Sunkissed City looks like the perfect life sim: warm, seaside, and filled with fresh fruit. But, just like a vacation, you have to keep counting down until it arrives. Its creator, ex-Stardew Valley developer Arthur ‘Mr. Podunkian’ Lee, needs to delay it one more time.
“I think it’s time I have to admit to myself that SKC’s 2025 release window’s slipped :(,” Lee writes on Twitter. Originally, Sunkissed City was scheduled to release on PC in late 2024, but its Steam page has now been updated to reflect a planned 2026 launch. “I’ve been working very hard on the game, but generally, this year was more taxing on my mood than I thought it’d be,” Lee adds.
I thought ConcernedApe was a solo dev.
He was, Stardew 1.0 was entirely his work and he worked on it for 4.5years. Other developers were brought in to help with porting to other platforms and for the post 1.0 point releases, but the team sounds like it remained small. For 1.4 and 1.5 it sounds like a two person team for example.
Common misconception. He started development solo, but quickly found he needed help from other development teams.
Not that quickly, Eric Barone worked on the game by himself for over 4.5 years. Version 1.0 was entirely his work. He only brought in other people when the game was ported to other platforms and for the later point updates.
Arthur Lee contributed to the 1.4 and 1.5 releases of Stardew Valley. He’s also aired his greviences about being hired as a contractor on the game but then wanting and not getting a profit share for future projects.
Something about other devs and bug fixes and localizations I think?
It’s my understanding that he picked up a team for ports to other platforms and networking. Since then, they now work on all aspects of the game, but Eric still has final say.