Terraria: Otherworld Changing of the Guard: An Update from Otherworld

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be it a tv, desktop, laptop, or handheld device, the new versions of everything are running at higher display resolutions than were standard when Terraria first released, so I would really hope that Terraria's successor would up the base resolution of everything to match
When the first version of Terraria was made, possible resolutions were already much higher than what the game actually used. This was a conscious choice from the start to follow a "charming low-res pixel-art" theme, I assume. Since T: OW is supposed to be a spinoff and not a sequel, keeping the same art type seems fitting and really helps connect both experiences along with conveying the whole Terraria-ness.
If you are in dire need for better graphics, I suggest you keep your hopes up and high for Terraria 2; we don't know what it'll be like yet :dryadwink:
 
When the first version of Terraria was made, possible resolutions were already much higher than what the game actually used. This was a conscious choice from the start to follow a "charming low-res pixel-art" theme, I assume. Since T: OW is supposed to be a spinoff and not a sequel, keeping the same art type seems fitting and really helps connect both experiences along with conveying the whole Terraria-ness.
If you are in dire need for better graphics, I suggest you keep your hopes up and high for Terraria 2; we don't know what it'll be like yet :dryadwink:
I have to agree with Loud Donovan. Low res pixel art can be nice, but even the emoji in your response is of a higher resolution then the assets in Terraria. Nobody is saying it needs to be modern sprite work, but we're are dealing with character models with a similar pixel count to 8-bit Nintendo characters. Higher resolutions will not kill the connection between the games. If anything "charming low-res pixel-art" has been done to death thanks to the indie games boom. Quality higher resolution sprite assets would do a lot to set the game apart and draw in more interest.
 
Remember to chill and try relax time being, your team working hard and its good time give them some good rest when in need. We don't want anyone start collaps on the team, make sure they are ok of their stress, emotion, mental, thirst, and common hunger.


As other news or for I speak. Make sure you don't keep on ignoring the suggestion board, always check when in need and lets your judgment pass or hear it, so later on the game can be better or not, but listening to one speak out someone suggested modders into the game later on just like starbound in recommend or either like "conan exile" system how mod be added, so the players can put mods into the sever and do it for his friends for he invited to.

Yea pretty much that is it so far.
 
I have to agree with Loud Donovan. Low res pixel art can be nice, but even the emoji in your response is of a higher resolution then the assets in Terraria. Nobody is saying it needs to be modern sprite work, but we're are dealing with character models with a similar pixel count to 8-bit Nintendo characters. Higher resolutions will not kill the connection between the games. If anything "charming low-res pixel-art" has been done to death thanks to the indie games boom. Quality higher resolution sprite assets would do a lot to set the game apart and draw in more interest.
I'm not saying I wouldn't like higher resolutions, but really I don't mind the current look. I'm unsure as to whether or not they need to draw in more interest, but that's another story. Just suggesting we trust the ones who are actually doing it on this one, and then if we truly are displeased wait for someone to mod in better graphics (which is basically all we can do at this point anyway).
 
I want you guys, after you settle and reconsider things out, to do something like FFF in Factorio, its brilliant idea to share very little things, but keep us with you.
 
Good news ! We'll wait the time it will take as long as ToW will develop in the best possible conditions. Courage to the team ! :)
 
When the first version of Terraria was made, possible resolutions were already much higher than what the game actually used. This was a conscious choice from the start to follow a "charming low-res pixel-art" theme, I assume. Since T: OW is supposed to be a spinoff and not a sequel, keeping the same art type seems fitting and really helps connect both experiences along with conveying the whole Terraria-ness.
If you are in dire need for better graphics, I suggest you keep your hopes up and high for Terraria 2; we don't know what it'll be like yet :dryadwink:

Just to be clear, I'm by no means saying I want sprites made for 1:1 resolution on 4k monitors or anything close to that. Rather, I'd just like to see Otherworld's sprites get increased resolution to match the increased scale of today's displays. Like, let's say, just for hypothetical simple numbers, that the average pc monitor of today is twice the resolution of the average pc monitor when Terraria first released. In that case, I'd like for the character sprites to be made at twice the resolution as the original Terraria sprites. It'd still have the pixel look that way, which is totally fine by me, it just won't have even huger blown-up pixels, which in my opinion, lose their charm when they get too big. On which note, as far as I'm concerned, four real screen pixels per blown-up in-game "pixel" is about as big as I like to see them, pixels bigger than that are too... pixelly, for lack of a better term. Original Terraria fit into that ratio when I first played it, thus nailing the "charming low-res" look, and all I'm asking is for Otherworld do the same on current hardware. And of course, fitting more detail into the character sprites would be nice too, if not just as important as avoiding overly huge, cheap-looking upscaled pixels.

Now with that said, I realize good sprite work takes time and skill. Having done sprite animation for a far, far simpler game myself, I definitely appreciate the work involved. But we know Otherworld has an actual budget to work with, so I think they can afford to hire a couple artists as opposed to having it pretty much done by one guy like before. There are definitely people out there like me with pixel art skills in need of work who would do it, no doubt about that. The only real question is what sort of visuals Re-Logic wants and how much they're willing to spend on them.

I have to agree with Loud Donovan. Low res pixel art can be nice, but even the emoji in your response is of a higher resolution then the assets in Terraria. Nobody is saying it needs to be modern sprite work, but we're are dealing with character models with a similar pixel count to 8-bit Nintendo characters. Higher resolutions will not kill the connection between the games. If anything "charming low-res pixel-art" has been done to death thanks to the indie games boom. Quality higher resolution sprite assets would do a lot to set the game apart and draw in more interest.

Yeah, as far as I can tell, your standard Terraria character is roughly 24 pixels tall. There were SNES games with player character sprites bigger than that. Personally, I have ZERO nostalgia for 8-bit tier presentation to put it mildly, which is why I have such disdain for so many indie games. Presentation-wise, Terraria was always kind of skirting that look, but it's also a great game and the first project from its creators, so they deserved some slack for making it on a shoestring budget. (Plus, the market hadn't been nearly as flooded with cheap giant indie pixels when Terraria initially released, which helped.) But at this point, between having an actual budget to work with and technology being even more powerful, at least hitting late-SNES presentation quality would be reasonable, and I doubt people wouldn't recognize Otherworld as a followup to Terraria simply by virtue of having 48 pixel tall characters. However it would sure stand out even better from the sea of cheap indie garbage with such a level of presentation. I don't think that's too much to ask.
 
Yeah, a target of 16 bit equivalent sprites is the minimum for Otherworld I think. It doesn't matter that it's a spinoff instead of a sequel. To the average game buyer that distinction is meaningless. It's the second Terraria game, an improvement in the graphics is expected.
 
Quick question: is there really a gain to keeping much of the code? Is it faster to code from scratch or for the new team to build off of what is already there?

I imagine some of the systems and of course the assets could be used, but curious on whether it would be easier to code anew and make it their own.
 
Quick question: is there really a gain to keeping much of the code? Is it faster to code from scratch or for the new team to build off of what is already there?

I imagine some of the systems and of course the assets could be used, but curious on whether it would be easier to code anew and make it their own.
I'm sure that's part of the evaluation process being done. If there is usable code, there's no reason to throw it out.

I wouldn't expect any public accounting along the lines of "we used X amount of the existing code/assets, and redid the rest," even if X turns out to be none of it. It's really not relevant information to the consumers at the end of the day.
 
Quick question: is there really a gain to keeping much of the code? Is it faster to code from scratch or for the new team to build off of what is already there?

I imagine some of the systems and of course the assets could be used, but curious on whether it would be easier to code anew and make it their own.

It would be wiser to take the existing game of terraria and all it's coding and change it how they see fit, which is likely what they should do. (Not saying they will)

Notice how it's easier to mod a game than to create your own game.
 
It would be wiser to take the existing game of terraria and all it's coding and change it how they see fit, which is likely what they should do. (Not saying they will)

Notice how it's easier to mod a game than to create your own game.
That wouldn't work, unless Terraria and Terraria: Otherworld have a close to identical engine and/or framework, which they do not. Even though their design may be similar, code doesn't migrate as easily as art assets or even design ideas would: it has to be tailor made to the engine in question.
 
That wouldn't work, unless Terraria and Terraria: Otherworld have a close to identical engine and/or framework, which they do not. Even though their design may be similar, code doesn't migrate as easily as art assets or even design ideas would: it has to be tailor made to the engine in question.
Oh I had no clue it'd be an entirely different engine, yeah that changes things, there is no way the terraria code would apply the same way.
 
I was referring more to the work done by the previous company on T:OW.

And creating a game is different than modding. Ever modded something and wished you could do something, but couldn't because it would crash the game if you tried? ie the code wouldn't allow for it?

I shouldn't really expect an answer for my original question, honestly. It's not a very "proper" question. I just thought of it when Loki was talking about it not being "from scratch"

Which made me wonder how much interest the new guys would have in core systems if they plan on going a different way, even with architecture. It might be easier to scrap most of it than to troubleshoot how to fit new systems into preexisting code.

They might want a fresh build that leaves them more versatility down the line, for example.
 
I was referring more to the work done by the previous company on T:OW.

And creating a game is different than modding. Ever modded something and wished you could do something, but couldn't because it would crash the game if you tried? ie the code wouldn't allow for it?

I shouldn't really expect an answer for my original question, honestly. It's not a very "proper" question. I just thought of it when Loki was talking about it not being "from scratch"

Which made me wonder how much interest the new guys would have in core systems if they plan on going a different way, even with architecture. It might be easier to scrap most of it than to troubleshoot how to fit new systems into preexisting code.

They might want a fresh build that leaves them more versatility down the line, for example.
It's a hard thing to tell without asking pipeworks, if there wasn't much progress, they probably didn't use it.
 
It's a hard thing to tell without asking pipeworks, if there wasn't much progress, they probably didn't use it.

Considering how confident things sounded in Otherworld updates long past, I'd assume there had to be some progress made. I mean, at one point they had a planned release in 2015. I doubt such an announcement would have been made if there was never much progress made at all.

Personally, I assume a lot of stuff got done, but as it all came together, it just wasn't working out. Bugs and glitches proving hard to iron out, perhaps performance issues that weren't going away, that sort of thing. Or maybe basic design aspects weren't working together in unanticipated ways, and it was an endless cycle of changing A to make it work with B right, but then that meant A and C didn't fit anymore, and so on. Plus, maybe once enough basic design aspects were implemented to really test the gameplay that emerged from it all, it just wasn't fun.

In any case, be it all or some of those problems that caused the reevaluation, I'd imagine Engine Software made significant progress in terms of building all the pieces, thus that old 2015 release forecast. But then once it was really time to put it all together, to see if the ideas and plans were working as envisioned, the pieces just weren't fitting. That can happen in practically any adequately complex project. And at that point, even if in theory you have 90% of everything made, if it isn't coming together, you might have to totally redesign and remake some or all of the pieces. Otherwise a bunch of relatively finished individual parts are no good regardless of how well they perform their own specific function, if they can't be unified into one stable, enjoyable game.

As such I'd say it's entirely likely that Engine Software made a lot of progress, AND that stuff won't be used now. Otherworld would by no means be the first game to have most of the work done and then just start over entirely, such a combination has plenty of precedent. Without knowing more of what was going on behind the scenes and what ultimately made Re-Logic decide they didn't like what was being made, most any scenario is possible.
 
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