Dev Diary #105
Hey there Ylanders.
So we have three significant pieces of news Ylanders, so strap in and get ready to rumble!
Firstly we are making some changes to how we deal with servers. Before we were quite free-handed with dedicated servers because we wanted you to experiment and there wasn’t a better alternative at the time. But now with the recent changes in monetization and the more demanding multiplayer games, we decided to streamline the server situation, so we can better protect and support them in the future. This way there won’t be any chance of manipulating the server information and scamming players out of their hard-earned Coyns. We also weren’t able to support private dedicated servers to any significant point, and so players using them couldn’t find random pets and encounters, which were available to others. To be able for us to protect all Ylanders and support them all, we have to know they are running the game on certified servers always with the newest version because in the past some players also reported bugs, that were outdated and fixed long before. So this is why we are discontinuing the support of private dedicated servers and in the future players will be able to rent servers directly from us or from our friends at Nitrado and you’ll be able to customise precisely what you need from your server and some of the options are mind-boggling!
In other news, we are constantly thinking, how to better reward our great Creators, that make great and fun games for the rest of the community. In our last big update, we introduced custom monetization for Creators, but we were asked (and quite rightly so) ‘now what do we do with all these Coyns’? Well while we will be adding some really cool premium blueprints and other fancy stuff into the in-game shop, we are also working on a type of ‘cashback’ system, that we’d like to implement next year. This means, that Creators will be able to turn in a specific amount of Coyns for a bit of real-life honest to god money. This will give Creators even more incentive to create some truly remarkable and fun games knowing, that they will be rewarded for their effort. And as you might have noticed, the release is just a few *an unspecified unit of time* away and with this release we are primarily opening the game up to Creators, so you’ll get a head start in creating your…creations and preparing for the cashback feature, when you’ll be able to turn in all your stockpiled Coyns 😉
And finally the biggest news: Today we are opening up a beta, that will become in time the final version of 1.0. You won't be able to try out Exploration just yet and it will be just PC, not mobile, but Creators will get to tinker with all the new Editor features and see if their games run in the new environment but also help us make this release the best it can be. We need you to test out everything and tell us, what’s not working, what could be better and what you’re enjoying/not enjoying. You should, before plunging in, back up your files, because anything could happen. You won't be able to upload games to the Workshop, because they would be deleted anyway, but you'll be able to try out the Sandbox mode, Editor, local games and some of our gameplay showcases we created and you'll find an updated Playlands too with two new games bringing the total number to six. So this is really just to test everything out and see, what you think 😊 Also we wouldn't recommend making any purchases (and we'll disable them wherever possible), because you won't get to keep them after the release. Further down you’ll find the access code with which you’ll be able to activate the beta in the Ylands properties section. Now remember, that this will be a highly unstable environment because it’ll be constantly updating and changing, so have patience on that front 😊 And please send as much feedback to our forums (https://ylands.com/community/forum/14-bugs-technical-issues/) as possible, because it will greatly help us, especially with stuff we can still quickly fix and improve.
Steam beta branch access: BackupYourData
So there it is Ylanders, all pretty exciting stuff but still not as exciting as the nearing launch 😁 We are really looking forward to it, but remember (because we sure do), it wouldn’t have been possible without your help, and for that, we give you our thanks.
So until next time, stay classy Ylanders!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
So we have three significant pieces of news Ylanders, so strap in and get ready to rumble!
Firstly we are making some changes to how we deal with servers. Before we were quite free-handed with dedicated servers because we wanted you to experiment and there wasn’t a better alternative at the time. But now with the recent changes in monetization and the more demanding multiplayer games, we decided to streamline the server situation, so we can better protect and support them in the future. This way there won’t be any chance of manipulating the server information and scamming players out of their hard-earned Coyns. We also weren’t able to support private dedicated servers to any significant point, and so players using them couldn’t find random pets and encounters, which were available to others. To be able for us to protect all Ylanders and support them all, we have to know they are running the game on certified servers always with the newest version because in the past some players also reported bugs, that were outdated and fixed long before. So this is why we are discontinuing the support of private dedicated servers and in the future players will be able to rent servers directly from us or from our friends at Nitrado and you’ll be able to customise precisely what you need from your server and some of the options are mind-boggling!
In other news, we are constantly thinking, how to better reward our great Creators, that make great and fun games for the rest of the community. In our last big update, we introduced custom monetization for Creators, but we were asked (and quite rightly so) ‘now what do we do with all these Coyns’? Well while we will be adding some really cool premium blueprints and other fancy stuff into the in-game shop, we are also working on a type of ‘cashback’ system, that we’d like to implement next year. This means, that Creators will be able to turn in a specific amount of Coyns for a bit of real-life honest to god money. This will give Creators even more incentive to create some truly remarkable and fun games knowing, that they will be rewarded for their effort. And as you might have noticed, the release is just a few *an unspecified unit of time* away and with this release we are primarily opening the game up to Creators, so you’ll get a head start in creating your…creations and preparing for the cashback feature, when you’ll be able to turn in all your stockpiled Coyns 😉
And finally the biggest news: Today we are opening up a beta, that will become in time the final version of 1.0. You won't be able to try out Exploration just yet and it will be just PC, not mobile, but Creators will get to tinker with all the new Editor features and see if their games run in the new environment but also help us make this release the best it can be. We need you to test out everything and tell us, what’s not working, what could be better and what you’re enjoying/not enjoying. You should, before plunging in, back up your files, because anything could happen. You won't be able to upload games to the Workshop, because they would be deleted anyway, but you'll be able to try out the Sandbox mode, Editor, local games and some of our gameplay showcases we created and you'll find an updated Playlands too with two new games bringing the total number to six. So this is really just to test everything out and see, what you think 😊 Also we wouldn't recommend making any purchases (and we'll disable them wherever possible), because you won't get to keep them after the release. Further down you’ll find the access code with which you’ll be able to activate the beta in the Ylands properties section. Now remember, that this will be a highly unstable environment because it’ll be constantly updating and changing, so have patience on that front 😊 And please send as much feedback to our forums (https://ylands.com/community/forum/14-bugs-technical-issues/) as possible, because it will greatly help us, especially with stuff we can still quickly fix and improve.
Steam beta branch access: BackupYourData
So there it is Ylanders, all pretty exciting stuff but still not as exciting as the nearing launch 😁 We are really looking forward to it, but remember (because we sure do), it wouldn’t have been possible without your help, and for that, we give you our thanks.
So until next time, stay classy Ylanders!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]