While the list of games like Stardew Valley continues to grow, the list of games made by Stardew creators has yet to percolate; Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone's own next game, Haunted Chocolatier, is still in development but it turns out that the former Stardew contributor is working on a new life-sim that may appear as soon as this year. The untitled game, which definitely sounds like a descendant of Stardew, is set in a city and has a lot of great ideas of its own that expand on the typical lifesim playbook.

As discovered by RockPaperShotgun, freelance game developer Arthur Lee (credited as part of the Stardew Valley team during the development of the 1.5 update) is working on a new untitled life-sim, and X and shares details about its development on a weekly basis.

While it is certainly set in a city, with noodle shops and city blocks, it is still a farm sim where you tend to your own rural-looking land adjacent to the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. There also seems to be farm space on dirt lots downtown and in apartment rooftop gardens. No need to worry about urban planning.

From what Lee showed off on social media, Apollo City seems to be hitting the highlights of the farming life-sim, including crops, livestock, fishing, house customization, and lots of skills to level up. Also, after doing a lot of work to contribute to local multiplayer in the Stardew Valley 1.5 update, Lee thinks this feature is important.

What I am actually excited about are a number of other strange and interesting systems that Lee is teasing for Apollo City. While apples don't fall far from the "Ranch Tales" tree in modern farming sims, there are a number of elements in Apollo City that I haven't seen much of elsewhere. Here are some of the fun tidbits Lee has shared in recent months:

There is a fairly long list of skills, including eating, recycling, and socializing. Interestingly, sleeping is also a skill. The earlier you sleep, the faster you get XP, and the more you level up, the more maximum energy you have. I wish we had such buffs in real life.

While I could not find any specific mention of romance or marriage in Lee's development article, he confirmed to me that it is definitely a planned feature; Lee has personally enjoyed the dating element of Lifesim since the early "Ranch Story" days, and has been a fan of other modern Like lifesims, he said, marriage in "Apollo City" is not gender-specific.

"Ultimately, of course, much of the relationship building will center on pleasing people with ears of raw corn and the norms of the genre," Lee says. "But I already have some fun little wrinkles in the format I've put into the game, and I'm sure I'll come up with a few more by the time the game is finished!"

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In addition to inspiration from the classic Ranch Tales, Lee also references the Mother series (his moniker, "Mr. Podunkian," is a reference to that, he says). And while I haven't studied much of Mother's lore, some of the city's design, like the odd sign, definitely has an Earthbound feel to it. 17]

And before you look sideways at Apollo City, Lee was told by Eric Barone that he was working on "Stardew Valley, and that he had his blessing to create a new farm sim game on the engine he was developing while working on Valley, and that "we met in person and put to rest any remaining misgivings!"

, mentioning that "we had a great time.

In early January, Lee shared his hope that Apollo City would launch sometime this year, with a Steam store page soon to be available (and possibly the final title).