There aren't a lot of games I buy on every device I own, but Stardew Valley is among them. I have the farm life sim on PC, multiple Nintendo Switches, and mobile. It's only 15 ( 5 on mobile) and has brought me hundreds and hundreds of hours of joy. Stardew Valley launched in 2016 and has had a chokehold on my life for nearly a decade, as is common among cozy gamers. Part of what keeps us constantly hooked are the massive updates that creator Eric Barone (better known as ConcernedApe) brings to the game.

Jessica used to come for tea on Tuesdays, and all she wanted to do was cut grass. Because she was a couple of years younger than me, she couldn't encounter a ChuChu or a Bokoblin without dying, so instead she'd spend hours slicing at virtual greenery. At the time, I found it a little annoying. In hindsight, I understand that Jessica was simply following in the footsteps of our ancestors. Grass-cutting has been a mainstay of video games for decades.

Earlier this year, Eric Barone was approached by singer-songwriter Molly Rankin of power-pop group Alvvays. The game developer, best known as the one-man creative force behind the hit farming simulator Stardew Valley, was asked if he would like to contribute some art for the band's new single, Many Mirrors. Never one to limit himself, or to do things by halves, Barone created a whole music video instead. "That's just how I work," he tells me. You can tell from his work that Barone puts the whole of himself into it.

Six years after its initial release, Stardew Valley has sold more than 20 million copies. Creator Eric Barone shared news of the accomplishment in an update posted to the game's press site and an interview with PC Gamer. "The 20 million copies milestone is really amazing," he told the outlet. But what's even more impressive is the increasing pace of Stardew Valley's sales. It took four years for the game to sell its first 10 million copies.

If the pandemic had never happened, Ali Z. might never have joined TikTok. But by the time the short, dark January days arrived, she was getting restless. Nearly a year into quarantine, her go-to hobbies--cooking, baking, and playing video games--felt lonely. In particular, she missed cooking for friends and family. "It's not quite as fun if you're just doing it on your own," Ali told me in a recent phone call. In the midst of this reflection, Ali realized her favorite video games involved aspects of cooking.

Today in video game news: Pixelated ghosts who carry artisan chocolates. Game designer Eric Barone, who works under the alias ConcernedApe, announced Thursday that the game was in development, releasing a trailer and several colorful screenshots. Barone describes the game as being about "magical haunted ghost chocolate." Barone describes the game as being about "magical haunted ghost chocolate." Details on the project are scarce, but the gameplay video shows a mysterious castle filled with moody lighting and a chocolate shop attended by little ghost employees shaped like bonbons, carrying actual chocolate bonbons over their heads.

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, aka "ConcernedApe," has made a surprise unveiling of his next game, Haunted Chocolatier. It has the same pixelated SNES look as Stardew, with characters, set-pieces and themes that are similarly cute and quirky. "In this game, you will play as a chocolatier living in a haunted castle. In order to thrive in your new role, you will have to gather rare ingredients, make delicious chocolates, and sell them in a chocolate shop," according to Barone's blog on the new website. The video shows characters heading out into into a town, the castle, a mountain and other scenarios to seek ingredients and fend off creatures. It's Barone's first game since Stardew Valley launched in 2016, but so far it's not a lot more than a demo.

Esports is most commonly associated with high-octane competitive games such as League of Legends, Rocket League and Call of Duty: Warzone. A chill farming sim might not immediately spring to mind, but very soon, some of the world's finest Stardew Valley players will face off for thousands of dollars. Creator Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe) said the first official Stardew Valley Cup event will take place at noon ET on September 4th. "It's a competition of skill, knowledge and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k," Barone wrote on Twitter. In collaboration with @UnsurpassableZ, I'm pleased to announce the 1st official Stardew Valley Cup! It's a competition of skill, knowledge, and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k.

In a blog post and a few tweets, solo game developer Eric Barone laid out plans for 2019 that will expand his hit indie game Stardew Valley and extend to a new title. Now that he has regained the right to self-publish the top-down farming RPG on most platforms (except for mobile and Switch which remain with Chucklefish), he's working on a new free content update for it. While he's still working on that by himself -- and has put work on an all-new game in the Stardew Valley universe to the side -- the plan is to end the solo act and form a team to work on future expansions. Of course, players on consoles like PS4 and Xbox One are still waiting for the last update that added multiplayer (1.3) while Switch owners have noted some issues with the game and, according to Barone, addressing those situations is a priority. Once there's an actual team cranking out content for Stardew Valley players, then the plan is for Barone to split time between that and the unnamed new game.

There are so many things that could go wrong when you're sleeping with a robot. Or you could accidentally push the robot off the edge of the bed and smash it into a million pieces. In my case, the robot woke me up at 5AM saying "goodnight" in Dutch and started breathing. I'm talking about Somnox, "the world's first sleep robot," as it's been touted in pretty successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns. It's actually more of a peanut-shaped pillow than a humanoid robot that can perform backflips a la Boston Dynamics. But for a machine with no arms, legs, or even a face, it actually feels pretty human.