Terraria is one of the bigger surprises to come out of the Minecraft boom. What could easily have been a quick cash-in 2D version of a more complicated product developed its own massive fanbase quickly due to great progression systems and a wonderful style. Its first sequel, Terraria: Otherworld, is designed to be a darker, harder Terraria where the land is already corrupted and must be healed. It’s been in development for quite a while, with little information released in recent months. Posting on the forums, developers Re-Logic say that it’s now being reworked in a big way to meet their standards.
For more hole-digging-with-friends, try our list of co-op games.
“To keep it short and simple, at the beginning of this year, we undertook a full in-depth review of the project versus our standards, expectations, and vision for the game,” explains Ted ‘Loki’ Murphy, Re-Logic’s head of business strategy on the forums. “It was pretty clear to us at the time that Otherworld needed quite a bit of work – and even a good bit of rework – in a number of areas in order to hit that mark.
“We then made a list of requested reforms and changes and such. As a part of this, the project team at [co-developers] Engine [Software] now have a new lead designer and art lead along with other changes made to better align to our vision for the game. On top of that, our two teams have laid out clearly what needs to be done and are pushing forward executing towards that roadmap to deliver the game we expect – and our fans deserve – as soon as possible.”
So it’s a good news, bad news situation. The game will probably be significantly better than if it came out soon, but it now won’t be coming out soon. Specific areas Murphy says they’re working on include the whole way corruption in the world works, as well as weapon levelling. They’re also doing a “complete overhaul” of AI systems, improving the story and tweaking all the gear.
Naturally, there’s no date yet, beyond “expect it to be a while still.” However, Murphy says they’ll be posting regular updates again now.