Updated February 14, 2023 - The original version of this article stated Sam Alfred worked alongside Jonathan Hau-Yoon and Jarred Lunt on the original Terra Nil game jam, but the art they contributed for its itch.io prototype came later. The corrected story follows:
Steam Next Fest has become an opportunity for developers of all stripes to post demos and host livestreams to connect with prospective players. News publications and social media personalities compile lists of their favorite demos, and one darling of the last few years has been Free Lives' Terra Nil. Though it wasn't involved in the February 2023 event, this "reverse city builder" is still the 31st most-wishlisted game on Steam (sorted by "Relevance") as of this writing. Today, Free Lives and publisher Devolver Digital dropped a new gameplay trailer for Terra Nil confirming it will release in spring 2023 on PC and mobile through Netflix Games.
Terra Nil began life as South African developer Sam Alfred's game jam project for Ludum Dare 45 in October 2019, where the theme was "Start with Nothing." It received 4th place overall, with particular praise (and a 1st place standing) paid toward its pixel art graphics. That encouraged Alfred to keep working on it after hours while helping produce updates for Free Lives' Broforce, and now Terra Nil is one of the studio's four in-progress titles alongside Broforce Forever, Anger Foot, and Stick it to the Stickman. Game Rant spoke to lead artist Jonathan Hau-Yoon, who first contributed art to the game's itch.io prototype alongside Jarred Lunt, about Terra Nil's anticipation and expansion to mobile devices ahead of its spring release.
The Appeal of City Builders and Terra Nil
Classic city builders like Maxis' SimCity and construction-focused titles like Wube Software's Factorio have popularized a genre centered on strategic planning and resource management. Hau-Yoon feels this style of game strikes a chord with so many for two main reasons: their "naturally compelling game loop," and voyeurism for automation akin to an ant colony. "It’s very satisfying to see a complex production line you’ve built working with ever-increasing efficiency," they said. "Or visually see the diegetic progress bar that is your city covering a map."
Coffee Stain Studios previously spoke with Game Rant about Satisfactory, another game drawing from Factorio's well that intended to use first-person perspective for a "more unique and immersive" take. While Hau-Yoon said Terra Nil uses elements that people love about city builders, it also subverts them by tasking players with covering a desolate map in diverse biomes and animals - inspired by the natural beauty of South Africa. Land within each tier of the game's progression is also finite, emphasizing the importance of placing biomes in appropriate places. By the end of a stage, players are asked to pack up and recycle their terraforming structures.
The Careful Balance of Player Feedback and Hype
Hau-Yoon said Free Lives has about 25 staff members in total, and for two years or so only one-to-three people were full-time on Terra Nil. Eight people, including part-timers and contractors, worked on the game at its peak over the last year, but now the team is down to three as it goes through bug fixing and polish. Auxiliary tasks like preparing a launch trailer, Steam achievements and trading cards, and responding to QA issues have kept them busy despite the core game being finished.
As Terra Nil has grown and been showcased at events, landing on peoples' wishlists, it has also been toted as a project to look out for by online personalities like Ralph Paneblanco; an Australian YouTuber behind the channel Skill Up who promoted Terra Nil while discussing Steam Next Fest demos in 2021 and 2022. This coverage has boosted confidence while Free Lives regularly tests with players to make sure Terra Nil is on the right track, Hau-Yoon said. Yet he feels there's always some doubt that the feedback's sample size is skewed, or interviews are more about topical climate change coverage than the quality of the game itself.
What helps Hau-Yoon is remembering that being topical is one great way to connect with audiences at the end of a development cycle, especially as tweets come out saying Terra Nil brought people to tears or helped break them out of a depression.
"I really think that there’s something cathartic about caring for nature. Yes, restoring and preserving the environment is good for us, for cleaner land, air and water, and for curtailing climate disasters. But - and this is going to sound terribly cheesy, but I do believe it - I think it restores something within us too."
That kind of hype is a double-edged sword, and Hau-Yoon admits there is some pressure given games are less able to be "rough around the edges" when hundreds of thousands of active players might see rare issues crop up more often. But they said on aggregate "it’s far better to know so many people want the game; it would be so much worse to put all of this work into something that nobody wanted."
Expanding Terra Nil's Reach with Netflix Games
Growing popularity for the indie project also presented additional opportunities. Terra Nil was originally just going to release on PC, Mac, and Linux, according to Hau-Yoon. Then publisher Devolver Digital approached Free Lives with the offer to launch a mobile port through Netflix Games. "As much as I primarily play games on PC, the mobile games market is significant," they said. "It is very exciting that more people will have the opportunity to play Terra Nil."
This mobile version has been helped along by South African studio 24 Bit Games, which also helped port Broforce and Free Lives' VR gladiator sim GORN. That team has an expertise in mobile limitations that Free Lives has not yet honed, Hau-Yoon said, with one of the biggest challenges about developing this port being UI design and information delivery on smaller screens. He said having the game localized into multiple languages exacerbates the issue.
"But again, having many more players being able to play Terra Nil (in their own language) is exciting! It’s great that Devolver Digital and Netflix have made this possible."
When Terra Nil does launch this year, Hau-Yoon said the team will be watching streams and forums to pick out additional fixes, and there may be updates like controller support in its future. Terra Nil's new "Satisfaction in Reclamation" gameplay trailer should give fans an idea whether they want to take the plunge themselves, but Hau-Yoon is personally ready to take a break and spend more time outdoors "doing some restoration myself."
Terra Nil releases spring 2023 for Mobile and PC.