Q&A with Re-Logic about Terraria: Otherworld

Picture: Re-Logic

When I first heard that Re-Logic is working on Terraria: Otherworld and I saw the first trailer, I was excited as hell. I spend seemingly edless hours in Terraria and still like to play it when I find time to do so. Consequently, I am eager to play the new game, Terraria: Otherworld, which supposedly is similar to the first one, but features many new elements and still has a new take on the game. I did a bit of research to find more information about the game and as doing so, some questions came up to which I could not find answers. So, I send the team a list of questions and they kindly answered them. Below, you can see the „interview“, or more the Q&A about Terraria: Otherworld as well as trailers.

Eine deutsche Zusammenfassung gibt es hier.

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In how far will Terraria: Otherworld differ from the original game?

Terraria: Otherworld retains the “soul” of Terraria at its core. That wide-open sense of exploration, building, and doing what you want to do – tackling problems in your own, creative way – is very much alive and well in Otherworld!
That said, players in TOW will have a much greater sense of purpose and goals to accomplish than in the original Terraria.
In Terraria, the player begins with the world as more or less a “blank canvas” – one that is somewhat formless and at the whims of the player. In TOW, this sandbox style still exists, though with a different approach in regards to the world being in ruin at the start…completely overrun by a force that has twisted the world and nature itself…and the players’ main goal being to cleanse that world. This is obviously just a very broad overview – but the overall takeaway is that this version will feel more focused and goal-oriented than the wide open Terraria.

Will it be as complex as the original in terms of crafting and creating?

Crafting in Otherworld (gather resources, make crafting stations) will be largely in line with Terraria since we feel that it is one of the strongest and most popular features of the existing game.
Like everything else, though, we are trying to give everything a close examination to find improvements – so expect some changes.
For example, we have already given the crafting interface a big overhaul.

When do you think can we see further material? Do you still prefer to release the game when it’s completely finished or do you consider an open/closed beta?

We will be releasing occasional spoilers and other information along the journey to launch. This is an approach we have utilized successfully with Terraria updates, and we feel it strikes the right balance between “sharing” and “saving surprises for players to discover”.
We conduct all of our testing internally, via a selected closed beta process. From time to time, we expand on this team – typically from within our dedicated community.
As a company, we are committed to pushing for the launch of completed titles – so no Early Access and the like. This will be the case with Otherworld – it will launch when it is a completed work.
That does not, of course, preclude post-launch content updates!

Do you think you will still be able to release the game this year?

Our intent – and we do not intend to compromise on this – is to release a “full/finished” game at launch. As such, we do not want to yet give any arbitrary dates or timing. However, our goal is to have TOW available – as a full game – in 2015.
We want to reiterate that we will not be participating in an Early Access program.

The teaser looks like it will be darker and more mystical. Is that true?

Darker – yes that is likely fitting, given the state of your world from the beginning. Unlike in Terraria, where your world is pristine at the beginning, things are reversed here – with everything being fully corrupted
Not entirely sure what you mean in regards to mystical – but Otherworld will indeed have a lot more “lore” and story than the very open-ended Terraria. That could lead to that sense of mysticism perhaps?

(Yes, that is indeed what I meant, but failed to pinpoint. :))

What were your inspirations? Just the original or any film, book, other game?

Ever since the early days of Terraria, Andrew was curious as to what other directions the Terraria concept could have taken – say a different gameplay focus or with a much larger budget/team than was feasible at its inception.
Andy and Ruud were discussing this a while ago, and Ruud shared an inspiration that he had (below). Several lengthy ideation sessions later, and Terraria: Otherworld was born.

Ruud: The very first idea came from listening to a music track which was a very dark sci-fi track and it put the thought in my head “what if there was a darker world in Terraria where the corruption was *everywhere*” and it just grew from there to where we are now.
As we shared the idea with other people within Re-Logic and Engine Software the new ideas just kept coming and quickly up to a point where it turned into its own game.

Terraria: Otherworld allows for the chance to play out those scenarios all at once and to explore new possibilities while preserving the notion of a “true sequel” aligned to the core experience

Did you take into consideration the feedback about the original Terraria?

Re-Logic as a company is very community-oriented, as a matter of philosophy. This stretches from actively participating on our forums/social media to reading reviews and even to how we source our beta and development teams.
As such, we absolutely have, are, and will take community feedback – on Terraria and on Otherworld (as details emerge) into consideration during the development process. That isn’t to say we lack a strong vision for the game – more just that we fully appreciate the value that our fans’ input can have on our games.

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