In an interview with PC Gamer earlier this year, Eric Barone, beloved creator of Stardew Valley, mused that he might need to go hole up in a cabin in the woods to be able to fully focus on making his next game, Haunted Chocolatier. Considering he’s recently announced that Stardew Valley will be getting a 1.7 update and apparently done a little moonlighting as a bug, I think he might’ve been onto something.
I checked Silksong’s credits today to see how many folks contributed to the long-awaited metroidvania outside Team Cherry’s core trio, and there’s Barone, right alongside several members of designer William Pellen’s family. Considering Stardew Valley and Hollow Knight released within a year of each other and both went on to become some of the most successful indie games of all time, I’m not too surprised to see they travel in the same circles.
Or at least they’re friendly enough that when Team Cherry was in need of “additional character voices” for Silksong’s new cast of characters, Barone got the call. Or perhaps Barone is such a massive Hollow Knight fan that he begged to go bug mode for the sequel?
If you harbor any doubt that it’s the Barone, The Verge confirmed with the Stardew team that Eric did indeed lend his voice to the Nintendo-esque little barks and mumbles of one of denizens of the kingdom of Parloom. Which one, though? That he’s keeping secret.
I’m now going to be scrutinizing every scrap of voice acting in the game wondering which Barone might be playing. Team Cherry recently posted artwork of (I assume just a small portion) of Silksong’s NPCs; if Barone voices one of the below, do you think you could guess just by looking at them?
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Given the voice acting in Silksong doesn’t involve recording actual dialogue, it of course wasn’t actually a meaningful distraction from Barone working on Haunted Chocolatier. And given Silksong’s lengthy development, who knows how long ago he submitted his lines?
I am now chuckling at the possibility of Barone unexpectedly finding his true calling as an actor after making a bunch of hrmms and bapanadas into a Blue Yeti. Next thing you know he actually will be putting his next game aside to pursue a Broadway career, an album deal, an Oscar-winning voice role in an animated movie—if you want that EGOT you have to start going for it while you’re still young!
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