Ylands News

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

For quite a long time we've been promising you the Ylands roadmap showing what to expect until the end of this year, so, without further ado, here it is.


Before we tell you a bit more about what you're seeing, there are three points we would like to make.

• What you see mentioned in 1.9 is ready and you will get it quite soon. As for the other two updates, please bear in mind that those are plans, not promises. Even though this is what we're planning/working on, many of these things still require a substantial amount of prototyping and testing and some features, like the Blueprint overhaul, will need a lot of feedback coming from you. If we're not happy with the state of some feature or if it needs major changes based on your feedback, instead of delaying the whole update, the feature can slip into the next one.
  
  
• The second thing is quite obvious and related to the first one. Most of the 1.10 features (not to mention the 1.11 features) are still in the very early phase, so with many features we won't be able to discuss details just yet. We feel it's better, at this point, to say that we simply don't know instead of providing information that can become obsolete at the very next design meeting.
  
  
• Thirdly, please understand that these are really only some of the features (although the major ones) and each update has usually dozens of various additions and improvements and hundreds of fixes. There are so many things that we plan but are not named (like Exploration resource balancing, gamepad support, improving clans etc. etc.). So if you don't see "your" feature in this list, it doesn't mean we're not working on it.
  

So, now to the updates themselves.






UPDATE 1.9

The upcoming update 1.9 is pretty clear - we've already talked about most of the things it brings and very soon you will be able to try it out yourselves.


UPDATE 1.10

In update 1.10 we would like to create something like "parallel" Exploration. A world where you will be able to fully unleash your creativity by letting you import ylands created with all the features that the Editor offers. Anyone will be able to travel from the "real" Exploration world to the parallel world or within the parallel world and ... explore. If you are not interested in this parallel Exploration world, you can just ignore it and you will never be bothered by it. However, those who decide to travel there and explore other players' creations, will be rewarded.

We can imagine how many questions this brings - from "what if players break the original Exploration by bringing in the things from the parallel one" to "won't the parallel Exploration be filled with half-made and broken ylands that will just be a waste of time". Don't worry, we'll discuss this with you in detail in the upcoming weeks.

The Blueprint overhaul is something we've been promising for a long time. We want to merge Blueprints and Compositions and give players an option to create Blueprints in the Editor that they (and others) will be able to use in Exploration. So far, it's been us who players had to buy Blueprints from, but this was never our primary goal. So with the new Blueprints, it will be you, the players, selling what you create to others for coyns. There's no reason why those skilled creators shouldn't, for example, be able to pay for the server they rent with the coyns they make from selling their creations. It goes without saying that for any Blueprint to be built, the players will still need to gather all the ingredients, there's no easy way around this - nice things always require some effort. :)

As for the Crafting improvements, there's not much to be said. We already have something cool that makes crafting UI way more intuitive - unfortunately, it came a bit too late to be included in 1.9.


UPDATE 1.11

And that gets us to 1.11. Dark Dungeons are something new to Ylands. Imagine dangerous places where you will venture to search for artifacts, slay new monsters and learn more about the world of Ylands, about its lore. We hope that whether you venture to the darkness alone or with friends, you will enjoy more interesting enemies and a fixed/improved combat system.

FPS camera is the single most requested feature. When we removed it, we said it was temporary and that it would return - and it will.

We are planning to make some improvements to Playlands as well. Not anything big, though, just some changes that would make it possible even for single players to have fun without having to play with others. We see it as an option for you to pass the time when tired of exploring or waiting for your friends to come online.



This is a lot and it's only understandable that you will ask questions and provide your ideas. We won't definitely be able to answer all of them, but we'll do our best to read them all!


Have a great time and stay safe and classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, Ylanders!

We've successfully gone into the post-datalock phase of update development, which means that the features we have planned for you for Ocean Odysseys (casual update namedrop! ːsteamhappyː ) are done and now we mainly focus on testing them. As always, we will ask for your help in testing these new features when we release the Experimental, or "beta", version of the new update, which we'll let you know about soon! And to make things more exciting, we have news about something you've been waiting for!





Ocean Odysseys will not only be jam packed full of new and exciting stuff alongside QoL improvements and tweaks, but also creations done by several of you! With 1.9, we will release the first of our Season 2 of Creator Competition Mystery Ylands! Mystery Ylands are fun yland-sized dungeons, puzzles or stories, which you can access only if you're an experienced explorer, and we mean that literally. Because to access Mystery Ylands, you need to search the land far and wide for Random Encounters, which yield Exploration Points - the currency used to unlock Mystery Ylands.

In total, 5 Mystery Ylands done by our talented community creators will be released one by one so that you can focus on one Mystery Yland at a time. We can't wait for you to see them and to let us know what you think, because they are fantastic!

We're gonna get back to working on Ocean Odysseys but we'll be back next week with more news!

Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, Ylanders!

We have finished the Ylands roadmap that we will be sharing with you very soon, but before we do that, I wanted to use this opportunity to talk about our plans in a more general way.

Firstly what happens this year; instead of having four major updates a year, beginning with this one, we're going to release three. This doesn't mean that you will get fewer goodies than before, the updates will be larger - the upcoming 1.9 will give you some idea as to what I'm talking about. Pushing more into fewer updates is important because it will give us more time to test.





Even though it may sound like if the overall amount of things released during the year is roughly the same, there should be no difference if it's released in three or four updates. The truth is, that every single release creates a massive overhead just by itself (all the processes that go with it), that this will help us a lot. Probably the most important thing, though, is, that we will have more time to discuss the features with you as they come to life. There are already some things in this update based on what you suggested when we told you about how we're currently implementing them that this should help improve the quality a lot. As for the content of those updates - there are currently four priorities that we have when it comes to deciding what will be added, reworked, tweaked or fixed:

• Things we've either promised you in the past or ones that you've been asking for for a long time.
  
• Fixing things that annoy you, make the game confusing or hard to enjoy (especially when it comes to multiplayer issues).
  
• Keep tying all the loose ends in the game, all the stand-alone systems, so that they work and work together with the rest of the game to create one seamless experience. Not only Exploration features themselves but allowing you to utilize the power of our Editor to make your own Exploration experiences.
  
• Give the game a sense of goal for those who seek it, something to look forward to. Something to achieve by going through all the hardships. By bravely exploring new worlds, crafting advanced tools and weapons. By fighting monsters.
  

The last two points lead me to something we have started working on some time ago and that you might be able to notice in small amounts in 1.9 already and which will be much more present with every following update: Ylands lore. A thing that will make you understand the Ylands world better and, most importantly, allow us to create some pretty cool end-game content. This is something we are extremely excited about and hopefully something, you will like.

And that's it for today.

We will talk to you soon so until then - stay healthy and classy!

Hey there, Ylanders!


The Ylands HQ is super focused on 1.9 and we can't wait to bring you more info on the upcoming update, and we hope you're as excited as we are for all things sea-worthy! We're also constantly thinking about what lies ahead which is what brings us to today's Dev Diary topic.

Last week, we answered some questions that kept coming up and we didn't want to leave them unanswered. This week, we'd like to switch the roles and ask you some questions. We have some general questions about your style of gameplay, but also open-ended questions, where you can anonymously give us your feedback about anything and everything in the game. The questions are short and will only take a few seconds to answer, also none of them are mandatory, so feel free to answer only those you're comfortable with!

This feedback helps us stay on track and every comment you leave for us will be read and discussed.


You can find the feedback form ▶️ HERE ◀️






Thank you so much for your help and please let us know what you'd like to read about in the next Dev Diary!

And don't forget to Stay Classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

In today's Dev Diary we would like to talk about some things that players often comment on in their reviews or forum posts.



REVIEWS
Speaking of reviews - during the last year, we saw the average current game reviews score raise substantially. Seeing the average rating rise some 20 % and keep going is a clear indication that we've managed to turn the ship around and things are improving - and we would like to thank you for your support and the trust many of you put in us when we said things would change.

Apart from us not giving Exploration as much love as it deserved in the past, the main complaint players state in the review is often related to the game being free to play with Exploration being a paid "DLC" and the presence of monetization. So we feel like we should talk about this.



EXPLORATION AND F2P
Even though we're now fully focused on Exploration, Ylands is still a platform as well. We have a very sophisticated Editor and Workshop, where anyone can create, share and play each other's creations for free - with the emphasis put on "for free". We want everyone to be able to do this, it makes absolutely no sense to put these tools behind a paywall. That's the reason why Ylands went F2P, with Exploration remaining a premium segment.

Now you might ask "So why didn't you make it two products instead and didn't keep Ylands Exploration as a premium title?" and that would be a very good question. The answer will become obvious once we release 1.10 later this year. But in a nutshell: our ultimate goal is to continue to create the Exploration world while also giving players the option to create their own "areas" within that world. within these "areas", they wouldn't be bound by materials scarcity or their skill to build something ingame, but to let them create their own Exploration adventures in the Editor. The Exploration and the Editor have a future together. Make no mistake, if you're interested only in the "original" Exploration you won't have to worry about anything else. If, however, you feel like creating an yland in the Editor and have other people visit you, we will give you the option.




(screenshot by spiritchaser28)


MONETIZATION
And that leads us to the other topic, which is monetization. For obvious reasons, this is always a controversial topic but we feel it might be a good idea to summarize what Ylands monetization is about.

Firstly, it's important to say that ever since we introduced monetization, it has remained the same - players can purchase only cosmetic items that have no impact on gameplay.

Monetization was never really a priority for us:

Not only, after years of development, there's still very little content for players to buy (which, funnily enough, we get some complaints about as well :) ), we actually even removed entire categories of objects that players could originally buy (weapon skins, armor skins) and let all the players have them for free (while, obviously, fully refunding everyone who has ever bought one).

We never promoted our in-app purchases, which we believe is, when it comes to games with some sort of in-app purchases, rather rare. You never see a pop-up window urging you to buy a new pet or costume or anything and even when there's was a 50% off of everything in our store, in the game you could tell only by a tiny text over the the Store tab button and a Dev Message. We are doing our best so that players who are not interested in buying anything don't feel pressured in any way.




FUTURE OF MONETIZATION
So this is how it's has been for years now, but what about the future? Are there any ugly surprises waiting for you?

Nope.

We will keep adding costumes and pets. Not in huge amounts and only when we feel like we have some good ideas for those. Just like we've done up until now.

We will be reworking Blueprints (and merging those with Compositions) so that you can create them in the Editor and let you, the creators, sell them to other players for coyns, so that you can buy things you want or pay for rented servers this way. This is why we're keeping monetization in the game - we want a functional ecosystem where those who create nice things are rewarded.



NFTs
And last the last thing - we've seen some people mentioning NFTs. So where do we stand with those?

We don't like them. We don't want them in our game, and as far as we know, neither do you. The way we see it, they don't bring anything that wouldn't be in some way already possible in games and have no plans whatsoever on implementing those.




And that's it for today! Thanks for reading all the way here, thank you for your support... and stay healthy and classy!