Eric Barone, more commonly known as ConcernedApe, has spoken with Nintendo Life about his projects, Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier. During that interview, the developer said he wanted to keep working on Stardew Valley. He felt he could work on it for the rest of his life by adding new stuff and fleshing out the existing content. Another main reason is that his first project is still so popular. He said he enjoyed engaging with the fans who kept playing his game, so he wanted to keep it alive for as long as possible.
Eric Barone said it was a rare opportunity to have this many people invested in one game for so long. One of the things he loved was to share the things he made with others to give them enjoyable experiences. “So it’s kind of hard. I don’t want to see it fizzle out; I want to keep it alive,” Barone said, “but then I also want to make a new game.”
This is likely why the man keeps updating Stardew Valley despite working on his next big project, Haunted Chocolatier. Barone is currently trying to balance working on the two titles. He admitted that he had some help with Stardew Valley updates. While the man continues to work on the creative side, Barone has allowed others to help him handle the game’s coding and other technical aspects. He said he was very particular about his vision but didn’t mind letting others work on the codes. “There’s also just areas where I’m just not that good at or I don’t have the knowledge to do really deeply technical stuff,” Barone told Nintendo Life.
The developer also talked about Haunted Chocolatier and how he believed the upcoming game differed from Stardew Valley. For instance, unlike the first project, players can enter a boss fight. While Barone hasn’t shared much detail about this game, he has released a short music titled “bee_boss.ogg” on YouTube. He said that designing bosses was a new challenge that he enjoyed. “Designing bosses is kind of an art form all unto itself, and I’m still learning stuff,” Barone said.
