Haunted Chocolatier | Boss Fights Confirmed

[Moonface]

Hey everyone,

After dedicating 10 years of my life to Stardew Valley (and counting), the time has finally come to announce my next game.

It’s called “ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier”.

Why chocolate? I’m not sure. It just kind of came to me. I think sometimes the best ideas just appear in a flash, instead of being cleverly thought out. That’s how I like to work, anyway. What’s important is the execution. And after 10 years of practice, I feel more confident than ever in being able to bring an idea to life.

Regardless, I think a lot of people like chocolate.

In Stardew Valley, the focus was more humble: living off the land, growing food, and connecting to the people and nature around you. However, with my next game, I wanted to explore more fantastical possibilities… experiences that take you beyond the ordinary. That’s where magical haunted ghost chocolate comes in.

Chocolate represents that which is delightful. The haunted castle represents the allure of the unknown. The ghosts represent the imprint of the past. All of these things are important. However, don’t think for a moment that, because this game features ghosts in a haunted castle, it is an evil or negative game. On the contrary, I intend for this game to be positive, uplifting and life-affirming. However, if Stardew Valley mostly channeled the energy of the sun, Haunted Chocolatier channels the energy of the moon. Both are vital.

More important than all that, I just want to make a fun game.

Now, you might be scratching your head, wondering exactly what type of game this is. I’m not sure how best to describe it. It’s evolving organically as I develop it, so I’m not sure where it will go. But at its core, the gameplay loop involves gathering ingredients, making chocolate, and running a chocolate shop. Of course, there’s a lot more to the game than that, but I don’t want to get too deep into at this early stage, partly because I don’t want to be tied down to any particular concept of what the game is.

So far, I’ve been having fun working on this game. There are so many possibilities. With Stardew Valley, I felt somewhat constrained, because I was working within an established tradition. I don’t regret that at all, but there’s always been a part of me that wanted to go “unleashed”. I believe this will be a good opportunity, but I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. I’ve been mostly working on the “meat and potatoes” of the game so far. But what really brings a game to life is the spice, the sauce. And I haven’t really gotten to the sauce yet. That’s coming.

Anyway, this is all largely talk at this point. While the video I put together may look like the game is at an advanced stage of development, there is still a ton of stuff to do. And the way I work, things often don’t come together until the final moments. I tend to work with a “vertical slice” approach, and so it’s easy to put together some video that looks like a finished game. But there is a ton of content I still need to make. So, please understand that it will be a while before this game is done. I’m going to be working on it as much as I can, though.

Thanks for reading all this,

-Ape

Anyone else interested in seeing more of this? I loved Stardew and I think this game looks really neat so far.

[Nightingale]

Yeah! Nothing like a passionated project from a passionated developer!

[Moonface]

Did you ever play Stardew Valley @Nightingale?

[Nightingale]

Nah, my computer died just as I got it >.<

[ShiraNoMai]

This has the vibes of the Halloween event in Stardew and I'm all here for it. Looks great! It's amusing to see the same UI and stuff from Stardew in what is essentially a new/different game but I mean, don't fix what ain't broke for one guy, ya know?

[Moonface]

Nah, my computer died just as I got it >.<

Darn, that sucks.
Although it is available on tablet and phone I think so you could always eventually play it on one of those if your computer is still dead and/or you don't intend to replace it any time soon.

[Moonface]

Not much to really glean from this image, but ConcernedApe posted this new screenshot on Twitter about 25 minutes ago:

I also forgot to post these other screenshots they shared around the 2021 holiday period:

• House Exterior + Bus Screenshots
  
• Lab Screenshot
  

Apparently CA is going to share more information once Stardew Valley 1.5 is wrapped up, but I haven't been able to find official confirmation of that claim.

[Kyng]

I rather like the look of this!

I never got far into Stardew Valley myself, but not because I didn't like the game (it's simply that I got it just before Transport Fever completely took over my life for a couple of months ). Now, I'm giving Stardew Valley another chance, and enjoying it again - but, once this game comes out, I'd certainly be interested in playing it!

[Moonface]

I rather like the look of this!

I never got far into Stardew Valley myself, but not because I didn't like the game (it's simply that I got it just before Transport Fever completely took over my life for a couple of months ). Now, I'm giving Stardew Valley another chance, and enjoying it again - but, once this game comes out, I'd certainly be interested in playing it!

We do have a Stardew Valley thread if you want to talk more about it on here.

I'm mostly looking forward to finding out what customization stuff we get in this game. Stardew was about building a farm, and while I expect this will let you make your shop interior I feel that's going to be way smaller in scale compared to a farm so I wonder what else might be customizable.

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ConcernedApe just uploaded this to YouTube:



Looks like this confirms that bosses are going to be in this game, which isn't something Stardew Valley had.