As many surmised and/or feared, it looks like the silence on updates *was* a result of issues with development. Re-Logic has announced today that they were unhappy with the development from Engine Software, and are bringing in Pipeworks Studios to continue development.
"Our team had a clear vision for this game – one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement – and, as much as we hate to say it (and in spite of all of the reforms we tried last year) - the current state of the game is still equal parts far from that vision and well behind schedule.
As a result, we have made the decision to move on from having Engine Software continue development of Terraria: Otherworld.
...
The great news is that we already have a dedicated and passionate team ready to pick up the torch and continue the Otherworld journey! Based upon their really impressive work to-date with the Terraria re-write on Console/Mobile, coupled with an amazingly on-point proposal for completing Otherworld (after a thorough review of the game on their end), we have made the decision to bring Pipeworks on board as our new development partner for Terraria: Otherworld!
We know that the "radio silence" and all of the shifting development work aimed at continuing the journey for Terraria: Otherworld has been frustrating for a lot of you.
...
The length of the silence was purely driven by "these things take time to occur and then set up" coupled with our desire to have an actual solution/path forward before just sharing the news about Engine."
This is good news, really. We now understand the long gaps between updates, and we know that Re-Logic is moving forward with a new team. The bad news would be if they had just pushed on. I'm more optimistic now, knowing that Re-Logic is taking care of things and bringing in some fresh eyes.
Full statement on the forums: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/changing-of-the-guard-an-update-from-otherworld.56207/
"Our team had a clear vision for this game – one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement – and, as much as we hate to say it (and in spite of all of the reforms we tried last year) - the current state of the game is still equal parts far from that vision and well behind schedule.
As a result, we have made the decision to move on from having Engine Software continue development of Terraria: Otherworld.
...
The great news is that we already have a dedicated and passionate team ready to pick up the torch and continue the Otherworld journey! Based upon their really impressive work to-date with the Terraria re-write on Console/Mobile, coupled with an amazingly on-point proposal for completing Otherworld (after a thorough review of the game on their end), we have made the decision to bring Pipeworks on board as our new development partner for Terraria: Otherworld!
We know that the "radio silence" and all of the shifting development work aimed at continuing the journey for Terraria: Otherworld has been frustrating for a lot of you.
...
The length of the silence was purely driven by "these things take time to occur and then set up" coupled with our desire to have an actual solution/path forward before just sharing the news about Engine."
This is good news, really. We now understand the long gaps between updates, and we know that Re-Logic is moving forward with a new team. The bad news would be if they had just pushed on. I'm more optimistic now, knowing that Re-Logic is taking care of things and bringing in some fresh eyes.
Full statement on the forums: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/changing-of-the-guard-an-update-from-otherworld.56207/
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I'm glad the silence has been temporarily broken after so long. Initially I feel optimistic about it and can wait for a really good game, at least that's my hope of the product. I look forward to seeing more news ahead. Thanks for sharing!
Reading more into the replies on that post is interesting. The developer perspective is obviously real and most often invisible to gamers. In recent years, since playing Terraria and Ark, I've been paying more attention to game development news, particularly with these two games ("Terraria" includes Otherworld). It's fascinating what I've learned and experienced over the years and yet I obviously can only see a small fraction of what's going on.
We mentioned before that we're not too impatient for Otherworld, although we eagerly eat up anything Terraria. It was exciting to first find out about it and have that hope of seeing it "soon" two years ago.
I'm glad when developers fill us in on what's going on "behind the scenes." I was disappointed for the "radio silence," but I didn't get frustrated. Although we now don't have a timetable for the game's release, we at least know that Re-logic is working hard to make sure this game meets what seems to be extremely high standards, which should produce a very good game. So, I'm hopeful and optimistic, maybe even more so now that I know what's been going on and it's not a dead project.
I haven't really played many tower defense games. I remember that quest at Fort Condor (I think that's it's name) in Final Fantasy VII. I wasn't too fond of it. Later, I found a Final Fantasy game on the Wii that was a tower defense game (I don't recall it's name). It was free or a demo, but I didn't spend much time with it nor did I find it too interesting.
So, I'm a bit reluctant regarding the tower defense aspect of Otherworld, however, I think Re-logic could perhaps do something amazing with it. That kind of mechanic does seem to fit well into Terraria as you're trying to protect your NPCs from the Blood Moon and such. In Terraria, we build arenas for this, so the tower defense aspect is already there.
Hopefully we'll see more development news in the next few months, though it doesn't look like we'll see the game this year (and I'm ok with that).
TOW's budget is apparently over $4 million. Check out ChippyGaming's new video: https://youtu.be/8MupkdeRlK0