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Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has parted company with his publishing company, Chucklefish, in order to self-publish his game on console and PC.
While UK company Chucklefish will retain publishing responsibilities for the collegial farming sim on mobile and Nintendo Switch – the former of which has reportedly netted over $1 million in sales within just three weeks of its launch on iOS – Barone has confirmed via a blog post that from December 14th he will be self-publishing on PC, PlayStation 4 and Vita, and Xbox One.
"When I first released Stardew Valley, I was a complete novice to the video game industry," Barone writes. "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.
"But I’m at a point now where I’m ready to move forward on my own. 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!"
While Chucklefish has not formally responded to the announced, Barone shared a statement reportedly from the publisher on the same blog post.
"We are proud to be part of the Stardew Valley story and wish ConcernedApe every success with his new self-publishing venture. We will carry on working closely together and are particularly excited to be continuing to publish the versions of Stardew Valley for Nintendo Switch and Mobile, including the upcoming Switch Multiplayer update (in submission now) and new Android version which we know many of you are looking forward to!"
Talking about the game’s success to MCV, Barone said he spent four years developing the game, crafting it entirely by himself "from the first artwork to the soundtrack".
"I thought the game would do alright, but I had no idea it would reach this level of success," Barone said. "When you’ve been working alone on one game for many years, you lose your objectivity… I didn’t really know if it was a good game or not […] I think it’s a good game, but I’m also the type of person who is never satisfied with their work. The most challenging obstacles were psychological, social, and financial in nature. And the stress of having my professional and personal hopes all riding on one wildly ambitious, uncertain project. I had to convince myself and those around me that I was special, that I was truly destined for greatness and not just delusional."
