blog post,"but at its core, the gameplay loop involves gathering ingredients, making chocolate, and running a chocolate shop. " One thing that Barone has gone a little deeper on is the combat, which he says is a greater focus in his next game. Chocolatier will have shields, which you can use to block attacks and stun enemies as a result.
Barone says there will be other off-hand items as alternatives to shields to complement different play styles. We haven't gotten much explanation on exactly how running your chocolate shop works, but there are some snippets to catch in the reveal trailer.
You can spot a player choosing from different countertop styles, setting out different types of chocolate on the counters in their shop, and a crowd of characters walking around the shop while it's open as your ghost friends carry chocolate over their heads.that Chocolatier will have romantic relationships again.
"There will be relationships like in Stardew Valley. I haven’t decided exactly how the system will work, yet. And I expect to approach some things differently this time around.
"Casually revealed in a livestream back in April 2022, Haunted Chocolatier will, evidently, feature boss fights in its combat. Surprise! Barone joined the composing software developers at Reason Studios to talk about the soundtrack process for Stardew Valley. Along the way, Barone debuted a track for a bossfight in Haunted Chocolatier—no, we didn't know there were any.
, judging from the title"beeboss," indicates that there'll be a boss fight against a bee enemy. Probably encountered while gathering honey. For chocolate. Barone also revealed some of the game's general background music, with aconfirmed that the world of Haunted Chocolatier will be larger than Stardew Valley.
I wish I could expand on that for you, but that's all Barone tweeted out. No accompanying screenshots, videos, or details. Just a"The world of Haunted Chocolatier is larger than Stardew Valley," then a tweet drought. Although, what we can work out from this is that yes, Haunted Chocolatie will take place across a pretty substantial area, as Stardew Valley's world is already quite big.
We can also surmise that some of this land mass might be made up by the different realms you traverse to gather chocolate ingredients. Earning a response like it was a rare gift from a benevolent but distant god, after months without sign or symbol of Haunted Chocolatier, Baronein September 2023 to bestow a blessing on this weary world. By which I mean he uploaded a Haunted Chocolatier screenshot, followed by four more in early October.
Here they are:While there are no hauntings or chocolates pictured, the old man bears a strong resemblance to the player's Grandpa in Stardew Valley, as do the later screenshots of the countryside. This has ignited theories about a connection between the two games. A sequel? A prequel?
A sidequel? An AU? We'll have to wait and see. After having a go at"Gamer journalists," on X for writing"an article every time i tweet", ConcernedApe then posted a very autumnal screenshot of Haunted Chocolatier, forcing gamer journalists to write an article about one of his tweets.
How could ConcernedApe do this? In all seriousness, the screenshot does look pretty beautiful. And after a fan asked about the status of fishing below the picture, Barone confirmed that you can fish in Haunted Chocolatier. Something that'll either thrill, or despair, Stardew Valley players.
page for even more details and speculation. But at a glance, here's all of the cast of characters in Haunted Chocolatier that we know about so far:- She lives in a neon, plant-filled home, and as seen within the reveal trailer, sends you an invitation of some sort. Ooo, mysterious.
- Only referred to as '???
' so far, all we know is that this old man tells you about a"terrbile dream" he had. Barone hasn't specifically mentioned modding support or tools for Haunted Chocolatier yet, but I think it's a very safe bet to assume there will be mods for Chocolatier regardless. Barone was supportive of modders during his years of Stardew Valley updates, and the same will likely be true with Chocolatier. Given just how manyNope, Haunted Chocolatier is going to be singleplayer only.
With Stardew Valley, multiplayer was added as a major game update after launch. Barone isn't planning to do the same thing this time around. As with Stardew's early days though, it's possible that modders will find a way to add multiplayer even without official support.that he"wouldn't ever want to use AI for any sort of creative thing," because his goal is to express himself in a creative way.
"Why would I let AI do that for me? " So me can all look at those screenshots for the 1000th time secure in the knowledge that not a lick of AI went into producing them. Lovely. Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017.
She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.
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