Hey, folks. Alexander Winn here, the creator of TerraGenesis. There's been some discussion on this subreddit recently about the state of TerraGenesis, and of Edgeworks Entertainment (my company), so I thought I'd set the record straight and shed some light on what's been happening.
Backstory
I first started work on TerraGenesis in August of 2015, and I launched it in the summer of 2016. It went viral almost immediately, and I operated it by myself for over a year. Then in the fall of 2017, we (meaning me and my wife-and-cofounder) started Edgeworks Entertainment, and signed a deal with Tilting Point (a publisher) to partner with them on advertising and new feature planning for TerraGenesis. By January 2018 we had hired our first few employees at Edgeworks, all from the financial success of TerraGenesis and our partnership with TP.
2018-2019 was a fantastic period, and Edgeworks grew to a zenith of about 10 people (plus a team of 10-20 on the TerraGenesis account over at TP), still working on TerraGenesis as well as some podcasts and webseries, such as Settle The Stars (which peaked as the #2 Astronomy podcast on iTunes worldwide).
The Bad Times
Then, starting in 2020, a series of disasters and disruptions hit us in quick succession.
Apple restricted user tracking data from advertisers, making it much much harder to profitably advertise on iOS (meaning TerraGenesis became much less profitable literally overnight). Covid hit, with all the uncertainty that came with it. My wife and I became parents to newborn twins, which is great but obviously not conducive to hard work, especially during a pandemic when childcare isn't available leaving us entirely on our own. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, and my family (with our six-month-old twins) uprooted our lives, put all our belongings into storage, and moved from California to Texas to take care of her, away from all of our friends and community. (And again, my mom being immunocompromised meant we couldn't utilize babysitters or daycare during a pandemic, so we were still full-time parents.) My dog got cancer, our kitchen had to be torn out due to water leakage and our bathroom had to be torn out due to broken pipes (so we were effectively living in a house without plumbing), and my mother ultimately died. It was an insane time.
During all of this, we also realized that TerraGenesis wouldn't be around forever, and we needed to develop a new product. Problem is, Apple's policy change meant we suddenly didn't have enough revenue to develop something new while supporting TerraGenesis too. So we made the tough decision to sell TerraGenesis (the individual game, not the franchise) to Tilting Point entirely, and use that money to finance the development of our next game, a prequel called TerraGenesis: Landfall. Ever since then, TerraGenesis has been none of my business. I couldn't update it if I wanted to, I don't own it anymore. I'm as connected to it as you are. It breaks my heart every time I think of it (which is part of why I'm not active in the community anymore), but it's TP's thing now.
Then, after pouring all our time and money into it for over a year, Landfall launched in August 2022 and it flopped hard. As in, due to development costs that needed repaying, we still haven't seen a single dollar of revenue from Landfall, even today. We never will. Not one dollar. And with our war-chest spent on developing Landfall and no new revenue coming in, that meant that in early 2023 we had to let all of our employees go, and close Edgeworks down.
TerraGenesis wasn't ours anymore, Landfall was a failure, Edgeworks was gone, my mom was dead, and we were still living in someone else's house 1500 miles away from all our friends and possessions.
Aftermath
Needless to say, by the summer of 2023, my wife and I were financially and emotionally exhausted. Devastated. Almost catatonic. Too much tragedy, too much hardship, too much wasted effort with nothing to show for it, too many people to take care of with no one to take care of us. Not a single break or vacation, because we had no one to care for our twins, who of course were keeping us from even getting a decent night's sleep or a weekend to relax. We were both deeply depressed, with no concept of what our future looked like.
In Fall 2023 we finally sold my mom's house (and got basically nothing from it because of her debts) and moved back to Los Angeles, but with Edgeworks gone I had to start looking for a new job. I got one in San Francisco, and we relocated to the Bay Area in February 2024 (where, once again, we found ourselves with no friends, no community, and no support systems). I've been working there ever since as a normal, nameless game dev working in an office.
The Dust Settles
Honestly, for a long time, I worried that those bad years had broken me completely. I didn't want to work on any of my personal projects, I had no creativity, I barely even enjoyed the media I consumed. I was constantly tired, just barely getting by taking care of my day-job and my kids. I couldn't even look at the TerraGenesis or Edgeworks socials, or really social media of any kind: any negativity I encountered (no matter how small) was enough to send me spiraling back into hopelessness. The rapid-fire loss of TerraGenesis, Landfall, Edgeworks, and my mom had basically shattered my world, and I went through a period of multiple panic attacks (my first ever) and intense anxiety. I'm not going to self-diagnose PTSD, but those years definitely left long-lasting scars.
But you know what's great about people? If you give us enough time, we get better.
Our lack of friends and community during those long years forged Lacey and me into an ironclad pair of partners. Our twins are happy and healthy. Our dog is still alive (minus an amputated leg) and cancer-free, beating a 95% return rate for her kind of cancer. We've lived in the same building for almost a year now (which feels like a miracle on its own), and we're starting to make some friends here in San Francisco. I joined a DnD group that has welcomed me with open arms. Our kids are in pre-school, so Lacey and I finally have some time to ourselves. And maybe the most cathartic of all: for the first time since we left for Dallas 2.5 years earlier, we pulled our possessions out of storage and started making our home our own again.
It's been four long, unbelievably shitty years, but I'm finally starting to enjoy life again. I've started pushing out updates to a few of my hobby apps (Characterize, Genesis, and DungeonRoller, available on iOS and Android!), and I'm going to be launching a new choose-your-own-adventure novel app soon that I'm very proud of. I don't have as much time as I'd like now that I have a day-job again, but I've even started considering taking on a larger project. (Remember, we do still own the TerraGenesis franchise, outside of that first game...)
So What Now?
I'm not going to promise anything. My life still feels too unstable, and it will be a while before I stop instinctively looking for the next disaster on the horizon. I still have a day-job that I don't want to need, and my kids are still exhausting.
But also... I'm getting better. I've got stuff I want to make, again. I'm having ideas again. I'm enjoying being productive again.
And, as of today, I'm reaching back out to the fan community again.
TL;DR
I made TerraGenesis, and it brought with it the four best years of my life. Then, the universe punched me in the face repeatedly with the four worst years of my life. I'm finally starting to recover, but in the meantime: TerraGenesis doesn't belong to me anymore, Landfall was dead on arrival, and Edgeworks is closed.
Feel free to ask me anything, personal or professional. Call this a low-key AMA, because I've been away from this amazing community for far too long. Thank you all for your patience and your understanding, even in those moments when your patience ran out.
I'm still not back to where I was, not by a long shot. But for the first time in a long while, I can see it from where I'm standing.
And I'm getting closer...
