Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone a.k.a ConcernedApe has decided to raise his brain baby all by his lonesome, for the most part. On top of being the sole developer, he will now take over publishing of the game.
Barone posted on his blog on November 30th, “Starting December 14th, I’ll begin self-publishing Stardew Valley on PC, XBOX, PS4, and PSVITA.” He goes on to mention that Chucklefish Games, the game’s current publisher, will continue to publish the Nintendo Switch and Mobile versions of the game. This has the appearance of a harmonious separation, with Chucklefish getting the baby on weekends (i.e. Switch and Mobile) and papa Barone taking majority control.
Barone continued, “When I first released Stardew Valley, I was a complete novice to the video game industry. Chucklefish, as my publisher, oversaw the distribution, console ports and translations of the game. They set up the official wiki and helped me redesign the website, to great effect. And of course,Tom Coxon did amazing work adding network code to the game, making multiplayer a reality.”
Chucklefish themselves commented in both a tweet and in the blog post supporting ConcernedApe, stating in the blog, “We are proud to be part of the Stardew Valley story and wish ConcernedApe every success with his new self-publishing venture.” This doesn’t mean Chucklefish is taking any time to slow down immediately either, with the Switch Multiplayer update currently in submission and an Android version coming down the pipeline.
As mutually beneficial as their relationship has been, Barone made it clear he was prepared for independence and that, “I think self-publishing is the end-goal of most indie developers, and I’m happy to be in a place where that’s possible!” We are happy for you as well, Eric, and I will continue to log in and create farms that are infinitely less aesthetically pleasing than every farm I see on the internet.
