Stardew Valley creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone surprised everyone with the announcement of Stardew Valley 1.7 at the recent Symphony of Seasons concert.
With the indie developer also working on his long in-development Haunted Chocolatier, some fans worried that the new update would end up pushing back the new game’s release.
In a new FAQ on the official Haunted Chocolatier website, ConcernedApe did explain that the new update will likely end up pushing the new game back ever-so-slightly. However, the game’s development won’t be too affected.
“Maybe a little, but not as much as you might think,” the Stardew Valley creator said online.
Additionally, the Stardew Valley 1.7 update won’t specifically be developed by ConcernedApe himself. Instead, the indie developer has recruited a team to work on the new update with himself “trying to take more of a ‘creative director’ role” while “the vast majority” of his time is spent on the new game.
In the past, ConcernedApe has physically touched every update with 1.6 being a collaborative effort between himself and the developer of the Stardew Valley Expanded mod. For this update, the developer explained that he will end up working on the project more at some point as they need their “hand to touch every piece of new content.”
ConcernedApe explained that the existence of the 1.7 update is simply due to how popular Stardew Valley still is a decade on. Even now, the game is played by thousands every day and enjoys a vibrant community making mods, videos or just playing the farming game.
“The reality of my life is that I have a very popular first game that I still want to take care of, which means that my second game might take a little longer,” he said.
“It is what it is. I didn’t have to make a 1.7 update for Stardew Valley, but the game is still so popular (in fact, still growing) that it’s hard to just stop improving it when there are still things that can be improved.”
While Stardew will see multiple new hands working on its next update, Haunted Chocolatier is described as an entirely solo affair with the developer having no plans to bring anyone else on board.
Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley 1.7 both have no release date at the time of writing.
