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Terraria is an action-adventure/RPG indie game, released by independent game studio Re-Logic, available via the Steam Store, Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. The game features exploration, crafting, construction, and combat with a variety of creatures in a randomly generated 2-D world.

Released for PCs on May 16, 2011, the game is estimated to have sold about 50,000 copies during its first day of release, with over 17,000 players online at the same time during the first day's peak. Over the week, 200,000 copies of the game were sold, making it the top-selling game on Steam for the week, ahead of The Witcher 2 and Portal 2. It remained number one on Steam for the first six days of its release, and as of January 2013 has sold over 2,000,000 copies. The game was released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade (Worldwide except for Europe and Australia) at the end of March 2013 with exclusive content. The PS3 European and Australian release date was May 15, 2013. It was announced on March 28, 2013 that Terraria is coming to the PS Vita in Summer 2013. On May 31, 2013 it was announced that Terraria would be coming to Phones and Tablets in Summer 2013 - the developers are the Dutch studio Codeglue.

Gameplay

Terraria is noted for its classic exploration-adventure style of play, similar to titles such as Metroid and Minecraft. Basic gameplay features day and night cycles, nocturnal and subterranean attackers, world-building elements, and character advancement. The game has a tile-based graphical style reminiscent of the 16-bit sprites found on the SNES.

At character creation, each player has a copper axe, a copper pickaxe, and a copper shortsword. They start out with 100 health. When the character first spawns in a new world, an NPC, the Guide, appears nearby to explain the basics of gameplay.

There are three character difficulties: Softcore, Mediumcore, and Hardcore. They vary only in death penalties. In Softcore, characters drop half their coins. In Mediumcore, characters drop all their items including coins and ammo. In Hardcore, characters die permanently, dropping all their items and becoming ghosts, unable to alter the world. When a player on hardcore difficulty dies, their character is deleted.

Enemies

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At night, different things may appear, such as Zombies and Demon Eyes, who will constantly attack the character until morning. At dawn, they all run away, even if they are still attacking the character. Daytime creatures are limited to gentler slimes. However, different biomes may contain powerful monsters including giant worms and hornets, while enemies progressively get harder as you travel deeper. Each night, given certain fulfilled requirements, there is a one in nine chance there will be a Blood Moon. Blood Moons spawn more enemies and rarer, extra ones as well (such as the Groom) and give zombies the ability to open doors, as well as many other subtle changes, like NPC dialogue and shop inventory. For example, female NPCs seem more grouchy, and the Dryad NPC sells corrupted items instead of corruption reducing items, and may quote, "I sell what I want! If you don't like it, too bad."

Characters may also summon powerful boss monsters, such as the Eye of Cthulhu or the Eater of Worlds. Independently of summoned bosses, each map has a dungeon that contains rare items and unusual enemies, and can be safely entered only after defeating the Skeletron boss guarding the dungeon on that map. Defeating the Wall of Flesh turns the current world into hardmode, which contains new enemies, blocks, biomes, items, and more. Hardmode bosses are more or less mechanical and harder versions of the original bosses. Hardmode also quickly brings about the removal of most forest biome and replaces it with either Hallowed or Corrupt biome. Weapons during hardmode are also much more powerful and/or sophisticated.

Unique features

Beyond basic gameplay features, Terraria has several elements not present in the games from which it takes its inspiration. By completing specific goals (such as defeating a boss, or gaining an extra heart), characters can attract NPCs to occupy structures or rooms they have built, including the Merchant, Dryad, Demolitionist, Arms Dealer, Clothier, Nurse, Mechanic, Wizard, Goblin Tinkerer, and Santa Claus. Santa Claus is only available during the Christmas holiday season (December 15–31). Some NPCs need to be unlocked by finding them and untying them first, but also must have a valid house to live in built by the player. Characters may then buy equipment or misc items with coins gained from defeating monsters, selling items, breaking pots, or finding treasure chests hidden within the world. Each map also contains partly random generated biomes with unique monsters and surroundings, such as the Underworld (a lava-filled chthonic area filled with demons and skeletal serpents), the Hallow, a colourful but dangerous biome which is generated after the Wall of Flesh is killed, the Corruption (a dangerous, diseased wasteland full of deadly creatures and chasms full of rare items), Floating Islands which contain a chest of different quality, deserts, and jungles above and below ground.

Random events may occur in the course of play, such as the Goblin Invasion or the Frost Legion which sends a goblin army or snowmen (respectively) to lay siege to the characters' houses, although the latter is only available to fight within the month of December along with the unique NPC Santa Claus . Events such as meteorites falling, generating meteorite ore, can also be caused by destroying shadow orbs in corrupted map areas (biomes) and creating certain boss-summoning items at demon altars, among others. There are also some monsters considered mini bosses such as the wizard Tim, The Groom, Doctor Bones, the King Slime and in Hardmode, Wyverns.

Resource gathering

Player characters primarily gather resources in Terraria using three basic tools. The solid soil- and brick-based blocks which make up the two-dimensional world can be mined using a pickaxe, trees and certain other structures can be cut using an axe, and background wall tiles, fixtures (such as crafting stations), and other "placed" objects can be deconstructed with a hammer. The Hamaxe is a combination of a hammer and an axe, which can only be made out of some of the rarer materials; it saves inventory space by eliminating the need for both tools as separate items. The speed and ability to deconstruct certain objects (such as iron ore) with which each tool can be used to harvest resources from the environment depends on the quality of the material the tool is made from and the modifier (randomly generated rating of the weapon, tool or accessory such as "legendary" or "broken") applied to that item. Wooden and Copper tools (low-quality materials) harvest resources very slowly, but tools made out of higher-quality material (e.g. Demonite, Gold, Hellstone etc.,) can harvest most resources in one or two swings. Thus, as characters acquire better tools, their rate of potential resource acquisition also increases. In order to get better items and materials, better tools are required. After defeating the Wall of Flesh, upgraded mechanical versions of the previous tools become available. The drill replaces the pickaxe and the chainsaw replaces the axe. Finally, the Hamdrax is the functional combination of a hammer, drill, and chainsaw. Reforging via the goblin tinkerer gives a new random modifier to the item at a cost of five times the sell price of that object in coins. Characters can also obtain resources from slain enemies, from within chests and clay pots found underground, and from most NPCs.

Harvested resources can be crafted into new items and equipment through the inventory screen by standing in front of the appropriate crafting station and selecting the appropriate recipe, provided one is carrying the correct ingredients with them for that recipe. As long as the necessary ingredients are present, new items can be made just by clicking their recipe, as opposed to the often-compared game, Minecraft, in which one must visualize and "draw" the item with the ingredients. There are several types of crafting stations, and most items must be created at a specific crafting station. Some important and powerful items are only available via crafting. Similarly to Minecraft, the Terraria crafting system is very "deep" and multi-tiered. If provided with a possible ingredient, the in-game guide lists all possible items that can be crafted from that ingredient—or players may mix and match items to discover new recipes.

Crafting

Terraria features a crafting system for the various items, tools, and weapons used by the player. When the player is at the appropriate workstation, such as an anvil or a crafting table, and has all the necessary components of the item to be crafted, the item can be crafted in a vertical scrolling menu of items available for crafting. Often the crafting ingredients required can send the player on long and difficult missions/trips to find specific items used in crafting - for example, the player might go to the Jungle to craft various jungle-themed items. Other recipes might require the player to defeat powerful boss monsters to collect the resources they provide, while many others require extensive mining to collect the resources necessary for crafting.

Development

Terraria was developed by Re-Logic, with development starting in January 2011 and is built on the Microsoft XNA framework. The game was released on May 16, 2011. Re-Logic is composed of Andrew Spinks, who designed and programmed the game, and Finn Bryce, who along with Spinks did the graphic design for the game. The music was composed by Scott Lloyd Shelley through his Resonance Array studio.

As of February 2012, the developers announced that they would not be continuing active development, but would release a final bug-fix patch. However, 505 Games is porting the game to several video game consoles and adding new content. 505 Games does not have the rights to update the PC version. On 24 January 2013, Andrew Spinks requested suggestions of features for possible future updates to the PC version. This question was put to people on the official Terraria forum. As of April 3, 2013, Andrew posted a spoiler on the possible update for Terraria, showing the possibility of the update. More information on the 2013 PC Update can be found in the FAQ.

Version 1.2 (PC only), containing many new items and additional features, is currently projected to be released late July 2013 to mid-August 2013. This update will be free for existing owners of the PC version of Terraria.

Reception

Terraria has received favorable reviews with an 83/100 metascore on Metacritic. A review for Destructoid included praise for Terraria as "full of depth". Gameblog.fr reviewer Fumble gave the game four out of five stars. Another reviewer praised Terraria's integration of some of Minecraft's concepts into two dimensions. GameZone gave the game a 9 out of 10. GameSpot praised Terraria's exploration and feeling of accomplishment but criticised its lack of tutorial or explicit directions. Terraria received the #1 of 2011 Indie of the Year Player Choice on IndieDB. Spike Chunsoft released the PlayStation 3 version in Japan, including exclusive items such as a costume based on Monokuma from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

References

1. ^ "PSN EU Release date CONFIRMED!". Terraria Online. Retrieved 2013-04-30.
2. "Release date is confirmed". Terraria Online.
3. ^ "Terraria coming to PS Vita". IGN.
4. ^ http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/grab-your-gear-%E2%80%93-terraria-is-going-mobile.100972/
5. Senior, Tom (May 17, 2011). "Terraria launch a huge success". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
6. Plunkett, Luke (May 26, 2011). "Minecraft Links Help Indie Game Sell 200,000 Copies in Nine Days". Kotaku. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
7. Cifaldi, Frank (May 25, 2011). "2D Word-of-Mouth Hit Terraria Sells 200K in Nine Days". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
8. "Is Terraria the next Minecraft". IGN.
9. Devore, Jordan (April 25, 2011). "Minecraft in 2D, you say? Terraria looks legit". Destructoid. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
10. Geere, Duncan (May 18, 2011). "Terraria offers two-dimensional mining, exploring and giant eyeballs". Wired. Condé Nast Publications. Retrieved 2001-05-22.
11. McWhertor, Michael (May 13, 2011). "Somewhere Between Super Metroid and Minecraft Lies the Intriguing Terraria". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
12. "1.0.5 Changelog". Terraria Online. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
13. "Terraria vs Minecraft". MinecraftForFree. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
14. "news.ews | Scott Lloyd Shelly". Resonancearray.com. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
15. "My Fellow Terrarians". Terraria Online. February 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
16. "My Fellow Terrarians (Pt. 2)". Terraria Online. February 28, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
17. "Facebook post "At 505 Games, we're really excited to bring Terraria to more gamers through XBLA and PSN."". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
18. "Twitter / Terraria_Logic: @JoANSanxhez We don't own the ..." Twitter.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
19. "Something about a possible PC update". Terraria Online.
20. "Its been a while since I posted a spoiler". Terraria Online.
21. "Terraria PC update FAQ". Reddit.
22. https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/341011199615455232
23. https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/340928021122928640
24. "Terraria for PC Reviews, Ratings, Credits and More". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
25. Devore, Jordan (May 25, 2011). "Impressions: Terraria". Destructoid. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
26. Fumble (May 27, 2011). "Terraria, le test sur PC". Gameblog.fr. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
27. Castelli, Stefano (May 23, 2011). "Un tris di mini-recensioni". Videogame.it. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
28. Sanchez, David. "Terraria Review | Review | Terraria | GameZone". Pc.gamezone.com. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
29. Mc Shea, Tim (May 31, 2011). "Terraria Review, Terraria PC Review". Review.
30. "Space Station Room With a View". IndieDB. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
31. http://senpaigamer.com/sony-playstation/terraria-ps3-released-today-japan-new-promotion-video-monokuma-super-dangan-ronpa

External links

• Official website
• Official wiki

• 2011 video games
• Indie video games
• Open world video games
• PlayStation 3 games
• PlayStation Network games
• PlayStation Vita games
• Survival video games
• Side-scrolling role-playing video games
• Windows games
• Xbox 360 Live Arcade games