Terraria History: 9 years long development

Terraria is a game game. In appearance, the plain arcade, reminiscent of Minecraft in 2D, gained immense popularity, and over the past decade gathered a vast community of devoted fans around her, received several global updates, and also became one of the best -selling games in history (30 million copies for April 1 of the current year).On May 16, on the day of the nine of the game, the release of the final large update for the game called Journey’s End, which leads the fat line under the long -term history of one of the most popular Sand Box in history, is planned. In honor of this event, I propose to plunge into the past and trace the Terraria path from the beginning, and to the end.

Part 1.Before the release of the game.

The story of Terraria begins with a person under the name Andrew Spinx, better known to the community under the pseudonym Regidit. Andrew was born in 1983 in the USA, and from childhood was fond of video games. Even in his youth, Andrew decided that he would become a video game developer, after which he began to move to his goal.The 19th anniversary was marked for him not only by entry into the US Air Force, but also by the opening of his first own sites with flash games. In this field, Andrew achieved certain success, and after the end of the service he began to earn his living. But, according to Andrew, the sites about games did not make him happy enough, because he himself wanted to develop games. The first experience in developing games for Andrew was small amateur projects, the most famous of which was the fan game Super Mario Bros X, released in mid -2009.The next for Andrew after Super Mario Bros X was the Terraria project.

Andrew kept the idea of ​​creating a 2D Action for many years. For the first time she came to him after he played the old DOS game called Liero, which could be described as Worms in real time.

Gameplay Liero

To create the game of his dreams, Andrew united with Jeremy “Blue” Herreet and artist of the future Finn “Tiy” game by Bryce, whom he met during the development of Super Mario Bros X. Thus, in January 2011, a company called Re-Logic led by Andrew Spinx was founded. During the development, Andrew drew inspiration from almost all his favorite games. These were mainly Games of the Super Nintendo era, like Super Metroid, Super Castlevania IV, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and T.D. But the key game, which mainly influenced Terraria, was Minecraft, which at that time was a new word in the game industry.

Part 2.Release and first successes.

After a short development period of 6 months, the release version of Terraria 1.0.0 was posted on Steam on May 16, 2011. The game immediately waited for a success: a day after the release, the game was bought 50 thousand times, and a week later this figure increased to 200 thousand. Moreover, more people played the game, according to Steam, than a project published a month ago, a project from Valve – Portal 2.On the Internet around the game, a rather vast community of players was formed, which was divided into 2 camps: some considered the game no more than the Minecraft in 2D, while others considered Terraria a more independent game, which only used basic mechanics from the super-popular game of Marcus Person. So what was Terraria after all the same?

Top games for simultaneously playing players in Steam, the screenshot was taken in the first days of Terraria release

Terraria was a 2D Sand Box https://wildzcasino.uk/bonus/ Action game. The player could mine resources with the help of special tools, from resources he created housing and craftly new equipment: tools, weapons and armor. The generation of the world was random, but the ultimate goal was not: the player set himself goals and reached them. At first glance, the game seemed nothing more than a variation of Minecraft in 2D.But, having spent more time in Terraria, the player found for himself more and more differences from Minecraft (it is worth making a reservation that in 2011 there was nothing of the listed things below in 2011). For example, the game was attended by NPC, which demanded their own living space and provided a variety of services to the player. In the world of Terraria, in any generation, there was a gloomy, teeming with monsters, a biom of distortion, which, although slowly, spread to ordinary lands, thereby gradually capturing the player’s world. The worlds themselves in Terraria were finite, unlike minecraft.In addition to ordinary opponents, several bosses were present in the game, the murder of which could be regarded as one of the goals in the game. The player’s equipment was endless and they could not be broken. Moreover, the player’s arsenal was not limited to onions alone and even in the release version was full of a variety of weapons: from prickly mace to blaster with light swords. It’s not difficult to notice, Re-Logic did not stab on the ideas proposed by Minecraft, but decided to go beyond their frames and make Terraria what its developers wanted to see for themselves.

After the release of the game, the developers did not stop there and continued to actively develop the game, releasing the average update until August 2011.During this time, the game formed an impressive community, which after the exit of update 1.0.6.1 in August 2011 with trepidation expected future changes.

In September of the same year, Re-Logic left Jeremy Herret, leaving Andrew Spinx and Finn Bryce to work on Terraria together. Nevertheless, on November 26, the Re-Logic on its YouTube channel posted a trailer for the first global update for Terraria under number 1.1.

The update was released on December 1, 2011 and brought a lot of new things to the game. What was striking in the first place, it was a new color lighting (that is, the light of blue has now emanated from blue fire and t.D.), which noticeably gave the game of paints. But the most important in this update was the Hardmode mode, which was opened for the player after the victory over the new boss – the wall of the flesh. Hardmode mode was not just an increased level of complexity, but cardinal changes in the existing world of the player. Now the distortion spread throughout the world many times faster and could capture the underground space at the same speed as on the surface. In contrast to the distortion in the world, a new biom called the Holy Lands, which was inhabited by the unicorns and fairys, and the biom himself spread as quickly as the distortion. Moreover, in almost every bioma, new, very strong mobs appeared, which at the initial pace posed a great threat before the player. In addition to everything, mechanical bosses appeared in Hardmode – skeleton Prime, twins and destroyer of the worlds, which were robotic and much stronger versions of the Dochardmodnaya bosses – skeleton, the eyes of Kntulhu and the Eater of the Worlds, respectively. In order to be able to withstand new dangers, new types of ores and other materials were added to the game, from which a stronger equipment crashed. Hardmode, a distinctive feature of Hardmode, also became the opportunity to get wings that allowed to fly up for a while, and then dive down at large distances. In addition to Hardmode, in version 1.1 appeared a simple system of mechanisms, which worked almost in the same way as in minecraft. All of the above in a compartment with new NPCs, objects, mechanics, etc.D. made an update 1.1 truly huge.

Part 3. The results of the first year and the future of the game

As a result of 2011, Terraria began to be tightly associated with frequent free updates, which made the game a folk favorite. But, despite the popular love and excellent sales, the future Terraria was vague. In February 2012, Finn Bryce left the company, who left for the development of his own game called Starbound. Later, on February 22, Andrew Spinx wrote a letter to the Terraria fans to the community of fans, where he announced the termination of the further development of Terraria in connection with the birth of his son, as well as the desire to do the next project. In connection with this news, the next few months, the activity of the community around Terraria began to fall noticeably: many players began to leave the game, and the content from the community began to be noticeably less often. It seemed that it was the end of Terraria, and her best times were already behind. One way or another, in September 2012, the release of Terraria on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console was announced. The publisher was the company 505 Games, known to us today as the publisher of the console Payday 2, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, as well as last year’s Control.The development of console versions was entrusted to the third -party studio Engine Software. Terraria first visited the console market on March 26, 2013.In August 2013, Terraria also entered on mobile platforms.

Part 4. The resurrection of the game

A little earlier, Terraria’s release on the consoles, after a long lull, in February 2013, Andrew Spinx suddenly announced the development of a new update for Terraria on his Twitter. Having gained a new team of developers in the Re-Logic, Andrew Spinx was ready to release a new global update, which again was supposed to be the largest in the history of the game. Spinx, who was newly entered into Whitney, “Cenx” (married Andrew Spinx in 2015, after which she took his last name) began active work to promote the game. This led to cooperation with many well-known content makers from the community, constant news about the development of updating, etc.D. Such actions led to even greater folk love and strengthening the community around the game.

Update 1.2 for Terraria was released September 30, 2013 on Steam. Like renewal 1.1, it brought a lot of new to the game. For example, a map of the world was added to the game, which made the process of studying the world much more interesting and more convenient. Now, instead of distortion in the world, an alternative biom could generate – Crimson. Like distortion, this biom sought to capture the world of Terraria.The difference with distortion was not only visual, since BIM inhabited new types of monsters along with the new boss, and the objects received in the crimson differed from objects from distortion. The player’s development process now did not end after the victory over mechanical bosses, since new bosses were added to the game, as well as resources for further pumping. Now the game ended after the victory over the new boss Golem, which could be found in the temple of the jungle, access to which was opened only at the very end of the game. In total, update 1.2 brought more than 1000 to the game (!) new items, 8 new NPCs, 4 new bosses and countless changes and innovations in the mechanics of the game, as well as improving the graphic component of the game. The update marked a real holiday for all fans of the game, and at the same time a new wave of hype around Terraria.

After the release of update 1.2 The developers did not dwell on what it was after the release of update 1.1, but on the contrary, in January 2014, work began on a new global Terraria 1 global update.3. The development of the update was decided to suspend until the update 1.2 will not get to the console platforms. This required a certain time, and therefore, until May of the same year, Re-Logic released several small updates, thereby making update 1.2.The last 4 on an indefinite period of time. At this point, version 1.2 already managed to get to the consoles, and therefore the development of Terraria 1.3 went in full.

February 16, 2015, unexpectedly for the community, was announced by the Terraria spin-off-off called Terraria: Otherworld. The project looked like a classic Terraria with an admixture of Tower Defense.Worked on the Re-Logic project together with Engine Software.After the announcement, the first few months new screenshots of the game were published, but the information about the project for the coming years ended, and therefore the future of the game was very vague.

Part 5. Update 1.3

One way or another, after a long wait, the largest update Terraria today was released on June 30, 2015 on PC. By the time Terraria renewal renewal, it has already managed to overcome a sales mark of 10 million copies, and a hype around the update 1.3 was the largest in the history of the game. The number of simultaneously playing players in Steam on the release day exceeded 150 thousand. Human. Apdete himself 1.3 brought multiplayer to the game through Steam, achievements, an expert level of complexity, more than 800 new objects, new NPCs, a huge number of new mechanics and changes in existing.But the most important innovation, perhaps, was the addition of the final boss to the game – the lunar lord, the victory over which marked the end of the game for the player.

Terraria 1 update.3 is the last global update of the game today. Only almost a year later a new small update was released, which was not a fixer bug. Small updates under the number 1.3 continued to go until April 2017, when update 1 was released.3.5.3. In the same month, it became known about the instructions of Terraria: Otherworld to another company. Now, instead of Engine Software, Pipeworks Studio took work on creating the game.However, this did not help develop the game.Terraria: Otherworld was offered by April 12, 2018.

Terraria 1.3 reached the consoles and phones much longer than past versions. On the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the update was released in December 2017, while on iOS and Android Update 1.3 came out more than 4 years after the release on the PC – August 27, 2019.

Part 6.Our days and the upcoming future

From the moment 1.3.5.3 Output of the closest updates for the PC version Terraria was pretty dragged on. Update 1.3.6 were originally planned to be released in early 2018, after which the release was postponed to the end of 2018, but this release date did not become final. At the PC Gaming Show press conference, it became known that instead of the average update under the number 1.3, players will find out the release of a new global update 1.4 called Journey’s End. The trailer of the upcoming update was also shown there. Among other things, it was announced that update 1.4 will let down a line under a long story Terraria and will be the last global update of the game.

Journey’s End will be released at Steam very soon – May 16 this year. The update will add more than 1000 new items to Terraria, new NPCs, mobs, bosses, a large number of new mechanics, updating the graphic component of the game, 2 new modes: Journey Mode, which will provide the player with more flexible settings of the gameplay, and Master Mode, which will become the most difficult mode of the game, and much more.

As you can see, Terraria experienced both periods of rapid development and periods of stagnation in its history. Nevertheless, the game has always been able to be beloved for millions of players around the world and find new fans for himself. Very soon, the story of the classic Terraria is suitable for its completion, giving its fans the finally new global update, which, like past updates, will surely immerse players in his adventure for many years. What awaits us ahead? Perhaps the Re-Logic will take care of Terraria 2, about which rumors have been going on for a long time, and perhaps we will find a completely new project from Re-Logic. One thing is known that this will be a completely new story ..

Thank you so much for reading to the end. This is my sample of the pen in writing articles, so I will be glad to listen to any constructive criticism.