Recently, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has taken to the official blog of his current project, Haunted Chocolatier, to give small update on the anticipated game. This might come as a small shock to fans, especially considering the quite nature of the new game’s development. Not only does Barone primarily use his social media platform to continue advertising the game that put him on the map, Stardew Valley, but the blog he uses to put out updates relatively inactive, with the last entry being posted on January 28th of this year.
Going over the post itself, it starts off with a reassertion that the game is still in development, followed by an acknowledgement of the long development time, especially when compared to its announcement in 2021. He follows this by giving a reason for the long development process is quality control, saying that the elements players will interact with in the game “need to be seamless, clear, intuitive, satisfying, aesthetic.” He then spends the majority of the blog post talking about his revisiting of UI for a major game mechanic.
This section of the blog post details the lengths ConcernedApe will go in order to provide players with the best experience he can. He details the balance he wants to strike perfectly for this UI because of how often players will interact with it. The UI must be easy to navigate, appealing to look at, and informational without being mundane or dense. The goal of taking all of this effort, according to Barone, is not only to make the player-experience comfortable, but delightful, even with easily ignorable elements like a game’s UI.
The blog post ended with a post-script about the lack of screenshots, with him stating that he does not know how much the game will evolve aesthetically and mechanically, and he would “rather serve a fully baked bread,” as he puts it. Looking at the comments below the post, the reaction to this most recent update is positive, fans giving words of encouragement to the solo-developer and sharing in their united anticipation. Unfortunately, the post does not give a release date for the game, nor does it indicate that the release will happen anytime soon.