Eric Barone says he 'might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2,' but not because it'd make a zillion dollars: 'I honestly don't care about money that much'
Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, who's presently considering hiding away in a cabin to finish his long awaited next game, Haunted Chocolatier, says he might one day get around to making a sequel to the farming life sim that made him famous.
Stardew Valley 2 could "eventually" happen, Barone told comedian Bobby Lee on a recent episode of the TigerBelly podcast (via GamesRadar).
The topic comes up at around 43 minutes into the episode, after Lee asks Barone why he keeps adding free updates to Stardew Valley rather than making Stardew Valley 2.
"It's so much easier to just add more stuff to Stardew Valley than to make a whole new game from scratch," Barone said. "Because Stardew Valley, all the systems, the major systems, are already all done. That's the stuff that's not fun to do. When I make an update, it's like, throw in this, throw in that, let's add green rain. These random ideas I have, whimsical ideas.
"Because I'll play Stardew Valley myself, and when I'm playing, I'm like, 'Oh, wouldn't it be cool if there was this or that?' And then I can just do it, and that's a new update. It's really just fun and creative and spontaneous to do it that way."
Pressed to consider how much money a Stardew Valley sequel could make, Barone said that it could happen, but not because he wants to get richer.
"I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2, to be honest," he said, adding after a follow-up question about why he doesn't charge for Stardew Valley updates, "I just don't care about money that much to be honest."
Responding to friendly mock applause from the podcasters, Barone added, "Alright, I'm not trying to virtue signal. But I honestly don't care about money that much. It's never been the driving, motivating factor. What I care about is people loving the game."
Barone doesn't strike me as the type to have blown his Stardew Valley fortune on yachts, so it helps that affording necessities is unlikely to be a concern of his for the foreseeable future. But another reason he hasn't made a sequel, he says, is that he doesn't want to "just be the Stardew Valley guy," which is why he's working on Haunted Chocolatier.
At GDC earlier this year, Barone told PC Gamer that he's now fully focused on the candy-themed life sim.
"I think at some point I'm going to have to completely cut off everything else," Barone said. "Honestly, I've thought about, maybe I should just go into a cabin in the woods and completely get off the internet, and just say, 'Okay guys, I'll see you in two years. You won't hear from me at all and I'm going to finish this game.'"