Screenshots popped up over the weekend showing off the newest project from Tiyuri, one of the developers of indie hit Terraria. The game looks to be a step either forward or backward from Terraria’s old-school graphical style, depending on your point of view. Tiyuri has been fairly transparent about the scope of the project so far, even though the game is still in the early stages of development.

“We plan for there to be a main quest inside the sandbox world. Depends how much time we have of course,” Tiyuri said on his Twitter account. For now, I’m tentatively excited. From the looks of the UI, the game appears to be inspired by some dungeon crawlers. Tiyuri is using the Diablo 3 method of control, binding skills to the left and right mouse buttons and offering hotbar slots as well.

If there’s one thing I would like to see updated from Terraria, it’s the inventory management system. While the game did offer some nice options for moving items in and out of chests, I was constantly amazed at just how quickly my inventory would fill and how much time it could take to find what I needed.

I’m also hoping these aren’t the final graphics. I’m not sure what it is, I just don’t like them. They lack the flair that made me love Terraria’s design.

One of my absolute favorite features from DotA 2 is the ability to drop in and watch in-progress games that my friends are playing. I always thought this would be a little strange, but when I’m waiting for them to finish or we’re just hanging out in vent, it’s weirdly enjoyable to watch their games play out. For competitive players this also has obvious benefits. There are downsides, like having friends heckle you for events that transpired two minutes in the past. All the same, I think it’s a great feature and the fact that it can be so easily accessed via the Steam buddy list is awesome.

It sounds like Riot’s own spectator mode will host the same feature. RJCombo said on the official forums, “Yes. The feature currently on PBE allows you to drop-in to normal and ranked games in progress (on your friends list) as a spectator.” Good on you, Riot. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect Riot to get spectator mode right, and I gave up on waiting for it to release a long, long time ago. I am glad to know that they see the value in this kind of functionality though and that it might be closer than we all think.

Riot has posted both the art spotlight and the sneak peek for Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert. I really feel like they missed an opportunity for “Hexpert” but since he doesn’t actually hex anything I suppose I’ll let it slide.

I don’t know if it’s just my distance from League of Legends these days, but this guy looks awesome. I love the splash art, and I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some sort of homage to my good friend from DotA, Techies, going on here. Keep an eye peeled for his skill list some time this upcoming weekend. I’ll definitely be interested to see what he can do, even if I don’t have the IP to pick him up on release day.

I’m not sure where I heard about Overgrowth but I haven’t been able to stop watching combat videos ever since. Overgrowth appears to be a forthcoming action/adventure title from indie dev Wolfire Games. The star? A ninja bunny. Sounds like a win if you ask me.

I have a serious soft spot for slashers, particularly slashers that don’t take themselves too seriously. This game looks like the perfect blend of crazy kung-fu antics and super silly shenanigans. I mean, you play as a bunny.

Be sure to head over to the Wolfire Games page to check out development progress. By pre-ordering the game you can get access to the Overgrowth beta.

Tomorrow is a big day in the gaming world. Tomorrow, more than a million people will have made a decision to either renew or cancel their subscription to SWTOR. I say it’s a big day because Star Wars was heralded by many as the “next generation of MMOs.” In my experience, it’s little more than single-player RPG wrapped around a near exact clone of a seven-year-old game. Nearly everyone I know who was interested in the game at one point either cancelled at pre-order or have cancelled in the first month. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the lack of innovation — people just know the current MMO scene too well for even a kickass license like Star Wars to save a game.

How does this relate to the MOBA/ARTS genre? MOBAs are about to be in the same position SWTOR is currently in. There are several highly successful models in the genre, but for something to be successful in the next few years, I think it will really have to innovate. I’ve been looking forward to DotA 2 for a long time, but I know the map and most of the heroes so well that I still find myself bored with the experience. Blasphemy, I know, but I like a little variety and sometimes the hero list just isn’t enough.

For a while I thought Dominion might be the answer, but a few months after that map launched it started to drop off the radar. Obviously I don’t have usage stats, but I know they aren’t what Riot would like them to be. I still enjoy Dominion on occasion, but it just wasn’t enough.

One thing I would really like to see is game mode variety. The original DotA had some truly fantastic variations (my personal favorite was -dmarem). I would love to have different options for games with similar developmental arcs to a Classic Summoner’s Rift or DotA match with some different game mechanics.

What do you see for the future of the genre? Will we be stuck with a branching DotA-clone, LoL-clone future or is the next big MOBA development something else entirely?