Terraria is dead!

Even 'bad' games are good games if the person playing the game is having a good time.

 

I posted this on the other thread, but I wanted repost it here to make sure everyone can see it.​

- Promised updates -​

For the majority of the game's development, I was more or less just using the game as a testing ground to play with different ideas and learn C#/XNA. That said, Terraria was released way before it's time. Between the immense social pressure and the leak, I didn't really have much choice but to play the hand I was drawn and release it as is. Obviously I was going to keep working on the game until it got to the point where I was happy with it.​

Looking at all the different paths I could take the game right now, nothing really excites me. It all feels like sideways progression. That's why I know it's time to take what I've learned and start working on it's successor. I imagine you might make the claim that I "got bored and quit," but really without the excitement/obsession/drive, can you really expect future updates to be anything better than the status quo? Now looking down the road toward Terraria's successor, that's what is exciting me. It was never my intention to mislead anyone, and I am sorry if I did.​

- Stopped updating out of the blue -​

There really is no other way to say "no more updates" without saying "no more updates." After losing my spriter to a potentially competing game, and having to take some time off for my own personal reasons I figured the most honest way would be to just get it out now then taking several months off and then come back to announce that I am working on another game.​

- Open source the game -​

This will probably happen eventually, but the decision to not obfuscate Terraria was made for a reason...​

- Handing off -​

This isn't going to happen, though I'd love for a dedicated group of modders to pick up the torch and carry on. For one, things can get complicated very quickly in the legal world. I also feel that Terraria is pretty solid as it is, and I am not sure that I would like the direction that it would take if I wasn't the one to work on it. After the following of SMBX and Terraria, you have to give my design choices some credit. Now for my handling of the community on the other hand...​

- Bad at PR -​

This I agree with. Dealing with people has never been my strong suit. I've been told several times that I should have hired a profession PR guy, but that really is just putting someone between you and me that does little more than candy coat things to make them sound better. (I probably should have done it anyway)​

I think I really just got off to a bad start after the Nintendo/SMBX thing and the game getting leaked in beta. I got a lot more defensive than I should have been, and refused to share information about things until they were set in stone. But I guess if I didn't do that then there would have been a lot more "promises" not being kept. I'm probably being overly honest here, but there have been some pretty nasty things posted on TO, and I've learned that the best way to not let them get to me is to distance myself from the forums. (I am a human after all!)​

I failed with this, and I am sorry because you all really did deserve better from me.​

- Greedy -​

Money does complicate things doesn't it? Like I said in an interview before, this isn't really a business to me. Yes I've made a good amount of money and have a lot of customers, but I just want to make the best game I can. Simple as that. If I really wanted to milk it I would have release 1.1 as DLC and there would be all sorts of pets and mounts that you could buy for several bucks a shot. Is that going to help to make the game better?​

I receive very little from the shirts and CE (I'm even wondering how it's possible for developers to survive the retail world in the first place) Those were all about getting cool Terraria things in the real world.​

- Quit SMBX just Terraria -​

SMBX just like Terraria was something I did to learn and experiment with gameplay. At some point you have to call a project finished so you can take what you've learned and move on to make something even better. I made no promises with SMBX and made it clear that it was something that I work on in my own time. If I was still working on it right now, there would be no Terraria.​

As for the Nintendo fiasco.. I'm sure there is a Nintendo PR guy somewhere with a huge grin on his face knowing that SMBX was shutdown and Nintendo took none of the blame for it.​

From Redigit​

 

Yeah...

It's okay with me that Terraria is dying out so soon. I mean, I would've been pissed if the devs promised a load of stuff and then never did it, but they didn't promise anything. I just liked the look of the game, bought it, had fun with it.

According to Steam, I played 146 hours total. For a $10 game, that's more than enough fun.

I hope that the developer keeps making good games, and I wish him luck.

 

I remember when I first saw Minecraft, and I thought it was a gold mine for the developers. A game that keeps on getting updated, and often?! That is awesome! Notch then proceeded to make larger updates, but they took longer. Then the updates weren't even that large, they just got smaller. I was disappointed. I then saw Terraria, and I hoped they wouldn't make Notch's mistake, and the game looked like a blast too. It was a fun game, and I don't mind the cost of $10 for 123 hours of gameplay (at least for me). I then found KAG. KAG is the game that I hope will fix all of the mistakes these developers made while sitting on goldmines (Even though they did make a huge profit, the games could have been better). I think KAG also has the larger multiplayer aspect which I think will increase it's replayability a ton, along with being a game that is a lot more fun. #myrant

 

You can already get the source code :p I have it But with the fact that these games are 10 dollars. And are definitely worth it. I don't see why people are getting so upset when an update doesn't come as expected. It's free. If your free food is 10 minutes late. Who cares! It's still free, and you still got it. Just took longer than you thought. This happens a lot in Indie games like this

 

Surely real life comes first, and if he open-sourced it, it is a good thing. (prolly could have waited for a month at least though *cough*)

Money is money nevertheless, and if you pay for something and are promised with much fancy things for the money, of course you may feel betrayed when you don't get half of the things you wanted.

 

That's true, with terraria though, no one was promised anything.

And he never released it. It's easy to decompile it or just download the source code.

 

Also generally illegal, jus' sayin'.

 

I havent released it, and that's how people make all the mods, that the devs allow if you can set it up so it doesn't give up the whole game. So it should be fine. I haven't actually looked at it in monthes o.o

 

Yeah, I was kinda hanging out for that mod-thingo those guys were making.

 

Which one? That "Hero" guy or someone else?

 

Cant remember. All I know is that the project died. D:

 

D: That's no good. I know there was one that had like 150 items or something. Food and crystal stuff. And another for a bunch of mobs.

 

Also, if Redigit thinks he's going to get into any game development company with that kind of portfolio.. I think I'm rather nervous for him.

 

Why?
Redigit - "Hi, I worked on a massively successful game, as an independent."
Prospective Employer - "OMG HIRED"

^ is how it goes.

 

The game industry is incredibly unforgiving as always, most of the time I'd like to call game developers "nomadic". In other words they sometimes move from company to company depending on the situation.

Redigit is only an independent developer of a 2d pixel game which would be Terraria. Also, It may seem that most games like Terraria only consists of a small project group like Kag's.

I can see many more games like Terraria being developed. However, in Redigit case, any employer would have to think twice before having to hire someone who ditched an independent project, unless a contract is involved. Again, small groups can split apart but are also the easiest to manage. Like I said before, depends on the situation.

 

I think "Ditched" is a somewhat interesting word. I highly recommend reading THIS.

 

There are good points being made about how a forewarning would have soothed people out. Personally reading the newest blog post on Terraria, it's apparent he is parting furthermore from the Terraria community.

Also, the paragraph below tells a lot about Redigit as a game developer. I can understand his position thoroughly, but let's face it, he ditched the project and it happens to some developed games in the industry. Luckily, Terraria was merely a small scale project in terms of size and output, although their community is huge, which is why the flames would be bigger when he made a decision to leave.

"Looking at all the different paths I could take the game right now, nothing really excites me. It all feels like sideways progression. ​

That's why I know it's time to take what I've learned and start working on it's successor. ​

I imagine you might make the claim that I "got bored and quit," but really without the excitement/obsession/drive, can you really expect future updates to be anything better than the status quo? Now looking down the road toward Terraria's successor, that's what is exciting me. It was never my intention to mislead anyone, and I am sorry if I did." -Redigit ​

I have to say though, people did overreact over the fact that is was just a 10 dollar game, but even I myself can feel hurt over the fact I've put quite a lot of time and ambition in that game. However, people should also understand it wasn't only Redigit's fault for leaving but rather the other modders and the long term artists who solely ditched their projects as well. As we know, Terraria is partially run by an independent group of other developers who wish to practice their coding on Terraria. Terraria itself is more or less an experiment for game development enthusiasts. Coders such as the TDSM which happens to be one of the large scale server mods also ditched their projects long before Redigit made his departure. While some of the large scale artists such as myself and other artists of the fan art section, also ditched many projects. Personally, I left because I felt that the community itself was degrading into a pulp and I already experienced that when I got heavy opposition when I was building my pixel world. In general terms, Redigit wasn't the only person that left the community.