{"id":800159,"date":"2026-10-12T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800159\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:30:10","slug":"stardew-valley-creators-new-game-haunted-chocolatier-is-more-of-an-action-rpg-than-farming-sim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800159\/","title":{"rendered":"Stardew Valley creator&#8217;s new game, Haunted Chocolatier, is &#8220;more of an action RPG&#8221; than farming sim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, has given a new interview &#8211; and finally revealed a little more information about his upcoming title, Haunted Chocolatier. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq-magazine.co.uk\/article\/a-decade-after-stardew-valley-eric-barone-is-still-going-it-alone\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a wide-ranging interview with GQ<\/a>,  which tackles topics ranging from creative burnout to the importance of &#8216;cosy gaming&#8217;, Barone also slips in some new information about what we can expect from his highly-anticipated Stardew Valley follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s all rather surprising. Per the interview, this game is a much more action-oriented affair than the cosy homesteading of Stardew Valley: &#8220;It is still what I call a town game,&#8221; he told GQ, &#8220;but it&#8217;s more of an action RPG &#8211; the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zmvpXBl3xpk\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For anyone that&#8217;s played Stardew Valley, this won&#8217;t be a massive shock; there is a combat element to the game, though mostly it&#8217;s sequestered to one portion of the map &#8211; the mines that hold some of the game&#8217;s rarest materials. If you had fun venturing in there at night to fight slimes and horde minerals, you&#8217;re going to like Haunted Chocolatier, it seems. &#8220;[The new game] is for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines. That&#8217;s what I do, honestly,&#8221; said Barone.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Barone noted that Haunted Chocolatier is a more &#8220;metaphysical&#8221; experience than Stardew Valley &#8211; which makes sense, I suppose, given its connection to the world of ghosts and spirits &#8211; and that &#8220;no one&#8217;s playing the game until I&#8217;m ready to show it&#8221;. Hence, there&#8217;s still no word on a solid release date.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Haunted Chocolatier image showing the inside of a fishing shop\" data-autosize=\"bounds_lossy\" data-uri=\"Haunted-Chocolatier-image-showing-the-inside-of-a-fishing-shop.png\" height=\"872\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.761467889908257\" width=\"1536\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The last update we had on the game was all the way back in January, where Barone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/im-alive-the-game-is-still-in-development-stardew-valley-creator-concernedape-gives-update-on-haunted-chocolatier\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">noted &#8220;I&#8217;m alive, the game is still in development&#8221;<\/a>, following up previous statements he made alluding to the fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/haunted-chocolatier-will-have-a-larger-world-than-stardew-valley-creator-confirms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the world of Haunted Chocolatier is bigger than Stardew<\/a> Valley. As for when it&#8217;s coming out? &#8220;The bottom line is, I don\u2019t want to give a release date,&#8221; Barone said at the start of the year. &#8220;The game will come out when it&#8217;s done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you want to learn more about the man behind one of video gaming&#8217;s biggest phenomena of the past few generations, I&#8217;d urge you to read the full GQ piece: it&#8217;s a sensitive, comprehensive look at a man that boasts many talents, yet is also humble and grounded. If you&#8217;re interested in the musical side of his development process, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2022\/dec\/16\/stardew-valley-eric-barone-interview-soundtrack-seasons-high-scores\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I profiled Barone once in my column at The Guardian. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, has given a new interview &#8211; and finally revealed a little more information&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}