Overview
- Eric Barone, in a Game Informer interview published Tuesday, said he now spends five days on Haunted Chocolatier and two on Stardew Valley and described development as "knee deep."
- He said the new game is much larger than Stardew Valley with more maps, more monsters, deeper item systems, and extra equipment slots, and there is no release window yet.
- Barone plans a darker, slightly creepy tone for Haunted Chocolatier that departs from Stardew Valley's cozier feel.
- He said Haunted Chocolatier is a separate, from-scratch project on a different engine and will not be folded into Stardew Valley.
- To free time, he will take a creative-director role on Stardew Valley 1.7, which outlets report could add new marriage candidates, improvements to children, and tools to edit farm layouts, and he said fan mail and business demands now make focused work harder.