Ever one for popping up to share surprise teasers after months of quietly working, Stardew Valley's creator Eric Barone has sat down on a livestream with composing software Reason Studios to talk about creating Stardew's soundtrack and wound up debuting part of a track from his upcoming shop sim game Haunted Chocolatier too.
After spending time talking about composing music and playing around with the effects used in Stardew's soundtrack (which is well worth listening to in full), Barone offers to show off a bit of his musical work so far on Haunted Chocolatier.
The first track he shows off is for one of Haunted Chocolatier's bosses (and no, I'm pretty sure we didn't know that it has bosses yet, so that's another surprise detail). You can listen to the super upbeat trumpet and drums track at the timestamp right here. I'm warning you now that it is catchy as hell.
The livestream chat speaks up to ask whether Barone had called it a "B boss," implying an "A boss," or a "bee boss." Barone rolls back the audio timeline to focus on a particularly buzzy bit of the track as a hint. If you need any other clarification, the file name at the top of his screen definitely says "beeboss". Chocolatier bee boss confirmed, and all.
"Not all of Haunted Chocolatier is this upbeat salsa music. That's actually an oddball," Barone says, and offers to share another track called "Pristine Snow". This one sounds a lot more like the ambient music I recognize from Stardew Valley, some chill piano, a mournful oboe, and a few sleigh bells to really lay into the winter vibes in Haunter Chocolatier.
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"Most of the music in the game will probably sound like this," Barone says. "A sort of mysterious, sombre, snowy feel. This is supposed to sound like a mysterious night in the snow."
Earlier on in the interview, Barone talked about Haunted Chocolatier's music more generally, describing the game as a little "darker" and saying that he's leaning more into using synthesiser sounds this time around.
As with other parts of Chocolatier, it seems that we'll definitely be able to see Stardew's roots in it, even the salsa bee boss bops.
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