Notch really only mentioned Terraria once or twice. He's done that for other games, which, as far as I know, haven't done nearly as well. Terraria's success is due in part to that, though. Also, Steam advertised Terraria a bit right on its marketing page, which helped a bit, too. That said, plenty of other games get space there, and again, they didn't do as well as Terraria.
I'd say the main reason was due to their marketing of it. The idea to release a bunch of gameplay footage but not actually release the game got people interested enough to buy it without wanting a demo or anything. That's likely why they released the game early - the second that leak got out, their marketing scheme was going to become a lot less effective, so they pushed it out before it could really take its toll.
And, of course, as rinkuhero pointed out, it really does come down to a matter of luck and having the market ready for the game. It's a combination of all these factors that got the game where it is.

Linx, the game is fun for 20-30 hours (that's how long I played it before unlocking all the main content, although I was playing online with a friend, so that has an effect on the length of the game). They're supposedly adding a lot more content in the coming months, so we'll see if that extends it.

I love the way this looks. Nice technique to get it looking like a CRT monitor. I'll have to give it a try later!

When was that actually posted?

Yeah up until the a developer ends up taking the Terraria's npc roaming  into your fort and add on to that too.That developer who would ask what if "I could help those npc build using my god like entity which then increase my power?". then the cycle will circle back to Actraiser. Which isn't that bad now I think on it.

What exactly is this supposed to mean? Yes, somebody could use the ideas in Terraria as the base for another game, but how does that change anything?

I got to the end of the game, essentially, and it feels a bit disappointing. I've got all the best armor, I've been to all the biomes, and there are only a few items I don't have because only goblins drop them and I have yet to see any. There isn't really anything left to do at this point - no final boss, no more treasure to find, and heart crystals no longer do anything at all. Interestingly, I didn't feel the same way about Minecraft, and I think it's because of Terraria's focus on adventuring and leveling up. It seems like there should be something at the end that you have to do or fight. In Minecraft, once I had all the best stuff, I could just start making my house nicer, but in Terraria, that takes a lot more effort and there's a lot less to add to your house.
Anyway, aside from that, I really enjoyed the game. Hopefully they'll address this issue in an update at some point.

Super Meat Boy is probably one of favourite games. Everything about it just felt really slick in my opinion, and I had a lot of fun playing it.
I also had a lot of fun with Spelunky. The procedural generation was really well-done - I didn't personally feel like it was repeating the same stuff over and over, and the different level types probably helped with that.
I think Cave Story can probably go on my list, too, mostly because it just felt really polished. In fact, that's probably why I picked the other two on here, too: they were fun and, as far as I can tell, well thought-out.

Really, I think this is a matter of personal taste. Terraria handles combat and the way you find items differently than Minecraft - some people find it interesting, some people don't. It doesn't make either game better or worse. If Minecraft isn't to your taste, you don't have to prove that it's a bad game, and the same goes for Terraria.

I honestly don't see why anybody is even taking people opinion's seriously when all they can offer up is "it looks like a shitty game". It sounds to me like most of you accusing it of being no fun haven't even played it. As much as I thought it was going to be yet another Minecraft ripoff, I've played it and enjoyed it for 20 hours so far.
That said, there are certainly some issues with it - the worms are really annoying early on, the lack of recuperation time after hits can get hard to handle, and a lot of content (like biomes and items) seem to be missing. Considering that the game had to be pushed out early due to a leak, though, I think I can excuse some of that. As long as the developers keep updating the game, I don't have any qualms, really. I'll admit that the player sprites are pretty clearly based on FF sprites, but I don't think that's a huge enough issue that the game should be outright dismissed as an unplayable ripoff.

Well, I'll be damned.  Looks like the devs have been invited down to Valve HQ for some kind of meeting or something.

What about that is facepalm-worthy?

Rockstar has a studio in Vancouver. There's also Bioware in Montreal (and in Edmonton, but that's a ways away from the cities you mentioned).

As much as the sprites are pretty clearly... inspired, the game itself is actually pretty neat. Obviously its gameplay is reminiscent of Minecraft, but they did make some really interesting decisions in terms of gameplay which gives it a different feel (such as more focus on action). The idea that you're running a town that people actually move into instead of just building your own house is also kind of fun to play with. Give it a shot before you blow it off as another Minecraft ripoff - I was considering the same at first, but having played it, I actually think it's a fun game with its own style and gameplay.

Also, as much as people are really losing it about buggy games launching on Steam, you might also want to consider that a lot of those games have been indie games. Super Meat Boy and Magicka were both riddled with bugs when they first came out, but they were also unique and enjoyable games which would likely not have gotten nearly as much attention without Steam. Anybody who's worked on an indie game should be able to understand that bugs like that get through when, in the case of Magicka, you're an eight-man team developing a game for a university course, or in the case of Super Meat Boy, a two-man team. If anything, this shows that Valve is willing to give indies a chance at the market even when their games aren't as polished as a AAA title. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

Another vote for LMMS here. I haven't updated mine in a while, actually, but I have to assume that it's only gotten better since the version I've been using. It comes with a plugin that emulates Game Boy sounds, too.
If you're looking for chiptune-style music, pxtone is pretty useful. It doesn't sound like any game system in particular, but if by "chiptune" you mean something with basic waveform instruments and white noise percussion, you can't go wrong with pxtone.

Personally I thought some of Portal 2 was actually funnier than the original. That said, I'm a bit partial to Stephen Merchant.

If there's no point in grabbing the intel, then why is it there in the first place? I don't really think that's the case.
Helping your teammates do things is certainly fun, but it's pretty clear that the game is trying to focus people toward more of an objective than Minecraft. Some people enjoy just helping teammates, but others are interested in feeling like they've accomplished a mission of some kind, and when there's none set out other than "don't get shot and also there is some intel hiding under several layers of concrete," it's not terribly fun. That isn't to say that you don't find it fun, but it seems like there's a fair amount of people in agreement that the fighting needs to be tweaked a bit. Considering that the game is going on the theme of "Minecraft with guns", I think it's fair that people are interested in seeing a game that takes the destructible terrain in a bit of different direction, and adds some more goals than are present in Minecraft.

A forum about games, which currently seems to be mostly made up of teenagers, is unfortunately not going to be the best place to discuss serious issues. If you're looking for serious discussion, you'll either have to find another forum that caters to it, or you're going to have to get over the trolls like rinkuhero, neoshaman, and countless other people who don't talk as much do.
Also, a good way to "evade trollage" is usually not to make a thread about trolls.

I didn't find capping very fun, either. Even if you do sneak into the enemy base, there's so many of them there that it's just a game of "who sees who first". Whoever doesn't see the other person dies almost instantly. I'd like it to take a little more to kill somebody, because people just seem too flimsy at the moment, especially when you spend 20 minutes sneaking into the enemy base only to die and restart on the other side of the world.

Turns out I have a decent download speed, but awful upload. Interesting.

Played through a medium sized map and narrowly missed my deadline on the way up because I didn't realise tab was a map. Maybe something for the tutorial?

I would have liked better differentiation of the different maps I could access on the planet interface (which I couldn't see until I clicked on them). Names or even just level numbers would help there, rather than just small/medium/large.

Otherwise enjoyed the game a lot; Felt very polished!

Thanks for the feedback! The map is actually mentioned in the tutorial, but I don't think it's there long or prominently enough. We'll definitely have a more complete tutorial as time goes on, so that's something we'll be sure to address.

The level select was really slapped together in a matter of a day or two, with no time to finish it up. The levels it chooses is entirely random - every time you click, it just comes up with a new level. Once we've got some more things worked out, the plan is to have 3-5 little markers pop up on the sphere, each marking a possible level choice. Hopefully that'll be easier to navigate and feel less confusing.

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed it, though! Hopefully we can get another update out soon.

Somebody already mentioned her in the thread, but don't forget Sophie Houlden.

I don't know if that's a matter of the playtesters sucking, nor if it's the fact that the game is allegedly console-native (is that even true? As far as I know it's just speculation). I think Valve did some very specific playtesting and tried a different approach to the game - a more direct, focused way of solving levels, but with more game mechanics added in. If nothing else, it's a lot easier to develop levels for that. It takes a lot longer to make levels with several solutions, so if Valve was aiming for a game that would be significantly longer than Portal (which they were), I'd say it was a pretty conscious decision.

That said, yes, I'd like to see some more levels like that in the upcoming DLC.