ConcernedApe

ConcernedApe is the developer alias of Eric Barone, born December 3, 1987, and raised in Auburn, Washington. He is the sole creator of Stardew Valley, one of the best selling indie games of all time, and is currently developing his second game, Haunted Chocolatier. ConcernedApe is also the name of the company he founded to continue development. What makes his story remarkable is not just the game itself but what it took to make it, four and a half years of working alone, averaging ten hours a day, seven days a week, on every single aspect of the project.

ConcernedApe’s Origin Story: From Unemployed Graduate to Solo Developer

The Early Days

Eric Barone graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma in 2011 with a computer science degree and could not find work in the industry. He took a part-time job as an evening usher at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle while his girlfriend Amber Hageman worked two jobs to support them both. He started developing Stardew Valley in 2012 not because he dreamed of making a hit game but because he wanted to practice programming in C# and have something to show potential employers. That is the actual origin of one of the most beloved games ever made.

Teaching Himself Everything

Barone had no formal training in art, music, or game design. He taught himself pixel art using Paint.NET, composed the entire soundtrack using Reason Studios without any musical training beyond playing in bands growing up, and handled all programming, writing, animation, and design himself. No version control software, no development team, just one person backing up his files periodically on an external hard drive. He worked on it for almost four and a half years before releasing it.

ConcernedApe Games

Stardew Valley (2016)

Stardew Valley was released on February 26, 2016 for Windows via Steam and GOG. The inspiration was Harvest Moon, a series Barone loved as a kid but felt had declined in quality over time. He wanted to make the Harvest Moon game that the series had stopped delivering. British studio Chucklefish approached him halfway through development and offered to handle publishing, letting him focus on finishing the game. It passed one million copies sold within two months of launch. As of February 2026, Stardew Valley has sold 50 million copies across all platforms. It has been cited as one of the best video games ever made and is credited with reviving the farming sim genre. The game has received five major updates since launch, each adding significant content, and Barone continues to work on further updates. In 2019 he brought in a small team to assist with development starting with the 1.4 update.

Haunted Chocolatier (In Development)

In October 2021 Barone announced Haunted Chocolatier, his second game. The player runs a chocolate shop, and it has a greater focus on combat than Stardew Valley. Almost everything in the game, including the combat system, has been coded and drawn from scratch. As of 2026 it is still in development with no release date announced. Barone has described it as a passion project he is building the right way rather than rushing out.

Stardew Valley Beyond the Game

Stardew Valley has expanded well beyond the original release. A board game adaptation co-designed with Cole Medeiros launched in February 2021 and sold out immediately. An official cookbook co-authored by Barone was released in May 2024, published by Penguin Random House, featuring over 50 recipes adapted from the game. Barone launched the Festival of Seasons concert tour in October 2023, featuring music from the game performed live by a chamber orchestra, followed by the Symphony of Seasons tour in November 2024 featuring a 35-piece orchestra. The soundtrack has been performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Barone’s compositions are regularly featured on public broadcasting radio programs dedicated to video game music.

Why ConcernedApe Matters

The story of Stardew Valley is not really about farming games. It is about what one person can build when they commit completely to something. Barone started with no job, no money, no team, and no guarantee anyone would ever play the game. He spent four and a half years building it anyway. The result sold 50 million copies, revived a genre, and inspired a generation of solo developers to believe the same thing was possible for them. Haunted Chocolatier is going to be worth the wait.