Ylands News

Ahoy Ylanders!

We're thrilled to share some behind-the-scenes insights from our 3D artist department about a new animal coming to the Taiga region in Update 2.3. This is going to be a great one so you will have to wait a bit longer for it.

The Creative Journey: From Squirrels to Cows
Our journey began with an open slot in the Taiga region, prompting our designer to suggest adding a new animal. The first idea was a giant squirrel, but animation challenges led us to brainstorm further. We then played with the idea of something prehistoric and herbivorous, like a dinosaur. Imagine that in Ylands! However, we soon realized that the best idea was right in front of us, especially with the upcoming 2.2 update bringing encounters reminiscent of the bygone cowboy era. Our designer, Pypse (who often interacts with you on our Discord), came up with a brilliant idea: a cow.

Merging Utility with Aesthetics: The Taiga Cow
This cow isn't just an animal; it's a symbol of our commitment to blending utility with aesthetics. It animates well, is great for riding, can be milked, and fits perfectly with the Taiga's cowboy theme. Deciding on the type of cow was challenging, with numerous breeds to choose from. We settled on the unique Highland cattle, known for its shaggy coat.




Artistic Challenge: The Highland Cattle Model
Creating a model of the Highland cattle required special attention to its distinctive, shaggy fur. Thanks to our team of experienced artists, we found a fantastic direction for stylization, making our cow model a work of art. We're excited to show you the initial versions of the fur!



Bringing the Cow to Life: Sounds and Animations
In the Ylands team, we hope you'll also appreciate the sounds and animations of this noble Taiga creature, integral to our thoughtful stylization process. We're in the process of creating those, so stay tuned!

Thank You, Community
Your feedback is crucial as we continue to develop and refine our game. We're grateful for your participation in the Ylands community. Your adventures, challenges, and achievements inspire us every day and we are so excited to hear what you think about this furry cow addition to Ylands.



Happy exploring in Ylands, and we can't wait for you to meet our newest Taiga resident!

Stay Classy!

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders![/h3]

As you might have gathered from the previous programming dev diary, changes always carry the risk of introducing bugs – and this goes double for last minute changes. Programmers are conditioned to avoid risks where possible; after all, it’s our job to make sure that this huge machine of a game works as expected. But in some situations – such as when a winter festival is to be held for the first time and the game lacks throwable snowballs – you just have to pick up the gauntlet and roll with it despite the short timeframe, because you feel that the fun potential is worth the risk.



We already had throwing controls complete for grenades, but wanted the snowballs to behave more like an arrow does, just hitting a target and disappearing instead of exploding violently. Sometimes, programming new features is just like LEGO, you take existing pieces and creatively combine them in new ways, and that’s it. There’s also another way programming is like LEGO – sometimes to get what you want, the only way is to tear the current construction down and rebuild from scratch. Fortunately, for snowballs it was the first case, because we have already invested time into making projectiles work well beforehand.

So let's have a quick look at how projectiles actually work in Ylands! There are two main approaches to simulating motion – kinematics and dynamics. Kinematics is where we directly describe the motion via an equation based on position, velocity, and acceleration. Dynamics behaves more closely to how the actual physics works, by applying various forces to an object, which can then generate motion based on its physical properties – mass, inertia, shape, etc.

Looks like dynamics must be the way to go, being the more accurate option, right? Well, there's a catch. Due to its complexity, dynamic motion is much harder to predict, analyze, and make deterministic – key properties for a multiplayer game, since they allow us to have exactly the same projectile trajectory for all players. In fact, most motion in Ylands is kinematic, except for vehicles and ragdolls, which are too complex for kinematics. Choosing a simpler but a more controllable approach where possible is actually very common in game development! So we opt to simulate projectiles via kinematics, but we need an equation for projectile motion. Very fast projectiles such as bullets can be thought of as having a constant velocity, and thus moving on a line. Having an initial position P₀ and velocity v, their position at time t after firing can be easily calculated as P = P₀ + v ⋅ t. In fact, we can take bullets even further, thinking of their movement as instantaneous – their velocity is so large that they can reach any point we shoot at immediately after they are fired. This simplifies the simulation to checking whether any object lies in the line of fire between the origin point and the target point, which the physics engine can conveniently calculate for us via a raycast query.

The simplified equation can only take us so far however, because it excludes the effects of a very common force - gravity. With bullets, we could ignore it because the initial velocity was so large that we hit the target before gravity has a significant impact on the trajectory. But that won't work for slower moving objects such as arrows, grenades, and, you've guessed it, snowballs. What gravity does is it applies uniform downward acceleration (gravitational acceleration) to the object, building up velocity over time. The equation for uniformly accelerated motion is P = P₀ + (a ⋅ t²) / 2 where a is the acceleration, in our case the gravitational acceleration g. If we combine this with the effect of initial velocity as seen on the bullets, we get the final equation P = P₀ + v ⋅ t + (g ⋅ t²) / 2. This is a quadratic equation, meaning that the final trajectory will be a parabolic curve – which is what we expect from snowballs and arrows.

Once we have the equation for calculating projectile position at time t, it becomes a simple problem of tracking how much time has elapsed since the shot was fired and moving the projectile to the calculated position based on current time. Except now we are ignoring all the obstacles along the way! First thing that comes to mind would be checking for collisions at the current position – if we overlap with some object, we have just hit it and can deal damage to it.

Unfortunately, this won’t work for fast projectiles and thin obstacles – the way the game simulation works, we can only update the projectile position after a fixed amount of time passes from the previous update. If we just check the previous and current positions there might be no collisions, but only because we have already fully passed through the obstacle – a phenomenon known as “tunneling”. But hey, we’ve already solved this for bullets! We can again look at the previous and current position and check if anything lies between these two points via a physics engine raycast. If we hit something, we determine whether the obstacle stops the projectile movement – in which case we stick the projectile into it and apply damage – or if the projectile should pass through the obstacle unhindered.

And that’s the gist of it! This small bit of kinematics allows you to throw a snowball (or a grenade if you’re not feeling particularly festive) in the face of your fellow Ylanders. It also allowed us to implement gun and bow aim assist for mobile and gamepad controls in 2.2, so stay tuned for that – and stay classy!

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders![/h3]

Patrik from marketing here! 2023 was a wild one for Ylands. Just consider the craziest thing, instead of the awaited 1.12 version we released the biggest update in Ylands history: the 2.0. Even though this was the bomb, there were so many other important numbers throughout last year. Let's see some marketing and game data!



[h2]Marketing data[/h2]

You sent 101 691 messages and spoke for 76 243 minutes on the Ylands Discord server. What can I say, you just love to chat and admire each other's work. If you want to find some friends to play with, our Discord server is the best place for you. Now, we know, that you were not bored, and here is proof that the Ylands Marketing team also had a lot of fun this year.

4 Ylands Streams were held, 1 of those was quite a revolution as it took place on Discord, being closer to you all as we were playing games together, competing, chatting, and chilling. We posted over 300 Posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter X, and within traditional weekly community screenshots, we shared 156 of your in-game screenshots and amazing builds. From the video perspective, we presented the world with 2 trailers and 61 short videos for our TikTok and YouTube. If you are not following us on some of these social media you should definitely give it a shot!

We held 18 competitions and contests, and delivered at least triple the amount of prizes and giveaway items! We simply don't know the precise number here as sometimes, we just have to reward you randomly for being so awesome and helpful to each other. Last but not least we released 50 Dev Diaries and 21 maintenances were run.

But let's get back to you, Ylanders!

[h2]Game data[/h2]

5 617 blueprints, yes that many amazing creations were uploaded to the blueprint shop by you, Ylanders! And what about all the wonders you accomplished directly in the world of Ylands? Oh boy! You picked up and cut down 1 245 456 plants, tamed 11 227 animals out of which there were 1 777 horses, and crafted 26 705 134 items. Surprisingly enough, among these 26 milion, there was only a single cultist skirt crafted. Those are all amazing numbers and we couldn't be happier.

Thank you so much for all the time that you spent with us, whether it was chatting with other Ylanders on Discord, creating blueprints and sending us your screenshots, watching our videos and liking our social media posts, and most importantly for the time you've spent in the world of Ylands.

We wish you to Stay Classy in 2024!

Hello Ylanders,

We’re back with an exciting blend of news about our latest feature: Handbook Rewards. This addition is all about enriching your entire journey in Ylands, with a special focus on those initial, crucial hours of gameplay.




A Rewarding Start

We understand that the first few hours in Ylands can be decisive. Players who overcome the initial learning curve tend to find deeper enjoyment and stay longer. With this in mind, Handbook Rewards are designed to make the early stages more engaging and less daunting. By offering meaningful rewards for early tasks, we aim to help new players find their footing and uncover the true potential of Ylands.

Rewards Across Your Journey

But it’s not just about the start. Handbook Rewards bring value at every stage of your adventure. Whether you’re gathering essential resources, unlocking unique and powerful weapons, or acquiring special collectibles, these rewards are tailored to enhance your experience.

Streamlining Progression

A key goal of Handbook Rewards is to offer a smoother progression path. These rewards come in at just the right time to help you unlock new regions and tackle the challenges ahead. It’s about reducing the grind and increasing the enjoyment of each milestone you reach. While also giving you a long term goal to aim for in the case of Story Chapters or some more difficult Region conquering Diary Events.

Looking Forward

Handbook Rewards represent just one step in our ongoing effort to make Ylands more engaging. We see great potential in integrating this system with future features, like daily quests or login bonuses, to continually enhance your gaming experience.

Your Feedback, Our Compass

As you delve into this new feature, we’re eager to hear from you. Your experiences, especially during the early stages of the game, are invaluable in helping us refine and evolve the Handbook Rewards system.

Thank you for being part of the Ylands community. Your adventures, challenges, and achievements are what inspire us to keep improving and expanding the world of Ylands.

Happy exploring, and here’s to many more rewarding adventures ahead!



Stay Classy!

Ahoy Ylanders!

Updates are consistently geared toward enhancing your gaming experience. Each update brings a combination of significant features and behind-the-scenes improvements to ensure smoother and more enjoyable gameplay. Let's delve into the journey of these features.



Wish List
Our wish list is a culmination of various sources, including community suggestions, insights from focus tests, brainstorming sessions with our designers, and feedback from our team members. We also take into account thoughts gathered from QA feedback sessions, creating a comprehensive pool of ideas.

Priorities
Every update is driven by specific goals, such as improving recipes for new players or transforming sailing into a thrilling adventure. We compile a list of approximately 40 objectives for each update, aiming for a balance between fun and functionality.

Design
The Feature Owner plays a crucial role in crafting a design document with mockups to visualize ideas. Some features are even prototyped using our Editor, adding a tangible dimension to the creative process.

Design Review
A creative huddle takes place involving the Project Lead, Producer, and Designers. Their focused brainstorming session ensures alignment with our overall vision and addresses any potential challenges.

Implementation
With a detailed plan in place, we share our ideas with the implementation team. Each feature follows a specific timeline, accompanied by status meetings and vigilant oversight to ensure a smooth transition from concept to reality.

Feature Review
We did it! Upon completion, the Project Lead and Producer evaluate the feature's integration into the game, considering its overall enjoyment factor. Other developers also provide feedback during this phase.

Feature is Ready
The moment of truth arrives as QA takes center stage. Rigorous testing is conducted to identify and address any bugs, ensuring the feature is polished and ready for release.

As our team eagerly tackles the next project, they remain committed to resolving any issues promptly. We're excited for you to experience the new feature and have a fantastic time with it! 🚀🎮

And that is a feature's journey from the point of view of Production. Do you have any questions about this process? Let us know in the comments!

Stay Classy!