Haunted Chocolatier was announced almost 4 years ago, but don't worry, Eric Barone says Stardew Valley 1.7 won't "hinder" the development of his next life sim

Stardew Valley's 1.7 update was properly confirmed by creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone just yesterday, but the life sim game dev was quick to assuage fan fears about the next content drop getting in the way of Haunted Chocolatier's development.

Haunted Chocolatier, the seemingly chill game about running a chocolate shop for ghosts, was announced nearly four years ago. Part of the reason for its long development is because Barone has also been working on Stardew Valley patches on-and-off the entire time.

But after last year's 1.6 update, Barone said he was finally "committed to not working on Stardew Valley until I'm done with Haunted Chocolatier." That's why yesterday's 1.7 update raised some eyebrows from fans looking forward to the action-RPG.

Fear not, though. Just after the reveal on social media, Barone responded to a fan worried about whether the update would affect Haunted Chocolatier. "My plan is that this will not hinder Haunted Chocolatier development," the dev promised.

No other details about Stardew Valley 1.7 were given, though whatever's coming in the next update is probably early in development. And even if a much-wanted feature skips 1.7, Barone previously said he could see himself updating Stardew Valley 50 years from now, so nothing's really ever off the table.

"I do want to make more than one game in my life. Including the development time, I've been working on Stardew Valley for over 12 years now. But I don't want to definitively say that the book is ever closed, because I think I will always have a desire to come back and maybe add a thing or two. You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something," he said earlier this year.

Stardew Valley becomes truly inescapable as it joins the September PlayStation Plus games lineup alongside an impeccable indie puzzler and one of the best platformers of the modern era