I will admit I have been rather...inactive...for quite some time. I've lurked and kept up with news, but have not contributed since the 3DS port of Terraria launched. As such, I have a quite of bit of catching up to do in providing my thoughts.
As someone who is currently undergoing education to become a game developer (programmer, to be specific), it's easy to forget how confounding and unreasonable the game development cycle can look from an outside perspective. So much concern and even worry is displayed over what has been a pretty standard development cycle so far. Games' ETAs are getting pushed back all the time, and delays are so common that they are expected. The mistake here was that the update was given an estimated shipping date approximately a year out. That is far, far too early to provide a release estimate to the public given how unpredictable the potential problems that delay development tend to be.
In any case, it's too late to take back that information now. The best thing to do is to not make that mistake again and keep moving forward. Though, that being said, I must commend Terraria's developers, all of them, for treating their users with such professional respect. You put a lot of faith in the idea that your users will understand the hardship of your work. As to whether or not that happens...I'll just call it a 50/50 split and leave it at that.
In any case, I'm quite excited for this rebuild myself, in addition to my excitement for 505's replacement. To not speak of them too harshly, I believe that any console dev who sees a need to change a game's experience when porting from PC to consoles (such as limiting control layouts, limiting character creation options, or redesigning the HUD beyond dilation and translation of its elements) has a perspective of console users that is 15 years out-of-date. That said, I am very excited to see Pipeworks making a port that seeks to treat all platforms equally.
Anyway, a game is ready only when it is truly ready, and attempting to release a game which is not ready is asking to have your credibility stripped from you. Continue your fine work, Pipeworks, and I do NOT want to see any specific release date for the update until you can provide one with doubtless certainty.
