Ylands News

Hi there, fellow Ylanders!


One of the updates in the past has brought a very unpopular change to the game - the maps and ylands got smaller. It‘s something we had to do due to a bug in the engine we‘re using, Unity, which caused various problems as the players got further from the center of the map. This was something that many (quite understandably) felt was limiting the Exploration experience. It was a tough, very unpopular call but one that had to be made.

It is with great joy that I can announce that in update 1.8 you‘re going to see large maps return. With the issue on Unity‘s side mostly fixed and some clever programming our smart guys did we‘ve fixed yet another problem that prevented you from enjoying Exploration to its fullest.






Not only are the large maps returning but they can be even bigger than before. How big, you ask?

Currently, we are still experimenting with filling the larger area with content. It would be easy for us just to spawn a lot of similar ylands across a larger map but we feel that true Exploration comes from reaching new interesting places and facing new challenges so the last thing we want is for you to feel like we simply „stretched“ the current maps.

It‘s possible (actually it‘s more than likely) that the larger maps won‘t be used to their full potential in 1.8 and this feature will become more apparent when we also do the planned changes to landscapes so that it‘s generated more unique and interesting, but you‘ll surely start seeing the results of us getting past this issue in the upcoming update.


That‘s it for today and until we talk again - stay classy and healthy!

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!

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!

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! 

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!