When Re-Logic announced a follow up to Terraria last month, the studio stopped short of explaining what it actually is. But now we're in the future, a pleasant future bearing details on Terraria: Otherworld, and the gist of these details is that Otherworld adds "strategy and roleplaying" elements to the pixel art sandbox, as well as "purpose", in case building things for no reason isn't your bag.

"Set in an alternate dimension within the Terraria universe, Terraria: Otherworld places the player in a life-and-death struggle to restore a once-pristine world," the update reads. "Along with a rag-tag band of survivors, will you be able to successfully harness the power of an array of weaponry, magic, defenses, and even the world itself to thwart the designs of this unseen evil?"

For every life and death struggle comes the inevitable levelling requirements, and Terraria: Otherworld will add them in spades while still retaining the open-ended nature of the original. That means the story-focused elements won't be linear, the NPCs will do more than just sell stuff, and skill trees are in.

On the topic of "purpose", you'll be tasked with "pushing back the Corruption until it is no more". You'll do this by finding or crafting Purifying Towers and then activating them. Once activated, you'll need to defend them also. That activity forms the basis of the story-driven game, but if all you want to do is explore and build, it sounds like you'll be free to do that, too.

The full details are on the Terraria forum, but no release date beyond a vague 2015 window has been announced. 

Terraria: Otherworld is a newly announced follow up to the 2011 crafting and survival game, but it's not a sequel, according to the developers. In an announcement on the official Terraria forums, collaborating studios Re-Logic and Engine Software stress repeatedly that it is not a sequel. Which is fine, but what is it?

There's not a heap of information out there at the moment (the studios are inviting fans to speculate on the forum) but according to the official line, Otherworld will "explore what might have been, and approach gameplay in a new direction". 

"Set in an alternate dimension within the Terraria universe, Terraria: Otherworld places the player in a life-and-death struggle to restore a once-pristine world now overrun by a malevolent force that has corrupted nature itself to its original splendor," the announcement presser reads. 

"Along with a rag-tag band of survivors, will you be able to successfully harness the power of an array of weaponry, magic, defenses, and even the world itself to thwart the designs of this unseen evil?"

The game will be on display at GDC next month, so no doubt we'll hear more about it then. In the meantime, why not watch the teaser trailer below, which shows a very familiar looking Terraria setting.

People prepare for the night of ghosts and goblins in different ways. Some go trick-or-treating, while others get so drunk they start believing they are their costume. Only a select few lock themselves away to craft free Halloween updates for their games, and it turns out Terraria’s developers happen belong in the latter group.

Terraria’s “Halloween event” update fills your biome with Halloween-themed pets, costume paintings, gear, and friendly NPCs to sell you those items. Here’s hoping they don’t use your hard-earned cash to egg the impenetrable fortress you spent hours refurbishing. Slain monsters will also drop goodie bags containing “fun surprises” that hopefully won’t include mini bottles of toothpaste or, ugh, pencils. People who give those away on Halloween are the true monsters.

There’s also a “Pumpkin Moon Event” that can be triggered in hard mode. Developer Redigit was light on the details, but made the thing sound like a survival mode where you stave off waves of enemies. The more waves you survive, the better the spoils. The Halloween event lasts until Nov. 10, probably to let you recover from whatever candy coma you fall into.

There are also a bunch of non-Halloween themed bug fixes and balances. I found the most adorable one was “Mice can no longer spawn in hell.” That’s just my personal pick. Feel free to check out the full list and make your own decisions. Or, you could just tinker around while munching on your sugary-dessert of choice—preferably in a soundproof chamber where no doorbell can reach you.

Listen, Terraria fans. I don't want to rush you, but that giant patch you received a few days ago? You might not have the eternity to enjoy it that you previously assumed. Terraria's creator, Andrew 'Redigit' Spinks, has revealed that he's working on a sequel to the side-scrolling craft-'em-up, and despite some core similarities to the first game, he's teasing "infinite worlds" to be explored.

"I’m super excited about starting Terraria 2," Spinks told RPS. "It’s a ways out, but it’s gonna have a lot in common with the original. It’s gonna be quite different as well. I really want to expand on the whole Terraria universe.

"There’s a lot of stuff I’m locked into with Terraria. The way loot works, the way character progression works. In Terraria 2, I really want to have infinite worlds so you’re not just stuck to one world. You can travel anywhere. I want more biome diversity in that, too. There’s a lot of stuff ."

Not that development on Terraria: The First has finished just yet. While Spinks isn't planning anything on the scale of 1.2, he does want to finish the endgame progression within the next couple of months, as well as work on a possible Halloween update.

You can read the full interview over at RPS.

The sun is brighter! The sky is smoother! The werewolf form has been buffed! These are just three of the changes you'll find when you next log into Terraria. The full change list for the update, which has been in development for over nine months, is huge and covers nearly every part of the game. Want new hairstyles? You've got them. Want to be able to paint any solid tile or item? You can do that. Want to be asked if you want to use UPnP to automatically port-forward when hosting multiplayer? That's strange, but you will be. There are other, more dramatic changes too.

Bug Fixes


You can no longer craft items or money by placing items in the trash.
You can no longer sell your gold to NPC's
Music box/chest duping no longer works
Bunnies/Goldfish spawned from statues no longer drop money during a Bloodmoon
Equipping items to the social slot in German no longer crashes the game
The game will no longer create a random password during multiplayer world generation
You can now reforge in all languages
Active blocks will no longer become inactive with a chest on them
Fixed a bug that would cause a suitable house to be unsuitable
Fixed a lot of bugs that were not listed


Mechanics and Gameplay


Enemies now have a health bar
There is now a map, mini map, and overlay that only shows tiles the brightest they have ever been
The map can be toggled using tab, m, or through the map icons
“M” has been remapped for the map feature
“J” is now the default button for mana use
There is now an extended crafting menu that will show everything you can craft
Some items now stack to 999
Character slots have been increased to 1,000
World slots have been increased to 1,000
The starting female cloths have been modified
There are several new hairstyles
Character creation has been remodeled
Chest sizes have been doubled
Your inventory space has been increased by 10
You no longer need to jump to ascend single blocks
The hammer is now used for creating slopes, halftiles, and breaking walls only
The axe is now only used for chopping down trees and giant mushrooms
Pickaxes will now remove blocks, placeable objects, and items such as Life Crystals and chests
You can now paint any solid tile or item
Dye slots have been added
You will now start with 10 mana
You can now craft early game magic robes and staves
Bricks, wood, stone and glass all now blend together
Mana Crystals only require 5 fallen stars to craft, down from 10
If water touches a halftile it will create a waterfall
Your world has a chance to get alternative ore as a replacement for copper, iron, silver, and gold
Your world has a chance to have a replacement for the Corruption
Your world has a chance to get alternative ores as a replacement for Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite
Your world has a rare chance to have a pyramid or living tree spawn during world generation each containing their own loot table
There is a new hardmode jungle temple
There are now beehives that can be found in the jungle
There are now several new backgrounds and tree variations your world has a chance to generate
Water will now change color based on the biome you are in and depth underground
Ropes are now found early game and can be used to craft rope coils for traversing the world
Chains can now be placed and used as a rope mechanism
Mushroom grass/seeds can now grow and spread above ground
There are now 3 colors for wires
Actuators can be used to make any solid tile active and inactive
There is 1 new liquid type that can be found in the Jungle
There are several new fountains that will change the color of water when they are place nearby
Pearlstone bricks no longer spread hallow
Rain and blizzards have been added
There is a new snow biome with unique treasures and items for normal and hardmode
Enemies no longer trigger underground pressure plates
There are new pressure plates that can only be triggered by certain things such as the player, enemies, or both
Clowns will no longer blow up tiles
There are several new buffs and debuffs
There are now mini Capture the Gem addition to the game. You can craft large gems that draw a gem icon above the player holding the gem and if the player is killed the gem will be dropped next to their corpse
There are 2 new hardmode events
Werewolf form has been buffed and can take place every night
Broken armor debuff only lasts 2 minutes, down from 5
You now use a pickaxe to remove armor from a mannequin
Players no longer take double damage in pvp
Items of the same type will now stack when next to each other
When using a gravitation potion your world will invert rather than your character
You can no longer become invincible when touching fire blocks
Increased speed at which you can buy stacks of things


Graphical Changes


The sun is now brighter
Midnight is now darker
The sky has a smooth gradient
There are several items that have had graphical upgrades such as gems, colored torches, minishark, muramasa, aqua scepter,
starfury, ect..
There are now stalagmites, icecicles, moss, plants, rocks, and other "piles" added to enhance the environment
There are several new mini caves that can be found with unique backgrounds
Each biome will now have chests and pots with unique graphics
The dungeon now has 3 unique textures/colors and furniture
Hell houses have been remodeled
Floating islands have been remodeled
Each biome will now have unique textures and wood types:
Corruption: Ebonwood
Jungle: Rich Mahogany
Crimson: Shadewood
Hallow: Pearlwood
Each brick now has its own unique texture
Each brick wall now has its own unique texture
Torches are now animated and can be placed on walls
Common enemies such as demon eyes, skeletons, and zombies have all been given graphical variations
There are several new tombstones
All objects in the game that sparkle will now sparkle with a corresponding color


Puppy Break


Puppies


Recipes/Items


In total there are over 1,000 new items
There are 10 new ores
There are 4 new wood types
There are 31 new brick types
You can now imbue melee weapons
There are several new arrow and bullet types
There are several new crafting stations
There are several new wands used for crafting new bricks and brick walls
You can now craft bricks, walls, and furniture out of several new materials:
Slime, Bone, Mushroom, Living wood, Flesh, Silt, and many more!
You can now craft Jester Arrows
There are 12 new wing types
There are several new vanity sets
There are a lot of new rare drops added to enemies
You can now craft stained glass
There is an item in hardmode that allows you to change biomes
There is an item in hardmode that allows you to increase your max health
There are 29 new tinker combinations
Several new items have been added to the game that are used for crafting dyes
Starfury now acts as a melee weapon and has had its damaged increased
Aqua Scepter has been redesigned and does slightly more damage for less mana
Water bolt has been redesigned and does slightly more damage
Vilethorn does more damage and uses less mana
Magic Daggers have been buffed
All of the old classic armors can be found as rare drops and have the same stats as their current counterparts and count towards set bonuses
Items that were called dyes previously for crafting have been changed to thread
Chests now have larger loot tables
You can now make picks instead of drills and axes instead of chainsaws in late game tiers
Increased the drop rate of souls
There are over 50 paintings that can be collected randomly throughout the world
Jungle armor no longer requires gems
The amount of meteorite required for crafting has been decreased
Meteorite armor has more defense and does more damage
Silt and slush can be extracted into useful materials, items, and money
Each boss has a rare chance to drop a placeable boss trophy
Hooks can now be crafted out of gems
Depth meter is no longer craftable
Stars can now be crafted with bottles to make a new light source
Floating island chests no longer require a key
Gems and bars can be placed
Items made from hellstone now require less hellstone


NPCs


There are 8 new friendly npcs
There are 4 new bosses
There are over 100 new enemies
Friendly npcs will sell different items depending on certain conditions such as time of day or biome they are living in
Hardmode bosses have a chance to spawn on their own to help players progress through the game
Current hardmode bosses now do slightly less damage and have had their health decreased
There is a rare spawn mini boss that can be found during blizzards in the above ground ice biome
There are over 15 new pets that can be found in chests and dropped rarely off enemies
Early hardmode enemies now do less damage and have less health/defense.
Skeletron can now be summoned and has a small loot table


Music


There are 15 new tracks for the game, 3 of which are from the console version of the game
Day theme 2 will loop into day theme 1 to add variation above ground
Desert, ocean, glowing mushrooms, dungeon, and space all have their own tracks now
Ice biome has an above and below ground track


Performance/Miscellaneous


The game now only loads assets when needed, reducing the amount of RAM used
Optimized tile data to reduce RAM usage
There game will now ask you if you want to use UPnP to automatically port-forward when hosting multiplayer


Terraria 1.2 is out now.

Terraria developer Andrew Spinks announced last week that the 1.2 update will be ready (and free) on Steam on October 1, while promising a new trailer would soon be in our midst. This is that trailer.

It’s a little tough to find out exactly what the new update’s bringing to the expertly-crafted table, what with barrage of spells whizzing over our heads, though people should expect new equipment, enemies, furniture, biomes, spells, character menus—I could go on and on, but we’d be well into October by the time I finished the list. Trust me—it’s a lot of stuff.

Given that the folks at Re-Logic have been working on 1.2 since the start of 2013, I’m curious if this will actually be Terraria’s final update. You don’t often see updates of this magnitude coming out a full two years after a game’s release. I’m not complaining, mind you, but Re-Logic mentioned an “even better project” back before the 1.2 update was even announced, which makes me suspect something’s lying in wait on the back-burner. It’s just something to chew on while you sift through all the different touches Re-Logic has added to Terraria's already dense world.

It's been almost 20 months since the last Terraria update; one that, for a long time, was destined to be the last Terraria update. Now, though, the 2D sandbox is coming out of retirement for one last heist patch. Re-Logic's Andrew "Redigit" Spinks announced over Twitter that the 1.2 update would be mining through the Steam tunnels on October 1st.

The news you have all been waiting for... The update will be out on October 1st!— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) September 11, 2013

Given that the update has been in development since the beginning of this year, details of its features and additions are spread out over months of small teases and spoilers. It'll likely be a major revision to the game, with new items and features to be found across the majority of its existing systems. Basically: expect a little bit of everything.

Some of the features were rounded up in a teaser preview that was posted back in May:



Further details and a new trailer are expected next week.

How many biomes will Starbound have? Quite a lot, according to this teaser video for Terraria's sort of spiritual successor. Which naturally leads to a second question: when did we start referring to these things as "biomes" instead of "environments" or "terrain types"? Whatever they are, they'll be available in many shades, including snow, lava, desert and... eyeballs?



Yup, eyeballs.

The Starbound team is posting daily updates on their blog, detailing the progress of the game. Previous videos have shown what you can find up in space, and revealed that it's possible to sing the background music to the Bridge Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog's Master System version. Important work being done here.



While there's no release date, beyond "2013", you can explore how much progress the team has made here.

The surprise news about an update for the thought-to-be-unsupported sandbox Terraria sure was shocking, wasn't it? But nobody's trolling. That update is real, and they're talking about it in the Terrarian Times and everything. Welcome back, Terraria; we're glad you're growing again.

The below video gives a tiny glimpse of what to expect from the new update, demonstrating the paint feature specifically, but everyone's favorite virtual newspaper has got the full story. According to the latest issue of the Terrarian Times, we can expect new building materials, new weapons, new tinkery things, new clothing, new mechanics, a new rideable unicorn head, and probably a whole new lease on life. And then there are the aesthetic additions, too—an overhauled character menu, for instance, as well as rainclouds.

And this is only a tiny bit of the update's known details, mind you. You'll want to read up on the Times for the full list, which is a bit of a doozy—it's all snowballs, cactus armor sets, and randomly generated stalactites galore.

The update is still "far from done," with a targeted release window of July. It's pretty far off, but considering it sounds like we'll be receiving an expansion's worth of content in what they're calling a mere update, we're cool with that.

Re-Logic continue to tease the surprise Terraria update announced earlier in the year. In a forum post, designer and artist "Jimmarn" provides screenshots of a new ice biome. Rather than the light snow smattering that covered previous cold-weather climates in the game, this update appears to add a full winter world - with everything from frosty caverns to penguins.

"Some of you might wonder what Terraria related work I'm doing," writes Jimmarn, "and to be honest I do something in every category containing graphics/design. Everything from Tilesets, weapons, items, props, npc's to player graphics," suggesting the potentially huge scope of the update.





Previously Re-Logic head Andrew "Redigit" Spinks posted the below images, showing floating islands and jungle waterfalls: