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Terraria Changed Gaming Forever



Terraria Changed Gaming Forever

Terraria’s blueprint revolutionized survival gaming and inspired the biggest titles of this generation across genres, from Breath of the Wild to Stardew Valley. This video essay breaks down how it transformed Minecraft’s initial sandbox vision into a new model for countless games to follow, with exclusive insight from the creator of Stardew Valley on how Terraria helped shape his masterpiece.

Let me know if there are other ways Terraria changed the gaming landscape that I missed!

Let’s talk about games and stories that matter (or any ban/comeback questions) at my Monday biweekly gaming streams here and on Twitch from 7-10 pm EST, starting 11/17. Heads up, I’ve embraced a darker aesthetic. Twitch link here: https://www.twitch.tv/themepunked

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Timestamps and Sources:
00:00 Intro & background on the Terraria Effect

00:35 Why Andrew Spinks’ made Terraria, and how it transformed the gaming landscape
● Andrew Spinks tweeted his goal for making Terraria: https://www.pcgamesn.com/terraria/inspiration-minecraft
01:48 Terraria spawned an entire new genre of video games, including Forager & Core Keeper
● Craft the World acknowledges Terraria’s influence: Craft The World on Steam
● Forager acknowledges Terraria’s influence: https://hopfrogsa.net/forager
● Core Keeper acknowledges Terraria’s influence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1097&v=HlbCuL37fBo&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDIzODUx
● Core Keeper has been described as Terraria but top-down: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/core-keeper-a-game-like-terraria-but-top-down-recently-received-a-full-release.152244/

03:36 Terraria reshaped the entire survival craft genre by transforming Minecraft’s initial vision
03:50 Palworld was inspired by Terraria
● Palworld developer, Takuro Mizobe, mentions Terraria in games that shaped his understanding of Palworld’s genre: https://automaton-media.com/en/interviews/20240123-25950/

05:03 Valheim was inspired by Terraria
● Valheim developers call their game a mix between Zelda, dark souls, and Terraria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP21RDIhj8k&t=56s
● Valheim developers acknowledge Terraria and BOTW as influences: https://screenrant.com/valheim-skyrim-botw-terarria-games-like-influence-developer/

07:27 Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and upcoming sequel were inspired by Terraria
● Hidemaro Fujibayashi acknowledges inspiration from Terraria in making Breath of the Wild: https://nintendowire.com/news/2017/03/20/breath-wilds-director-inspired-terraria-minecraft/
● Future Legend of Zelda games will remain open world https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/05/expect-more-open-world-zelda-games-going-forwards-suggests-eiji-aonuma

10:08 Terraria indirectly shaped big games across genres, including Elden Ring and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
● BOTW is one of the most influential games in recent memory, inspired Elden Ring: https://www.thegamer.com/elden-ring-breath-of-the-wild-influence/
● Commentators said that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey copied BOTW: https://www.thegamer.com/breath-wild-legend-zelda-games-copy/

10:49 Terraria shaped Minecraft’s direction since 1.0 release
● Jeb confirms Minecraft’s Wither was inspired by Terraria: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/meet-wither

13:45 Stardew Valley was inspired by Terraria; its creator, Eric Barone (ConcernedApe), answered my question about Terraria’s influence
● 2016 Interview; Barone shares he wanted to give Harvest Moon’s concept more purpose with Stardew Valley: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-4-years-of-self-imposed-crunch-that-went-into-i-stardew-valley-i-
● 2013 interview during Stardew Valley development; Barone shares he wanted Harvest Moon’s concept with even more stuff; drew ideas from Terraria: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1005/interview-w-eric-barone-creator-of-stardew-valley

17:25 Terraria’s impact goes even further (example: helped popularize crossover updates among indie games)
● Terraria crossover updates go back to 2013, before the trend was so popular: https://terraria.fandom.com/wiki/Crossover_content

17:40 YouTube unbanned me after 10 years; where I’m going from here
● Video that covers the full story: https://youtu.be/w0wJXOl8Nh4

Thanks to @GamerGarYT and @ImCade for lending me their Palworld footage! And thanks to @MProChannel2 and @GamingFoxGG for allowing anyone to use their gameplay.

For questions or business inquiries, shoot me an email here: contact.punked@gmail.com
The Gram: https://www.instagram.com/themepunked/

Song Credits:
● Ocean (from “Terraria”) – Re-Logic
● Below the Surface – Re-Logic, Jonathan Van Den Wijngaarden, Jeff Ball
● Secret of the Sands – Jonathan Van Den Wijngaarden, Re-Logic
● Moog City – C418
● Stardew Valley Overture – ConcernedApe
● Glimmers of Vibrance – Jeff Broadbent, Re-Logic

View 24 Comments

24 Comments

  3. @lancerhades971 on

    I tried Starbound. Really did. And I hated it so much. It felt clunky, and I hated the U.I. more power to the people who love it, but it's just not as good as terraria

  9. @TimmyChUwU on

    I wouldn't say the Warden is a good example. The Warden isn't a boss, and is instead more like a hazard to avoid once the player makes too many mistakes in the Deep Dark and can one-hit kill you unless you have full Netherite armor and/or health buffs. You're not intended to kill the Warden, and the Mojang devs mentioned that they didn't want to incentivize the player to kill them. You don't get anything meaningful for killing one.

    A better example might have been the Elder Guardian being structured more similarly to Golem (and the Pickaxe Axe so you can break through the temple brick) from Terraria. But even this example is still loose and not concrete, I feel.

    Nonetheless, very great video! Was well edited, had good points, and delivered clearly. I just wanted to point out in your Warden analogy, his gameplay design is not to fight nor kill him.

  13. @Ramog1000 on

    11:25 Terraria didn't invent the concept of copper tools and armor, industrialcraft 1 predates terraria by a month
    barrels are just a general storage container, one does not have to look at terraria to get there (similar things go for lanterns and banners)

    I think while your point of Terraria being influencial was good at first, you took it too far and attributed mundane things to it.

  14. @ExplosivePeeps on

    I have to disagree.
    Terraria pales in comparison with how big of an impact Minecraft has had. We're literally getting a new game (Hytale) which was born from the Minecraft mini-game Hypixel.
    To say Terraria changed gaming forever is weird. You have a game like Necesse which in my opinion is a better version of Terraria, but
    I don't think the game has shook the survival genre that much.

  22. @Woobuz on

    Terraria is what got me into using Unity, because I had created some small mods for it and they used C#, just like Unity does. I love this game and everyone who worked on it. Thank you!