Eric Barone American Singer Born 1987 in Los Angeles

Eric Barone, who works under the name ConcernedApe, is an American video game developer, designer and composer. He was born on 3 December 1987 in Los Angeles and is best known for the farming simulation Stardew Valley, a game he built almost entirely by himself.

Early life

Barone was born in Los Angeles and spent his childhood in Auburn, Washington, a suburb of the Seattle area. He has named the Harvest Moon series as a favourite from his youth and a lasting influence on his own work. Though he had no formal musical training, he played music from an early age and belonged to several bands, among them a nu metal group and an experimental pop act. For the pop band's album he made what he describes as his first video game, a point-and-click adventure modelled on LucasArts titles.

He studied at the University of Washington Tacoma and completed a Bachelor of Science in computer science in 2011. Game development was not his first career plan. Unable to find work after graduating, he started a farming game as a way to practise programming in C#, with the idea of showing the finished project to prospective employers.

Career

Work on Stardew Valley began in 2012 and the game was released in 2016. Over roughly four and a half years Barone served as its designer, programmer, artist, animator, composer and writer, putting in about ten hours a day, seven days a week. It first came out for PC and later reached consoles and other platforms. Since 2019 a small team has helped him maintain and expand it. By February 2026 it had sold more than 50 million copies.

The game spread into other formats. He released its soundtrack as an album in 2016 and an orchestral recording, Symphonic Tale: The Place I Truly Belong, in 2020, performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Stardew Valley: The Board Game, created with designer Cole Medeiros, appeared in 2021. A Stardew Valley instalment of the Prescription for Sleep series, made with Norihiko Hibino, followed the same year. He announced two concert tours built around the music: Festival of Seasons in 2023 and Symphony of Seasons in 2024. He also co-wrote The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, published on 14 May 2024.

Earlier projects include the 2008 game 17CF Quest, a promotional piece for the band 17 Colorful Feathers, and the Android game Air Pear, released in March 2014. In 2022 he animated a music video for the song "Many Mirrors" by Alvvays, his first work in 3D animation, and in 2025 he voiced a character in Hollow Knight: Silksong.

In October 2021 Barone announced a second game, Haunted Chocolatier, in which the player runs a chocolate shop. It puts more weight on combat than his first title, and he has said that nearly all of it, combat included, was programmed and drawn from scratch.

Recognition

Stardew Valley received favourable reviews. Its PC version holds an 89 out of 100 score on Metacritic, and in July 2025 it became the highest-rated game on Steam according to the aggregator Steam250. Several outlets have credited it with renewing interest in farming simulations.

Barone's listed honours total ten wins and five nominations. The most prominent are tied to the game: a British Academy Games Awards win, with a nomination in 2017, a Golden Joystick Award (Breakthrough Award, 2016), a Game Developers Choice Award, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival, and awards from The Game Awards, the SXSW Gaming Awards, NAVGTR, PC Gamer and the Steam Awards. Forbes included him in its 30 Under 30 games list in 2017. The University of Washington Tacoma gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019.

Public roles

Barone is the founder and chief executive of his own development operation, and he continues to act as developer and composer on its projects. He has also given money to causes connected to his background. In 2021 he paid for improvements to the Giving Garden at the University of Washington Tacoma, including a greenhouse and watering systems, and his gifts created a paid student coordinator post. In December 2025 the MonoGame framework announced that he had supported it with an initial donation of $125,000 and a monthly commitment of $1,250.

Personal life

While working on Stardew Valley, Barone left his parents' home and moved to Capitol Hill in Seattle. During those years he took a part-time job as an evening usher at the Paramount Theatre.