I've got both and have played a lot of both, and I want to make a video highlighting all the differences, both to promote both games for their strengths, but mainly to show that they're really different games.
Since I'm going to be recording and splicing gameplay footage I want to have a layout before I start, so here's what I've made so far. I'm aware that there's a lack of specific examples for the games, I just want to get most of the comparison written up before I start the recording. Once I start recording to show the differences, that's when the specific examples will come into play, and I'll insert them where they're needed.
Since I'm going to be recording and splicing gameplay footage I want to have a layout before I start, so here's what I've made so far. I'm aware that there's a lack of specific examples for the games, I just want to get most of the comparison written up before I start the recording. Once I start recording to show the differences, that's when the specific examples will come into play, and I'll insert them where they're needed.
1 - Basic Goals
2 - Mining
3 - Crafting
4 - Customization
5 - Death and difficulty
6 - Health and mana
7 - Building
8 - NPCs
9 - Atmosphere
10 - Biomes
11 - Enemies and spawning
12 - Fighting
13 - Tools/Weapons
14 - Redstone/Mechanics
15 - Updates
16 - Modding
Hello! I'm Rydian, and I feel this video requires a little explanation first. Feel free to skip to (x:xx) to avoid having to listen to it.
I often find that Terraria and Minecraft are compared by users who haven't played both games, and even when people have played both games they prefer one and don't understand why somebody else may prefer another... so I've made this video to point out the various differences in gameplay and their goals, to hopefully educate people on why some may choose to play one over the other since it seems they're always being compared.
First things first, Terraria is not a Minecraft clone. To say that they're the same game because they both involve mining is akin to saying that Duke Nukem Forever is a clone of Half-life 2 because they both have you walking around 3D environments shooting aliens and using gadgets to stay alive and fight off an invasion. That said, like many games in the same genre they do involve some similar concepts, and I'll attempt to run down some of the basics of the games and compare them.
1 - First things first, both games have strong survival concepts, they start with you dropped into the middle of nowhere.
On the Minecraft side, you're dropped in a random environment. Chop down some trees to make some wooden tools, use those to gather some basic materials like stone and coal, make some torches, build a shelter, and hope you survive until morning. There's some caveats, though... mainly that you're dropped in with no information on what to do or how to do it. On the one hand, this is part of the atmosphere of minecraft... having to figure things out for yourself and forge your own survival. Most crafting recipes make sense, and figuring them out gives you a sense of accomplishment, as if you had invented the tool or object yourself from nothing! On the other hand however, it's disorienting to new players, and checking out online sources (such as the minecraft wiki) are pretty much required in order to advance in the game due to the lack of documentation, so it's sort of a double-edged sword and people have requested a crafting recipe feature for ages. You can't just craft anything anywhere, you need to make a crafting table for tools, a furnace to smelt and cook items, and possibly more later on down the line.
On the Terraria side, you're also dropped into a random environment, but this time with the Guide, the first NPC of the game (more on that later). Not only is the guide there to optionally give you basic information on how to play, but you start with some very basic tools and the guide has an option to show you what you can make out of materials you show to him. Crafting is a lot simpler because you don't need to place items in a certain arrangement or figure things out yourself; if you're next to the proper crafting station and have all the ingredients in your main inventory, everything you can craft shows up in a simple list for you to click and select. On the subject of crafting stations Terraria has a few more than a simple crafting table and furnace, mainly because it has so many more items and decorations than minecraft. There's your crafting table and furnace, but also an anvil, sawmill, loom, and even some decoration objects like the bookshelf and cooking pot are used to craft an item or two. These can get upgrades later, as you need to go from a furnace to a hellforge and beyond in order to smelt some of the higher-end bars, for example. The basic skills and crafting processes in terraria are explained to you and more streamlined, so you spend more time building and fighting, and less time figuring out how to stick some stone on a stick to make a sword.
2 - Mining
3 - Crafting
4 - Customization
5 - Death and difficulty
6 - Health and mana
7 - Building
8 - NPCs
9 - Atmosphere
10 - Biomes
11 - Enemies and spawning
12 - Fighting
13 - Tools/Weapons
14 - Redstone/Mechanics
15 - Updates
16 - Modding
Hello! I'm Rydian, and I feel this video requires a little explanation first. Feel free to skip to (x:xx) to avoid having to listen to it.
I often find that Terraria and Minecraft are compared by users who haven't played both games, and even when people have played both games they prefer one and don't understand why somebody else may prefer another... so I've made this video to point out the various differences in gameplay and their goals, to hopefully educate people on why some may choose to play one over the other since it seems they're always being compared.
First things first, Terraria is not a Minecraft clone. To say that they're the same game because they both involve mining is akin to saying that Duke Nukem Forever is a clone of Half-life 2 because they both have you walking around 3D environments shooting aliens and using gadgets to stay alive and fight off an invasion. That said, like many games in the same genre they do involve some similar concepts, and I'll attempt to run down some of the basics of the games and compare them.
1 - First things first, both games have strong survival concepts, they start with you dropped into the middle of nowhere.
On the Minecraft side, you're dropped in a random environment. Chop down some trees to make some wooden tools, use those to gather some basic materials like stone and coal, make some torches, build a shelter, and hope you survive until morning. There's some caveats, though... mainly that you're dropped in with no information on what to do or how to do it. On the one hand, this is part of the atmosphere of minecraft... having to figure things out for yourself and forge your own survival. Most crafting recipes make sense, and figuring them out gives you a sense of accomplishment, as if you had invented the tool or object yourself from nothing! On the other hand however, it's disorienting to new players, and checking out online sources (such as the minecraft wiki) are pretty much required in order to advance in the game due to the lack of documentation, so it's sort of a double-edged sword and people have requested a crafting recipe feature for ages. You can't just craft anything anywhere, you need to make a crafting table for tools, a furnace to smelt and cook items, and possibly more later on down the line.
On the Terraria side, you're also dropped into a random environment, but this time with the Guide, the first NPC of the game (more on that later). Not only is the guide there to optionally give you basic information on how to play, but you start with some very basic tools and the guide has an option to show you what you can make out of materials you show to him. Crafting is a lot simpler because you don't need to place items in a certain arrangement or figure things out yourself; if you're next to the proper crafting station and have all the ingredients in your main inventory, everything you can craft shows up in a simple list for you to click and select. On the subject of crafting stations Terraria has a few more than a simple crafting table and furnace, mainly because it has so many more items and decorations than minecraft. There's your crafting table and furnace, but also an anvil, sawmill, loom, and even some decoration objects like the bookshelf and cooking pot are used to craft an item or two. These can get upgrades later, as you need to go from a furnace to a hellforge and beyond in order to smelt some of the higher-end bars, for example. The basic skills and crafting processes in terraria are explained to you and more streamlined, so you spend more time building and fighting, and less time figuring out how to stick some stone on a stick to make a sword.
