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Dev Diary #193 Scripting goodies

Hi there, fellow Ylanders!

Here we are with yet another bunch of cool features you can expect in update 1.8. Because we plan to share some pretty cool 1.8 Exploration features in the next diary, today we‘ll take a look at the Editor, namely Visual Scripting.


So what new tools will those of you who create great new things expect to find in the next update?

Find out what platform is a player playing on and adjust anything in the game accordingly. Maybe you want to make something a bit easier for mobile players to compensate for the lack of precise controls? Or maybe you don‘t? :)

As always, we will provide an extension of your event listeners so that you can react to even more events than before.

And you know what‘s super fun? Now you can enable a ragdoll mode for the player's character and apply a force to it. Getting hit by a giant pendulum is way more fun if it makes your character fly across the room!







The last thing we‘re going to mention here is something that those who script games will surely love. A brand new panel displaying not only all the game errors (this much you can already see in the console), but something much more advanced, which lets you pick an error and see its details - specifically what instructions were processed before the game ran into this problem. If you are familiar with how a stack monitor works in Visual Studio or other similar programs, you surely see how much this will make your life easier (if not, just take our word for it).


Long story short - if you‘re creating and like to play with the Editor and Visual scripting, in update 1.8 you will find dozens of new features, improvements and fixed (and we still have something truly awesome left to show you some other time).

That‘s all for now and we will talk to you next week. Until then - stay classy and healthy!

Dev Diary #192 Working the Stations

Hi there, fellow Ylanders!


With the Competition already announced it‘s time to get back to talking about some of the improvements you can expect with update 1.8.


We‘ve already said in the past that in this update we are putting a lot of effort into implementing things that you asked us to add, fix or improve. We had a lot of streams where we discussed various ideas you came up and now it‘s time to show that we value the time you spent with us. Let me now mention two more things you can expect in 1.8.

You complained about confusing workstations and the fact that you have to switch between tabs (or they switch confusingly on their own) while using these workstations. This has been fixed and while we were at it, we made the workstation crafting more intuitive and responsive. Oh, and before you ask - yes, you will be able to craft things in stacks, so it would be possible to craft many more of them at once!







Another issue that many players complained about are items that are available in the Editor but can‘t be crafted in Exploration. Well, while we can‘t make everything craftable right away, I think you will find some interesting items that you will be able to craft from 1.8 onwards.


That‘s all for now and as always - stay healthy and classy!

Dev Diary #191 Competition Details

Hey there, Ylanders! 

The Creators Competition: Season 2 has officially begun! 

In last week's dev diary we talked about some general information about the competition but now that it's underway let's get into the details you absolutely shouldn't miss! 

Before you start

  • Before you start creating your competition entry, make sure that you go over the rules to make sure you're eligible to take part in the contest. You can find the rules riiiiiiiiight here
  • Go through the Creator Guidelines, which describe the technical requirements and limitations that your Mystery Yland must meet. 
  • Once you decide you want to take part, don't forget to create a post on our competition forum section (some examples are already there!) 


While you're creating

  • Update the forum post you created with screenshots, images, sketches, ideas and anything else you can think of so that others can see your progress and comment on it! 
  • Contact us for support and with any questions you might have
  • Go see what others are working on! 


When you're done

  • Make sure to read the Submission Guide so that you don't miss anything! 
  • Enjoy the fact that you successfully submitted your very own Mystery Yland! 
  • Wait for the winner announcement! 


During the whole competition, we will be helping you out and answering your questions, so don't hesitate to let us know when you need anything! Please allow for a possible extended time while answering these and other requests for the next three weeks, while Nikki, our community manager is on vacation. 


That's it for this week and stay creative and stay classy, Ylanders! 


Dev Diary #190 Creators Competition - Season 2

Hey there, Ylanders!

It's finally here! It's happening! Are you excited? Season 2 of the Creators Competition is finally about to start!


We know you've been waiting for this and we are bringing you all the info you need regarding the second installment in the Creators Competition series.

This time, the competition will be asking you to create Mystery Ylands. Let your creativity on the loose and hit us with a Mystery Yland we've not seen before and we'll reward you for it. So let's get to all the information!




What do you need to do?

Create an original Mystery Yland!

When does the competition start and end?

We're kicking off on September 1, when all the rules and information will become available. The competition will run for about 2 months, with the submission period ending after 6 weeks on October 17. The submission period will be followed by other activities such as social media competition.

What can you win?

$$$ prizes! We have over 7.000 USD worth of cash prizes! But apart from that, every Mystery Yland that will meet the quality standards, which will be published at the beginning of the competition, will get to become an actual Mystery Yland in Exploration!

1st place - 3.000 USD
2nd place - 2.000 USD
3rd place - 1.000 USD
4th place - 700 USD
5th place - 500 USD

Who will be judging the creations?

A panel of developers. We will have representatives from several different parts of the dev team.

What are the judging criteria?

We will specify the criteria in the rules which are going to be published on September 1st. But most importantly we will be looking for creativity and originality.







Let us know what your questions are in the comments and we will make sure to answer them when the competition kicks off next week!


Well, that's that for this week, Ylanders. We sincerely hope you are as excited about this as we are, because every day, we see your wonderful creations and we just cannot wait to see what you'll be able to create this time around.

Stay classy and stay creative, Ylanders!

Dev Diary #189 Marking More Maps

Hey there, Ylanders!

Today's Dev Diary is, yet again, going to be all about a feature that was heavily requested by our wonderful community and is already very quickly becoming a useful tool for our game designers, who are working with it on new and exciting content for you as we speak! And it will add more spark to Exploration too!

We're talking about Custom Map Markers, a feature coming to Ylands with the 1.8 update. As the name suggests, these are markers that you can see on your world's map. But they go beyond what you know from Exploration. As a creator, you can use them in a variety of creative ways. Want to show the players where the danger lies? Map marker. Alert them to an interesting area to explore? Map marker. Point them to where the coveted reward is buried? Map marker! And to make things even more exciting, you can choose which image you want to use for the marker, what color it is, whether it has background, the color of the background, their size, whether they're static or move with an entity and much more. And don't forget to explore how Custom Map Markers and Fog of War work together in terms of revealing your markers to players as they travel through your world.





We are so excited to see what you can do with those because your creativity just won't stop amazing us!



Yes, Custom Map Markers is a tool that creators may use in their customs games but it is also so much more than that. Why, you ask? We have been working on new content for Exploration and Custom Map Markers will give us much more to work with in terms of using the map as a tool in Random Encounters and in making Mystery Ylands even more exciting and engaging. And we're already working on both so you'll get to see these for yourselves soon!


That's it for now and don't forget to...

Stay Classy!