In a surprise announcement, the lone developer behind Stardew Valley, Eric Barone, revealed his next game. Titled Haunted Chocolatier, the game places players in the shoes of a chocolate maker who has just moved to a new town.
By just about every metric, it seems that Haunted Chocolatier shares a lot of DNA with Stardew Valley. The game features an extremely similar pixel art style to the farming simulator, all the way down to individual character portraits that show up when players speak to NPCs. Likewise, the game’s UI has the same style as Stardew Valley.
Gameplay seems to be the only area where Barone — who also goes by the studio name ConcernedApe — makes a divergence between the two games. Players won’t farm crops or tend to animals, but rather will keep their small chocolate business afloat. To do that, players will travel through a portal in their house to a forest, where they can collect resources used to make chocolate, all the while fighting off enemies. Haunted Chocolatier‘s combat isn’t complex by any means, again sharing a majority of its DNA with Stardew Valley.
Once they’ve made their chocolate, players can decorate their shop with countertops, lamps, and other decor, and put their goods out for the town’s residents to buy. However, it won’t be players putting their goods out, but small ghosts, which is where the “haunted” bit of the game’s title comes into play. The ghosts don’t seem malicious, and instead help players run their shop.
Today’s trailer for Haunted Chocolatier only announced that the game is in development. A release date, along with platforms for the game, has not been announced.
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