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[Kramlack]

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

[Triplefox]

I will say that it takes some serious coding talent to make this scope of game between January and now. I started Magnate around November, and put it on hold last month to reevaluate core gameplay. Although there are plenty of similarities - 2D, sandbox-esque build/defend/explore, etc. - I worked for an additional month and ended up with fewer surfaced features.

Three features I went for in particular were huge time sinks: pathfinding/marker AI, complete scene serialization, and a bunch of stuff for the tile engine to auto-tile edges and make them gloriously pretty (and then fast, since I had to also add caching and stuff on top). I did flirt with the idea of a sideview Minecraft at some point before or during work on Magnate, but decided that it wouldn't work as well as an overhead/RTS-like game would. So it's interesting to see the path I didn't take and what came of it.

I think the time I was spending on the RTS and pretty/polish features was used in Terraria to build out more mechanics and content(as well as the multiplayer). And it did good at that - I'll probably play it some more - but I see some of the "crisis of purpose" that hit my game lurking in the background and causing an certain kind of frustration among players - not all, but some of them at least.

Minecraft works because the 3D makes the basic build/survive experience deeper and more visceral. In the 2D game, building it simply isn't as much fun, there's little sense of danger, and adding more features and content instead has a tendency to further dilute the experience.

For my own game, that was compounded by trying to combine the single-avatar gameplay with a bulkier GUI interface to allow giving orders, etc. It became clear that huge cuts and iteration were needed, which is why I stopped. Terraria sticks more strongly towards the solo experience so I don't think it's hit as hard, but we'll see what happens as they continue development. I think a lot is going to rest on whether the combat is fun or not, given that so much of the content revolves around combat-related elements - equipment, items, and monsters.

[gimymblert]

SMOG: You heard it here first!

I didn't invent it google for it!

[TheLastBanana]

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?

[FK in the Coffee]

Just checked Steam.  Terraria has now officially overtaken The Witcher 2 on the "Best Sellers" list.  The developers must be rolling in money right now.

[Mipe]

Maybe the low price has something to do with it, huh? Also the 4-pack thing kinda inflates numbers.

[Kramlack]

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?

Just about everything, but I don't have time to explain why now, I have a minecraft rpg to make.

[deathtotheweird]

that's the envy talking, I'm guessing.

[TRONMAXIMUM]

There's a difference between being envious over a developer's game selling well, and being irritated over a developer creating an ugly game (that uses [or used-- probably still does] ripped sprites) that completely rips off an already-popular game selling half a million dollars in its first few days of being released.

[Dragonmaw]

There's a difference between being envious over a developer's game selling well, and being irritated over a developer creating an ugly game (that uses [or used-- probably still does] ripped sprites) that completely rips off an already-popular game selling half a million dollars in its first few days of being released.

Minecraft and Infiniminer?

[Mipe]

There's a difference between being envious over a developer's game selling well, and being irritated over a developer creating an ugly game (that uses [or used-- probably still does] ripped sprites) that completely rips off an already-popular game selling half a million dollars in its first few days of being released.

Dude, you're ripping off my breathing cycle. Start breathing irregularly or my lawyer will meet yours.

Even I can see that Terraria is not a blatant ripoff, it is just borrowing an idea, but the implementation is a completely different thing, so it doesn't constitute a ripoff. Nothing wrong with borrowing an idea, especially if it is such a successful one. You can blame them for adopting a successful idea in the name of CAPITALISM HO!, but not for ripping off an existing game.

[Kramlack]

dum

Removing this post since it's not worth my time to get trolled by you.

[Inanimate]

No need to get prickly, guys. Keep the insults to a minimum.


The game isn't exactly original, but it isn't exactly a rip-off.

They took an idea, but they tried to adapt it into a new genre and system; platformer, more action-based, etc.

[TRONMAXIMUM]

Dude, you're ripping off my breathing cycle. Start breathing irregularly or my lawyer will meet yours.

Natural human function is not a valid comparison to video game development. Sorry!

The only thing not "ripoff-y" about Terraria is the fact that it's on a 2D plane. And has more, lamer features. If it's this easy to get away with a blatant cash-in and benefit from it, everyone may as well take every 3D game, put it in 2D, lower the graphic quality considerably, and market it. And sell thousands.

There's a difference between being envious over a developer's game selling well, and being irritated over a developer creating an ugly game (that uses [or used-- probably still does] ripped sprites) that completely rips off an already-popular game selling half a million dollars in its first few days of being released.

Minecraft and Infiniminer?

I don't support Minecraft either, so...

[Christian Knudsen]

If it's this easy to get away with a blatant cash-in and benefit from it, everyone may as well take every 3D game, put it in 2D, lower the graphic quality considerably, and market it. And sell thousands.

If it really is this easy, why don't you do it? Don't you want the money?

[TRONMAXIMUM]

If it's this easy to get away with a blatant cash-in and benefit from it, everyone may as well take every 3D game, put it in 2D, lower the graphic quality considerably, and market it. And sell thousands.

If it really is this easy, why don't you do it? Don't you want the money?

I don't do it because I'd rather be known for my ideas, not from ripping off the current hot ticket. If I make any sort of money, I'd rather it be made from my own work, and not from recreating the works of others, using sprites from a video game that already exists.

(Yes, I know the sprites have been changed since then, but that doesn't suddenly make it okay that it happened in the first place. The fact that this game was sold while placeholders were still being used for the graphics [and were actively used in the promotional content!] is deplorable and theft, no matter how you look at it.)

[Christian Knudsen]

The game wasn't sold with those graphics? As far as I know, it was released for sale two days ago with the updated graphics.

Really, if there's anything you should be annoyed/envious about, it's the fact that most of the games' success hinges on one thing: Notch twittered about it.

FortressCraft is a ripoff of Minecraft. Terraria took some of the ideas in Minecraft (and countless other games with similar gameplay before it!) and spun them into its own thing. To say that it doesn't have its own ideas is really stretching the facts to fit your argument.

[Guillaume]

Best seller on Steam?



To the Minecraft-clone machine!

[TRONMAXIMUM]

The game wasn't sold with those graphics? As far as I know, it was released for sale two days ago with the updated graphics.

Yes, it was. The graphics of the game, day 1, were the Final Fantasy edits/recolors. Second day, they updated the graphics, but now instead of being FF5 recolors, they resemble FF6 sprites.

[Christian Knudsen]

A new trailer was released before the game was available for purchase. That new trailer had the updated character graphics.

And as far as I know, there's been only one patch for the game. This was the changelog:

Items
Cobwebs now prevent falling damage correctly.
Certain 'Dev only' items were removed, as they were for testing only.
The dark outlines on player and armor sprites have been blended better.
Torches now work correctly when being placed on wooden platforms.
Spawning no longer destroys chests that are placed on ground that is removed due to spawn point clearing.
Sand directly under a chest no longer falls due to gravity.

NPCs
Guide now explains the use of a hammer and its interactions with walls and placed objects.

Crash Fixes
Leaving the settings menu via the back button should longer crash.

Performance
Added a toggle for Frame skip, which can correct some slowdown issues on higher end computers.
Optimized Single Player and Multiplayer.
Players who haven't cheated will no longer be flagged as a cheater.

Controls
The Inventory button is now re-mappable.

I don't see anything about updated graphics here (except for the slight change to player and armor sprites). You're not thinking about the leak, are you? That had the old graphics, of course, but wasn't supposed to be released and certainly wasn't "sold".