ConcernedApe wants to keep updating Stardew Valley "for the rest of its life"

This week Stardew Valley completed its 1.6 update (and we reviewed it) by releasing the console version and releasing patch 1.6.9 on all platforms, adding hundreds of new items, secrets and dialogue to the already huge and popular farm simulator, which has surpassed 30 million copies sold.

And while it's hard to see how the experience could continue to expand while maintaining some cohesion between old and new elements, creator Eric Barone still has plenty of ideas in store.

In fact, he says he has enough to keep expanding Stardew Valley for the rest of his life, which he hopes to do. He confirmed this in an interview with Nintendo Life, in which he discussed his journey through the game's development.

"I have so many ideas for Stardew. I feel like I could work on it for the rest of my life, and just keep improving it, adding more stuff to it, more content, fleshing out the existing content. That's the main thing I want to do is flesh out the existing content. And okay, here's another thing: It's so popular."

Although the media tried to elicit some new information from him about his upcoming game Haunted Chocolatier, Barone was his usual secretive self on the subject, although he did address the issue of boss combat design (a departure from Stardew) which he's been working on for quite some time recently.

"Designing bosses is a whole new ball game from anything that's Stardew. And I think I wanted something different. I wanted a challenge because I want to keep growing as a game developer. I didn't want to just do exactly the same thing again. I know a lot of people say, "Haunted Chocolatier looks like it's just a copy and paste Stardew Valley." But they haven't played the game, so they don't really know. But yeah, designing bosses is kind of an art form all unto itself, and I'm still learning stuff".

So if after playing Stardew Valley 1.6 you feel like you still need more of a quiet life simulation tending to Grandpa's old farm in Pelican Town, ConcernedApe plans to keep filling that need for a long, long time to come.