Terraria Modding

I spent about a year getting paid to mod Terraria, a side-scrolling sandbox game, starting in late 2013.

Role

I was hired to add a suite of new features under the direction of my employer, including:

• Creative Mode: item browser, infinite reach to make building easier, detached camera, NPC spawner, godmode / toggle enemies / control weather, and too much more to list
• Multiplayer (custom server): login system; admin tools (peek player inventory; kick/ban/teleport to players; undo a player’s modifications; see who last modified a block to find griefers); protected regions; groups with custom permissions
• Capture the Flag game mode
• UI system
• Introduction of the 3rd dimension! (see Rendering Terraria in 3D)

Team

My employer and me. We decided together which features to implement and I brought them into the game.

Time and Environment

About a year, mostly 20–30 hours a week, with crunch when new Terraria releases were imminent (60 hours at most). Fully remote from home in New York.

My work was later open sourced as HERO’s Mod, which I’m super excited about :D