With info about ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier only coming out a couple times a month, as well as the fact that he’s been working on the 1.7 update of Stardew Valley for a while, some have been worried that the game has been, at the very least, temporarily shelved. However, a blog post on June 25 has given players some sighs of relief.

“I’m still working on the game.” Ape said in his latest post. “Feels kinda dumb posting this same thing over and over, but that’s the reality.” What he’s working on at the moment is the UI, as well as the chocolate recipes, which is a huge thing that Haunted Chocolatier is centred around. Almost like plants are in Stardew Valley. And people who played that at the start know that the plants were done very well right from the start, something that gives a lot of trust in the chocolates being done very well in HC.

Unfortunately, ConcernedApe didn’t give us any new screenshots, because he wants us to see the “fully baked bread” (or fully cooked chocolate?) of a finished game, not of an in-development one. We did get a number in his previous blog post from January, however, which more fully addresses some of the direct questions that he’s been getting about the game. If you’ve been worried the chocolatier is testing out gameplay for the farmer, or the farmer for the chocolatier, drop that worry. Two games, fully separate. I was slightly worried myself that Stardew Valley would be taking some time away from Haunted Chocolatier, and it probably is, but I’m getting some relief that it’s not taking away too much time. And hey, Stardew Valley took five years to develop. Haunted Chocolatier will be five years announced in October, and while it was being developed before that time, it’s also looking to be a game bigger than Pelican Town was at launch. So slow and small as the announcements may be, I don’t think we have much reason to be worried.

What about you? Will you play Haunted Chocolatier at launch? What do you think about the rate it seems to be getting developed, or the rate that ConcernedApe seems to be telling us about it? Tell us in the comments below, or on Facebook!