The former one-man band will be returning to his solo roots after teaming up with some other developers for various Stardew Valley updates. If you know anything about ConcernedApe, it’s that he “hates asking for help”.
Known as 'Sprout Valley' in its infancy, development was born on Haunted Chocolatier from an attempt to address changes that Barone would have made to the classic simulation game Harvest Moon. Staying to true to himself, and with ethics at the fore, Barone made sure that gameplay didn’t feature any animals being harmed. Read on for more!
What is Haunted Chocolatier?
Haunted Chocolatier is an RPG/simulation game that sees you play as a chocolatier, gathering ingredients whilst residing in a haunted castle, to produce chocolate for sale to the townspeople.
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Fans can expect more information in the run-up to release with Barone stating: “Of course, there’s a lot more to the game than that, but I don’t want to get too deep into at this early stage, partly because I don’t want to be tied down to any particular concept of what the game is.”
“I haven’t really gotten to the sauce yet. That’s coming,” Barone admitted, when referring to the aspect of the game that would complement the “meat and potatoes” of the chocolatey facet already outlined.
Barone’s ad-hoc nature has been instrumental to his success (as has his music recordings) and he is fortunate enough to be his own taskmaster.
“If Stardew Valley mostly channelled the energy of the sun, Haunted Chocolatier channels the energy of the moon. Both are vital,” he added.
Haunted Chocolatier release date speculation
The Haunted Chocolatier release date has not been confirmed yet, although fans of ConcernedApe would surely love to start playing it in 2022.
Barone stated in the video’s description: “This is the next game that I'm making, but it's not going to be ready for a while still.” Fans will know that Barone likes to get his games into players hands as soon as possible, so we really are holding out hope for something playable to arrive next year, even if it's just a beta or demo.
He added: “I can’t commit to a release date yet. It’s still relatively early in development and I want to be able to work in peace without the pressure of a release date, or even an estimated release date.”
With a net worth of $34 million dollars, Barone intends to self-publish, dispelling rumours of Chucklefish handling such duties this time around.
