I play alot of different games. But I needed some fresh wind, something where I can be creative. Minecraft was not an option, it is too fragmented with its different engines (Java & Bedrock); crappy java server architecture and irregular updates which always needs to generate a new world to play with its new features.

Terraria could be an alternative.

The game sat a very long time in my steam library without even be played. I did played it a little after I bought it very long time ago but the controls and UI fucked me hard and so I was pretty much not interested anymore.

A few years and many other different games later I always heard how great Terraria was and how much content / updates it got over time. My Steam friends always played it on a on/off basis. So it always got back to my mind but the memory of my UI struggles was always keeping me off.

The “I will never touch this again” streak was ended pretty recently.

You see I needed something other than Minecraft to play with my 7 year old kid. Minecraft is his favorite game but the lack of easy-to-use mods and, as mentioned, crappy server software got really frustrating. So I thought to myself “why not try Terraria again?”. It is currently in Steam-Sale and we can both try to battle through the user interface. Which suprises me the most is that mini-me has way more patience on finding out stuff when he sees a game where you can be creative as hell.

Little did I know there was a game mode added which made it perfect for the two of us: Journey mode!

Journey mode is an easy mode for Terraria which enables us to be fully creative without the constant battle for survival. I can build houses, craft things and mini-me can search for (mini-)bosses to test the strength. Of course if you are not careful you die a lot but since you only loose money it is not that frustrating.

It was a success! We both helped each other out and had still have a lot of fun! Setting up a dedicated server was also a cake walk. It runs smooth af! Even on my underperformance little cutie-server! Great work developers!

Another game I which I saw right under my nose and missed all that years.

And if we are done with the “base” game, there is a ton of easy-to-install mods out there.

Perfect!