Stardew Valley creator’s next game tease is reviving an old meme

Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe has shared a new image from his upcoming game Haunted Chocolatier, and it’s reminding fans of last year’s Grandpa’s bed meme.

For years now, Stardew Valley has been an indie gaming hit, prompting a revival of the farming sim and dominating the cozy games genre. With that in mind, it’s no wonder fans are anxiously awaiting whatever solo developer Eric Barone, better known as ConcernedApe, has in store next.

Barone announced his next game back in 2021: Haunted Chocolatier. Though little has been said about the game, which also does not have a release window, ConcernedApe has been sporadically sharing teases.

These have provided fans with intriguing glimpses of the game, but the latest is also reminding players of a Stardew Valley meme that really blew up last year.

Haunted Chocolatier also features an old man in bed

The latest Haunted Chocolatier tease was recently shared on Twitter. The screenshot, which features an old man waking up from a bad dream, doesn’t give much insight into gameplay or the teased focus on combat, but it has fans talking nonetheless.

Fans quickly connected the unnamed old man to the player’s grandfather from Stardew Valley’s opening cutscene, who passes away and leaves his farm behind for his grandchild.

Of course, what fans really have latched onto is grandpa’s deathbed. The scene itself is artistically pretty different from the rest of the game, and the bed he’s lying in looks very, very uncomfortable. ConcernedApe has explained that the entire “grandpa arc” was a very late addition, which is why the scene – and the terrible cot – are there.

However, despite players pointing this out for years and modders releasing their versions of the scene, Grandpa’s Bed really took off as a meme in 2022.

Since there, fans have created even more mods and edits of the opening. These range from the simple (giving Grandpa a worse bed) to the gruesome (Grandpa’s corpse rotting on the floor) to the absurd (Grandpa in the Family Guy death pose).

The latest Haunted Chocolatier tease has fans joking about how far ConcernedApe has come since Stardew Valley.

Some are even speculating that Haunted Chocolatier’s old man is the same as Stardew’s Grandpa.

ConcernedApe has said the two games will share some connections, though at the time, he wasn’t even sure how deep that would go.

Haunted Chocolatier is likely years away, so fans will just have to wait to see if the two old men are one and the same. In the meantime, ConcernedApe is working on Stardew Valley’s update 1.6, which will improve things for modders and add some new content.