Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone recently shared screenshots from Haunted Chocolatier with the caption hinting at more information about the game to be shared in 2022. He also revealed more information about Haunted Chocolatier in an interview with VGKami, where he talked about the game’s progress, confirmed an in-game relationship system, and revealed the greatest challenge he faced so far during development.

Happy new year to all! I hope you all have a very positive 2022. Here’s a couple of small images from Haunted Chocolatier. There will be plenty more to come this new year! pic.twitter.com/GiBWnOjxdM

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) January 1, 2022

In the interview, Barone talked about the game’s progress and said that “the game’s coming along well.” He also stated that he’s creating the game from scratch like he did when creating Stardew Valley. However, he switched to Monogame, a free and open-source C# game engine, for Haunted Chocolatier instead of using XNA Framework like he used for Stardew Valley due to Monogame being more active and useful.

Barone also mentioned that the most significant challenge he faced during development was creating a game like Haunted Chocolatier. “One challenge with a game like Haunted Chocolatier (and Stardew Valley, for that matter), is that the game doesn’t really ‘shine’ until all the pieces are in place,” he said. Fans of Stardew Valley are familiar with Barone’s development process, as he prefers to release the game only when he truly believes it’s ready. This was the case with Stardew Valley, where the game was delayed from 2015 to 2016.

A major highlight from the interview is that Barone confirmed that Haunted Chocolatier will include a relationship system, and it might be different than the system implemented in Stardew Valley, “Yes, there will be relationships like in Stardew Valley. I haven’t decided exactly how the system will work, yet. And I expect to approach some things differently this time around.” In Stardew Valley, creating relationships with NPCs is a significant part of your character’s life as a small-town farmer. Having high relationship levels with the townspeople will reward you in different ways and allow you to date and marry some of them if they’re eligible romance candidates.

Barone was also asked about the future of Stardew Valley and whether he’ll be including major updates in the future after Haunted Chocolatier finishes development, “I have no plans either way. I don’t want to make any promises for more updates, and I also don’t want to say definitively that it’s finished.” Currently, Stardew Valley still receives updates and recently had a minor update mainly aimed to fix bugs and gameplay issues back in December 2021. However, there’s no telling as to when the next major update will appear anytime soon.

Although no release date has been set yet, fans can anticipate and look forward to more updates and teasers of Haunted Chocolatier throughout 2022.