Stardew Valley abandoned? Or just developer issues?

The cute indie-farming game Stardew Valley has captured the hearts of gamers worldwide. But it appears that developers ChuckleFish and ConcernedApe have gone dark on their players.

ConcernedApe promised a string of content, from new dialogue with your spouses, console ports, new farm buildings, new crops, more events, more secrets, and so forth. But so far it hasn’t been delivered.

The last update was over two months ago, and although ConcernedApe promised he was working on multiplayer, thus far there has been no word on any progress or a release date.

What has many people concerned is the inclusion of Chucklefish to help with multiplayer and the ports. The studio has a history of struggling to meet deadlines, not communicating with with players, and making  promises they never seem to keep.

Their latest fiasco was Starbound. After having made hefty promises of great in-game content, they went ahead and removed most of it and then stopped working on the title all together. Starbound did well, but it was how ChuckleFish handled the development that has players worried for Stardew Valley.

In their latest update, ChuckleFish made this statement:

“ConcernedApe will retain creative control over everything, of course, and we will be working very closely with him to ensure that the game’s overall intimate feeling and personality is retained in every version of the game.”

For most gamers this is a relief — and so far the developers have proven they are well on top of things. But with such a long silence from ConcernedApe, it has most players rightfully concerned.