Ylands News

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!

Hey there, Ylanders!

We know you like hearing about what's coming to the next update and that you also like to take peeks into the game dev process and the behind-the-scenes of the Ylands HQ. This week's Dev diary is going to combine both! Let's dive right in!



(screenshot by Kaija)


The spirit of Ylands is largely based on community and the feedback from our players, which is why we collect feedback and suggestions from our players across platforms and regularly review it and keep it in mind when developing new features and when improving new ones. One such feedback we have been receiving is talking about not being able to see your friends on the map. This highly requested feature is coming to 1.9, as you probably know from this Dev Diary.

We were very excited to let our players know that this feature that they've been asking for is finally coming to the game. But in reading the feedback on the announcement, we found out that we didn't think about the fact that some of our players play Hide & Seek because they can't see each other on the map. Oversight on our part, but thanks to our players, who talk to us, we found out.



(two of the feedback instances)



Long story short, we're implementing a toggle option for the friend marker feature so that you can continue playing Hide & Seek without having the fun spoiled (smile)

While this might seem like a minor thing to some, for those few players that enjoy playing the game in a specific way will it would be taking away a part of that fun. And that's something we don't want to do.

Well, that's it for this week and we will be back with more info next week!


Stay Classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, Ylanders!

As you probably know, the next update coming to Ylands will be all about adventures on and below the sea. And as such, it would not be complete without additions and edits to how ships work.

Any proud captain would know how important a ship's name is. The name of a ship can be an indication of what its adventures on the sea are going to be a like and elevates it from an anonymous vesel to a personalized creation.

Now that you've built your own ship named and set sail fro the first time, you should really take care of it! Be careful about sailing in bad weather, because if you get caught in a storm, your ship will get damaged. At the same time, if you steer your ship to shallow waters, the edge of an yland or another ship, your ship will take damage and you will have to fix it up if you wish to continue on your journey without worries.



(screenshot by ilp0tt1)



Fixing a ship is a matter of skill and resources. You will need a special tool to repair your ship and also specific materials to patch up the holes that your ship had sustained. In order to avoid damaging your ship and to help you be a better informed captain, you will be able to monitor the ship's HP, the water depth below, the current speed and much more using special ship devices.


This is just a quick look into what ships will be like in the upcoming update! Speaking of naming things, what do you think the 1.9 update will be named? Let us know what you think and what your tips are and until next time...


Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, Ylanders!

It's high time we parted the watery curtain a bit more and gave you another look at what lies below the surface of the Ylands sea, right under the surface and also deep, like super super deep.


The sea floor is now a barren wasteland. But we said enough, no more, we need to breathe some life into the underwater world. For a while, we've been telling that update 1.9 will be all about water, so there's no better time to introduce underwater biotopes!

We're working on 6-7 (this may still change!) different biotopes such as coral reefs or kelp forests, which will be specific to the relevant biomes. This, in practice, means that you won't find a coral reef in colder climates such as the Arctic Biome, but will have to sail over to the Tropical Biome to discover the wonders that corals have to offer. Coral reefs, naturally, are full of life, which is a topic for another Dev Diary, but for now, can you guess which biotopes we're going to introduce to the underwater world of Ylands?





And to make things even more interesting and more exploration-worthy, we've increased the ocean depth to be 5 times the current depth. That's adding oh-so-much-more space to be explored. How much do you think you can explore before your air runs out? Again, a topic for another Dev Diary (wink)

Well, that's it for this week, Ylanders! Don't forget to...

Stay Classy!

Hey ther... wait, what? The greeting is in the title of this Dev Diary?

I guess there has to be a reason for that. Well, let's explore what that reason might be!


Finding the right friends is the best thing that can possibly happen to you. And being friends as much as we are colleagues here at the Ylands HQ, we only wanna support the sentiment. Right now, finding a fellow Ylander on the map is no easy feat. "The southern part of the map, but a bit to the east next to the tier 1 yland and then turn right at the shipwreck". Sounds familiar? Yep, we know it's a complicated task to guide a friend to you.

But that will be no longer! This is going to be the end of all the verbal navigation because from 1.9 onwards you will be able to see your friends and clanmates on the map! As long as you're on the same map, you'll be able to see each other. That should make your sailing days run a bit more smoothly since you won't have to spend time looking for each other on the map.





And how have you been doing with collecting your Achievements? Sounds like an abrupt change of topic? Nah! This will be another way to flex your shiny Titles that you earn by completing certain Achievements, as these will be visible on the map as well! So better hurry to get that Title that you want to flex with in front of your friends!

Well, Ylanders, this was a quick update on how the work on 1.9 is going. We hope that you're as excited as we are about this watery update!

What are you curious about? If you have questions about 1.9, let us know in the comments!

Till next time, Ylanders!


Stay Classy!