5 ms·

Terraria's devs have been trying to stop developing Terraria for years

64 points by blondin 3y ago

ineptech 3y ago
More than ten years of consistent, substantive updates. Never had an expansion or DLC or "season pass" or in-game purchases. Best gaming $15 I ever spent.
haunter 3y ago
Terraria has the best patch notes hands down. Everything is fully detailed visually, the devs show it with examples https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-labor-of-love-is-out-now.114357/ https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-labor... Nothing comes close to this.
Havoc 3y ago
If the formula works why not
derstander 3y ago
This may be a bit of a tangent. I don’t think it’s the case with Terraria’s fans, but I have noticed an odd sense of entitlement in comments and reviews on other steam game pages or on Reddit. There’s a sizable contingent (maybe just a vocal minority) of people with a lot of time in a game — dozens or hundreds of hours — complaining about developers “abandoning” games. I definitely understand if you’ve paid for a game that is incomplete and/or bug ridden. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people that have effectively paid pennies per hour of enjoyment they’ve gotten out of a game. Luckily I’m not in the games industry so it’s probably not anything I’ll need to worry about personally, but I do feel for some of the developers: particularly the smaller studios and indies. If I had to work on the same project for decades I think I would lose my marbles. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? Here are some examples. They’re games that I’m familiar with and really feel to me as if they’re done. [0] https://steamcommunity.com/app/394510/discussions/0/135509124606830786/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/394510/discussions/0/13550912... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/spelunky/comments/xlpmb8/lack_of_updates/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spelunky/comments/xlpmb8/lack_of_up...
- klyrs 3y ago
  From the article: > "After twelve years the game still sells like hot cakes," Spinks tweeted. "There is so much demand it makes it hard to move on." I don't think your observation applies here.
  - s1artibartfast 3y ago
    Why doesn't it apply? It seems like the game is in a solid state that tons of people find it enjoyable as is, with the current body of content and bugs. If someone bought it today, why would that person be disappointed that it wont be getting updates?
    - bluefirebrand 3y ago
      "Should we stop developing Terraria or should we port it to a new console and add some new stuff to make another bucket of guaranteed money"?
  - derstander 3y ago
    > I don't think your observation applies here. Apologies for the miscommunication. I don’t particularly think it applies here (at least, maybe not yet?). That’s why I prefaced my ramblings with both “[t]his may be a bit of a tangent” and “I don’t think it’s the case with Terraria’s fans…”. It’s just a minor thing I had been thinking about off and on that I didn’t think warranted it’s own “Ask HN”-style article but seemed close enough to an article and discussion on a long-supported game that it wouldn’t be too out-of-place.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  Software economics can be a bit weird. I believe I've bought 3 licenses for "No Man's Sky" across 2 systems for around $40 total because I seem to have caught it at the right time. It's rather famous for under-delivering at launch but it seems that they sold so many copies and have a small team and have just kept iterating over the years to deliver on the initial promise and then some. So I think I got a great value and I bet that Hello Games still made lots of money. I'd say that Minecraft is probably the most amazing value in that I paid $30ish for it in 2011 and it has been developed and added to ad nauseum ever since. I'm sure it helps that it became a cultural phenomenon of its own with all kinds of merchandise. I suppose people latch onto those and get some unrealistic expectations (I currently make my living from SaaS, so I certainly understand the work that goes into a hosted product). I mostly still prefer the old way of gaming though - give me a finished executable that I run locally and maybe a couple bugfixes here and there, but basically just leave it alone. You don't buy a painting from an artist and then expect them to keep changing it once it's done.
local_crmdgeon 3y ago
Terraria is the best of what video games can be. You can tell they actually play and love video games - similar to Minecraft, Elden Ring, and Hades. It's art.

64 points by blondin 3y ago

More than ten years of consistent, substantive updates. Never had an expansion or DLC or "season pass" or in-game purchases. Best gaming $15 I ever spent.

haunter 3y ago

Terraria has the best patch notes hands down. Everything is fully detailed visually, the devs show it with examples https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-labor-of-love-is-out-now.114357/ https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-labor... Nothing comes close to this.

Havoc 3y ago

If the formula works why not

derstander 3y ago

This may be a bit of a tangent. I don’t think it’s the case with Terraria’s fans, but I have noticed an odd sense of entitlement in comments and reviews on other steam game pages or on Reddit. There’s a sizable contingent (maybe just a vocal minority) of people with a lot of time in a game — dozens or hundreds of hours — complaining about developers “abandoning” games. I definitely understand if you’ve paid for a game that is incomplete and/or bug ridden. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people that have effectively paid pennies per hour of enjoyment they’ve gotten out of a game. Luckily I’m not in the games industry so it’s probably not anything I’ll need to worry about personally, but I do feel for some of the developers: particularly the smaller studios and indies. If I had to work on the same project for decades I think I would lose my marbles. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? Here are some examples. They’re games that I’m familiar with and really feel to me as if they’re done. [0] https://steamcommunity.com/app/394510/discussions/0/135509124606830786/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/394510/discussions/0/13550912... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/spelunky/comments/xlpmb8/lack_of_updates/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spelunky/comments/xlpmb8/lack_of_up...

klyrs 3y ago
From the article: > "After twelve years the game still sells like hot cakes," Spinks tweeted. "There is so much demand it makes it hard to move on." I don't think your observation applies here.
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  Why doesn't it apply? It seems like the game is in a solid state that tons of people find it enjoyable as is, with the current body of content and bugs. If someone bought it today, why would that person be disappointed that it wont be getting updates?
  - bluefirebrand 3y ago
    "Should we stop developing Terraria or should we port it to a new console and add some new stuff to make another bucket of guaranteed money"?
- derstander 3y ago
  > I don't think your observation applies here. Apologies for the miscommunication. I don’t particularly think it applies here (at least, maybe not yet?). That’s why I prefaced my ramblings with both “[t]his may be a bit of a tangent” and “I don’t think it’s the case with Terraria’s fans…”. It’s just a minor thing I had been thinking about off and on that I didn’t think warranted it’s own “Ask HN”-style article but seemed close enough to an article and discussion on a long-supported game that it wouldn’t be too out-of-place.
hotpotamus 3y ago
Software economics can be a bit weird. I believe I've bought 3 licenses for "No Man's Sky" across 2 systems for around $40 total because I seem to have caught it at the right time. It's rather famous for under-delivering at launch but it seems that they sold so many copies and have a small team and have just kept iterating over the years to deliver on the initial promise and then some. So I think I got a great value and I bet that Hello Games still made lots of money. I'd say that Minecraft is probably the most amazing value in that I paid $30ish for it in 2011 and it has been developed and added to ad nauseum ever since. I'm sure it helps that it became a cultural phenomenon of its own with all kinds of merchandise. I suppose people latch onto those and get some unrealistic expectations (I currently make my living from SaaS, so I certainly understand the work that goes into a hosted product). I mostly still prefer the old way of gaming though - give me a finished executable that I run locally and maybe a couple bugfixes here and there, but basically just leave it alone. You don't buy a painting from an artist and then expect them to keep changing it once it's done.

local_crmdgeon 3y ago

Terraria is the best of what video games can be. You can tell they actually play and love video games - similar to Minecraft, Elden Ring, and Hades. It's art.