Terraria: Otherworld Canceled After 3 Years

Following Minecraft making the gaming industry explode on itself for a few years, several studios cropped up and tried to capitalize on its success with their own takes on the popular survival crafting formula. One of the more successful attempts was Terraria, which was basically Minecraft but 2D with better combat and a number of bosses/NPCs that acted as sort of rough progress markers.

It was so successful that the developers, Re-Logic, announced not one, but two follow-ups: Terraria 2, a direct sequel we know very little about, and Terraria: Otherworld, a sort of spin-off that had something of a story and RPG elements that would have made it feel like a very different game. And while Terarria 2 is still basically a myth, Re-Logic has just announced over on their forms that Terraria Otherworld has just been canceled.

Our team has a clear vision for this game – one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement – and, in spite of all of our efforts, the current state of the game remains equal parts far from that vision and beyond behind schedule from our initial planning when we shared Otherworld with all of you three years ago. Progress has absolutely been made during that time – but unfortunately, a very thorough status review of the game versus its intended design showed both the Re-Logic and 505/Pipeworks teams that things were quite a bit further away from the finish line than we had imagined.

As a result, we have made the decision to terminate development of Terraria: Otherworld.

Sad news for fans, to be sure, but the post continued to explain that there was some silver lining: the assets made in the development of the other game will likely be used for future projects (waste not, want not), and the team was still hard at work on improving Terraria.

Still no news on Terraria 2, of course...

It’s a big bummer for long-standing fans, for sure, but for most of us, I imagine the news is just sort of sad in theory. Hard to miss what you barely knew, and we BARELY knew this project.

Ah well. Time to move on.