{"id":10544,"date":"2025-08-22T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/08\/22\/stardew-valley-creator-concernedape-doesnt-ask-for-money-for-collabs-insists-he-only-does-it-with-games-hes-a-fan-of-or-because-he-genuinely-thought-players-would-like-it\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:33:08","slug":"stardew-valley-creator-concernedape-doesnt-ask-for-money-for-collabs-insists-he-only-does-it-with-games-hes-a-fan-of-or-because-he-genuinely-thought-players-would-like-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/08\/22\/stardew-valley-creator-concernedape-doesnt-ask-for-money-for-collabs-insists-he-only-does-it-with-games-hes-a-fan-of-or-because-he-genuinely-thought-players-would-like-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Stardew Valley Creator ConcernedApe Doesn&#8217;t Ask for Money for Collabs, Insists He Only Does It With Games He&#8217;s a Fan Of, or Because He &#8216;Genuinely Thought Players Would Like It&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"article-page\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2025\/07\/26\/infinitythumb-1753561874845.png\" \/>\n<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\"><\/section>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/stardew-valley\"><u>Stardew Valley<\/u><\/a> developer Eric &#8220;ConcernedApe&#8221; Barone has revealed he doesn&#8217;t ask for any compensation when his fan-favorite farm sim collabs with other franchises, saying he only does them because &#8220;[he] was a fan of the other games, or because [he] genuinely thought players would like it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The statement comes as fans prepare for a crossover event between Stardew Valley and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/infinity-nikki\"><u>Infinity Nikki<\/u><\/a>, which goes live on September 1. Although we still don&#8217;t really understand what this will involve, exactly, there are already some surprisingly mixed reactions coming from the community, with some players upset about the timing, suggesting it&#8217;s an all-too-convenient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/infinity-nikki-is-getting-a-stardew-valley-collab-in-september-but-not-everyone-is-happy-about-it\"><u>distraction from the recent controversy around leakers<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There have been a few collaborations between Stardew Valley and other games over the years,&#8221; Barone <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ConcernedApe\/status\/1958574815495037251\"><u>posted<\/u><\/a> on X\/Twitter yesterday. &#8220;To be clear, I never receive any money from these collabs. I&#8217;ve only done them because I was a fan of the other games, or because I genuinely thought the players would like it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"ignvideo\" data-slug=\"infinity-nikki-official-danqing-season-trailer\" data-loop=\"\"><\/section>\n<p>Interestingly, Infinity Nikki responded directly to Barone from its official X\/Twitter account.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We really appreciate you sharing your feelings on this. Any unintended stress was the last thing we wanted. It was our way of saying thanks \u2014 a free love letter to Stardew Valley from our team and for the community,&#8221; the message <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/InfinityNikkiEN\/status\/1958609280535519445\"><u>said<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Working on it felt like we were all tending a little farm together. The care and detail you pour into your world is exactly why we want to make cozy games too. We&#8217;re still learning from you every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, it feels as though the fallout from the Stardew Valley collab is just a matter of bad timing here. The Infinity Nikki community has been unhappy ever since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/infinity-nikki-players-threaten-to-uninstall-the-game-as-dev-introduces-controversial-changes-with-update-15\"><u>update 1.5<\/u><\/a> added some controversial changes to the game, such as retconning Infinity Nikki&#8217;s story, and ramping up the money and time investments required to collect full outfits. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not that Barone does this all that often, either. Stardew Valley has only ever worked with a handful of other games, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/balatro\"><u>Balatro<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/terraria\"><u>Terraria<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Back in May, Barone admitted that he &#8220;didn&#8217;t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,&#8221; explaining that was why he&#8217;s currently working on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/stardew-valley-haunted-chocolatier\">Haunted Chocolatier<\/a>. We shouldn&#8217;t expect a release date anytime soon, though \u2014 there&#8217;s &#8220;still a lot to be done,&#8221; Barone recently admitted, particularly as he feels it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/stardew-valley-creator-says-he-might-eventually-make-a-stardew-valley-2-but-its-so-much-easier-to-add-more-stuff-to-stardew-valley-than-make-a-new-game-from-scratch\"><u>&#8220;got to be better&#8221; than Stardew Valley<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"divider\"><\/section>\n<p><em>Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world&#8217;s biggest gaming sites and publications. She&#8217;s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/vixx.bsky.social\"><em>BlueSky<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stardew Valley developer Eric &#8220;ConcernedApe&#8221; Barone has revealed he doesn&#8217;t ask for any compensation when his fan-favorite farm sim collabs with other franchises, saying he only does them because &#8220;[he] was a fan of the other games, or because [he] genuinely thought players would like it.&#8221; The statement comes as fans prepare for a crossover [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stardew Valley Creator ConcernedApe Doesn&#039;t Ask for Money for Collabs, Insists He Only Does It With Games He&#039;s a Fan Of, or Because He &#039;Genuinely Thought Players Would Like It&#039; - Next Level News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay on top of the gaming world with Next Level News. 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