Ylands News

Dear Ylanders,

the Ylands offices are buzzing with activity as we are nearing the final release of Ylands 1.0 and we’re all getting excited. But today’s Dev Diary is really something because we have kept this under wraps for some time, but we feel it’s time to show you, what we’ve been working on the past couple of months, but safe to say, Ylands has never looked so beautiful.



Overall, we have overhauled the weather system and at the heart of this upgraded visual style is the new atmosphere simulation. We're using a physically-based atmospheric scattering model that is responsible for the colour of the sky, lighting and reflections. We have made extensive changes to this fairly realistic model to make sure it all fits perfectly to our unique style. Our clouds, for instance, will be polygonal and thus they’ll fit in with the rest of the game’s aesthetic but they’ll also fully dynamic and procedural. Meaning you'll never see the same cloud twice. They’ll dynamically change from small puffy clouds to an overcast sky.



Another feature we upgraded is lightning during night time. We felt, that the nights could get a bit too dark (and full of terrors) and so we moved from the very dark and impractical kind of night to a lot more stylized and bright night. Night scenes are now lit with blueish light. Night is now a lot more atmospheric and you can finally see where you're going during when the night sets. But that’s not all. Every visual part of the game has been reworked or tweaked to work well with everything else including post-processing and particle systems. And best of all, all of this doesn't affect performance 😁



And one more notice for creators concerning light. With the recently updated post-processing, we have tweaked the luminosity of glowing objects. Before the update, objects were glowing too much, so we had to adjust the glow range to provide more consistent results across the whole range. We have lowered the maximum luminosity and stretched it across the whole range. So, please notice that after release, you will have to ramp-up the glowing property approximately 4x times to achieve the same luminosity.



And that’s all for today Ylanders. What do you think about the new sunsets? Will you be able to fight the urge to just watch one sunset after another?

Hey there Ylanders!

If you watched our video on Facebook, the Major General might have spoiled today’s Dev Diary a tad bit, but for those, who did the sensible thing and paused the video the minute MJ opened his mouth, here’s the cool news.




A while back we improved on the Animal AI and gave you more options to control them through the Editor. Now it is time for the most dangerous animal of all! Humans!!! Soon you’ll be able to do much more with humanoids than ever before. In your scenarios and games, you’ll be able to make them hostile to the player, equipping them with close combat weapons. They’ll be able to detect a player and when at a certain distance, attack him. Or say you have a precious treasure in an abandoned keep…seemingly abandoned keep. And a player decides to steal your gold and shiny things. Well that might trigger two guards, who were hiding behind some strategically placed pillars and show him a thing or two!
But that’s not all humanoids will be capable of from now on. You’ll be able to plan a patrol trail for them and thus you’ll be able to populate your cities with moving crowds. Also, their stances can be different. They can be hostile, indifferent or even flea at the sight of a player, so maybe there’s a suspicious character with some lovely trinkets and the player has to stop with a well-aimed shot…but the bugger is legging it! You’ll be able to use AI behaviour (before called waypoints) for humanoids and assign to them many more things than ever before.
And here’s the kicker though! All of this will also be possible with animals, so now you’ll be able to craft much more complex encounters for your players 😁


And that’s all for now Ylanders, so stay classy!

P.S. Check out our Facebook and the Major General's video on this topic to see, how the new NPC tools work: https://www.facebook.com/YlandsGame/videos/939620803078678/

Aleš Ulm, Creative Director of Ylands

Hey there, Ylanders!

It's been some time since we last talked, right? I've been sooo busy with getting 1.0 through the door that I barely have time for anything else.

What later became Dev Diaries had started on 12th July 2016. I've been talking with you about our plans, achievements and fails for quite some time and now, when there's big news to be told, I'm here again to both tell you about it and then discuss with you any potential concerns.

Let's cut right to the chase: with version 1.0 Ylands goes Free to Play, or to be more exact, most of it is. For new players, Exploration will be available in a separate Exploration pack whilst Early Accessers will already have this pack and all that comes with it.


Why are we doing this?

Ylands is predominantly a creators platform. For a platform, it is crucial to be available to as many players (and creators) as possible. Because of this, changing to a Free to Play format is a logical step. With this one "simple" step, suddenly a massive number of players will be able to access Ylands, play it and create new content. There will be more creators resulting in a higher quality of games and more players to play these games (monetized or not). We never wanted the premium model to be what keeps this beautiful platform alive in the future - this can be achieved only by a strong and transparent ecosystem with enough creators and players.

At the same time, we believe strongly that Exploration brings a unique experience and is worth the money. With 1.0 it will get a lot better and we will keep enhancing it for many years to come. However, please note, that currently, Exploration will be available only on the PC, not mobile devices. The reason for this is simple: We don't want to compromise the PC Exploration experience for the sake of the Mobile version.

Also, one thing needs to be clearly said. Even though this is an add-on, this doesn't mean we are planning to add others like this one. We are not in the "DLC" business. It's just a convenient way how to make an already existing specific part of Ylands premium on Steam. We are focusing all our work on making all of the different aspects of the game better, be it Exploration, Sandbox Mode, Playlands or the Editor.



How much will the Exploration pack cost?

We are planning to sell the Exploration pack containing the Exploration mode, a hefty amount of Coyns and some cool cosmetics and pets for 20 USD. Early Accessers, of course, won't have to buy this, as they'll already have the Exploration mode unlocked and they'll get the extra items and Coyns upon release.


What about you, the players who already bought Ylands in Early Access?

You helped us get where we are now and we will not forget. It goes without saying that for you nothing changes - basically you already own Exploration. In addition to that, you'll get every bonus that those who buy Exploration separately get (a truly epic special costume, a great pet and coyns). And on top of that the promised pet that only you, the Early Access supporters will own.

When planning this, the most important thing on our mind was to make sure this doesn't affect you in a negative way. I'm happy to say that you will always be the ones who get the best deal because you stuck with us for all those years.


What will happen to coyns you currently possess and all your purchases?

You will keep all your coyns, purchased costumes, pets etc. as we move into 1.0.


What does this mean for Ylands itself?

If anything, the only change you'll probably notice will be us putting more continuous effort into making the Exploration mode more awesome. Ylands will release as a free game for everyone with the mobile version being also free. This will mean, that anyone will be able to make a game on their PC and jump right on to their mobile device to play it there and share their game with their friends and others in the community.

The mobile platform truly lends a huge new aspect to the game, because for creators it brings a brand new audience to create for and connect with and in the future, once we also release on Android, anyone anywhere will be able to join in the fun of Ylands. We believe this will really help Ylands grow as a platform and it will also serve as a gateway for players to then go and download the game on their computer as well because they'll want to try out the more majestic creations, that only a PC can offer.


We understand that this is a big change and we're ready to discuss all your concerns until there are none.


Thank you for your patience, support and for staying classy!

Hey there Ylanders!

The release is creeping closer and with it more and more exciting news! We are fixing more and more issues and these will be implemented in the coming weeks. But we’re also improving a lot of features, and we’ll talk about these today.

But first a small bit of news. Upon release, we’ll be changing the name of Explore to Exploration. This is because we feel this reflects more on the nature of the game mode. Also, we’ll be changing the name of ‘Create’ to Sandbox, because we’ve had feedback telling us, that people mistake Create for the Editor and thus miss out on a whole world of creativity. Sandbox also fits into the image we want this mode to have and we trust, that it will make the Menu more understandable and clearer.

But that’s just an insignificant little titbit of info, that pales to the news that follows. Because we have some exciting stuff to share with you about Exploration!

First of all, the Map. The map has been for long a staple of the game but we felt it needed a bit of love. That’s why we have put our heads together and came up with a few new features I think you’ll appreciate. For one, the map will not be an item anymore, but rather a basic function available to every player by simply pressing the M key. Furthermore, the player will finally not be lost on his map but will be able to see his own position on it. The map will also be highly customisable with the possibility of dropping markers of different colours and icons, so the player will be able to make the map his own. There will also be a clear edge to the map, so players don’t sail on into the abyss without ever finding Ylands. This doesn’t mean, that players won’t be able to sail to the blue void, but now it’ll be clear, that there is nothing to find there. This map will be available in Exploration and in the Sandbox, but not in Custom Games yet. This is because games made in the Editor are usually very unique and we don’t have a way of reflecting this in the map, but we are working on a way of putting a map into Editor games as well.





As I have mentioned before, the number of Ylands will be smaller in Exploration, but that doesn’t mean, that there will be less to do. In fact, the exact opposite! That is why we’ll be applying Tiers to Ylands. Different Ylands will have different Tiers and to successfully thrive in a higher tiered Yland, a player should first master the lower-tiered Yland. This will make a greater sense of progression in Exploration while also differentiating Ylands from each other in difficulty and content. The Ylands will also be all unique and full of different things to do, enemies to fight and lairs to destroy and loot.

Another new improvement a bit connected to the one mentioned above will be the change we’re bringing to spawn points in Exploration. While at the beginning of the game you will spawn at an easy-going and player-friendly Yland, you can, later on, build a bed. And this bed will become the players' new spawn point, so once the player logs out and returns, he’ll spawn in his comfy bed 😊 Now this will only work with beds and not with sleeping mats, so be careful of that. Also, a bed can be destroyed by another player, though you can protect it in a protective barrier. But if your bed gets destroyed while you are still in the game, you will get a notification of this and you’ll thus have time to make another bed. If your bed does get destroyed while you’re outside of the game, you will then spawn upon return back at the ‘beginners Yland’.



And that’s it for now Ylanders. It is all exciting and we are really gearing up for the upcoming release. But let me stress, that we are also hard at work fixing all the issues, that have been posted here, and others that we found ourselves, so this is in no way the only items we’re concentrating on 😁

Look out for more news here and on our other platforms and most importantly,

stay classy Ylanders!

Hey there Ylanders!

I am a bit indisposed this week, but why should you suffer?! In fact, you'll be better off, because I'm not going to blab too much and images will do the talking.

There has been some talk in the past, that there aren't any new objects and blocks in the game. Well, we've been working on some new items for you and decided to show you some of these. Most of them are modern-day objects but we're also unveiling the new Alpha mutants! So beware of those 😊 Of course these aren't all the things we're adding in, there are many more, but just a little taste 😉

And that's all from me for now and you Ylanders enjoy the images and most importantly: stay classy Ylanders!