There was a brief moment back in 2021 when it seemed like Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone might finally be done with his mega-popular farm-life sim – until, that is, update 1.6 was suddenly announced and rapidly took on a life of its own. And now Barone has admitted it’s unlikely he’ll ever ‘definitively close the book’ on its development, saying (probably not entirely seriously) he might still be adding things “50 years from now”.
Stardew Valley was an immediate hit when it released back in 2016, selling over 400K copies in just two weeks. Nearly nine years later, that number has reached the 41m mark, and Barone, somewhat remarkably, has continued to expand the game – most recently in last year’s 1.6 update, which was originally supposed to be relatively modest in scope when it was announced in 2022, but grew increasingly ambitious as time went on.
That’s despite Barone having seemingly drawn a line under Stardew Valley’s development a year earlier, when he confirmed he’d be focusing his attention on a new game – later revealed to be Haunted Chocolatier. But while Barone has now resumed development of his second title following a pause for Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update, he’s admitted he doesn’t think he’ll ever necessarily be done with his farming game.
Speaking to NPR, Barone revealed that even though he’s now been working on Stardew Valley for more than 12 years, “I don’t want to definitively say that the book is ever closed, because I think I will always have a desire to come back and maybe add a thing or two. You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something.”
That doesn’t mean Barone doesn’t see a natural end point for the title, however. “I think a game can have too much content,” he explained. “And I ultimately want Stardew Valley to be the best game it can be. So if I feel like it’s starting to become kind of overwhelmed with content to the point where it’s detrimental to the game’s entertainment factor, I would stop.”
And for the time being, at least, it does appear Barone has taken a step back from Stardew Valley following the rather lengthy two-year development of its 1.6 update. As he revealed in December last year, work has now resumed on Haunted Chocolatier.
“Even though Haunted Chocolatier has only been revealed publicly to a tiny degree,” he said at the time, “in my own private world it’s a special place, and I’m very attached to the characters, themes, and ideas.” It does, however, sounds like its release is still some way off, with Baron explaining, “It’s going to be a lot of work still, but it’s okay, I’m addicted to the grind.”
