Ylands

[Asid]

0.14: Playful Platform Update
Tue, 10 September 2019

Dev Diary video



The 0.14 update Playful Platform is out and it's a Big One! Many new features have found their way Ylands and while it is fun to explore and find them for yourself, we also made a handy video with Aleš, Tomáš and Daniel talking about all the different aspects of the update.




In our second video, we take a closer look at the monetization feature more closely. Creators will be able to monetize their creations for the in-game currency Coyns, thus encouraging them to make even bigger and better games for all of us!





And that's it, so enjoy the videos, the update and the game and most importantly...

stay classy Ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #96
Sun, 22 September 2019


Hey there Ylanders!

I have to say, preparations for 1.0 are ramping up and everybody here is looking forward to the next few months of hard, but exciting work. And with that, I thought I’d share with you a few updates on future features and what is the situation with certain aspects of the game.

So as I promised last week, let’s talk about the water. As you know, water isn’t what it used to be for some time now. The trouble is, that water right now is hardcoded to be at level zero and once it’s put somewhere else, it starts breaking other things in the game. But our team is working on an improved simulation for water, but it won’t get into the game until after the release of 1.0. But that will be one of our top priorities post 1.0.

On the other hand, Explore is the talk of the day, since that will be getting the greatest of facelifts. As I mentioned before, there will be fewer Islands in a map, but that doesn’t mean there will be less to find. We are doing this because we want to make every Island unique and fun to explore rather than finding a third Taiga Island and floating away in disgust and boredom 😁 In this “improved” Explore every Island will be worth discovering. That is another thing coming to Explore: DANGER. You won’t be able to go to sleep at night safe in knowing, that all the animals are also going to sleep. No. Mutated bears and wolves will be coming out of their caves to hunt! And you are the prey 😱 Now you’ll be able to get rid of this danger on every Island, but you’ll have to ‘conquer’ the cave responsible for the beasts. And the lair will always be guarded by an alpha-monster protecting its home. But if you defeat this powerful enemy, you’ll be able to stop the spawning of dangerous animals on that Island 😊



In other news for Explore, while there won’t be regenerating resources (yet), we are working on it. In the meantime though there will be more resources on the map as a whole and you might even be able to look to the sea to provide 😉 And some resources should be on every Island, so you’re not hampered early game by having bad luck and not having a specific resource at hand. And for those worried about the smaller number of Islands, do not fret, because we are also working on the concept of ‘Connected Worlds’. We have talked about this in the past, but in short, this should give you the possibility to jump to another game through a portal and keep playing, giving creators countless possibilities 😁 We are doing our best to bring this feature to you as soon as possible.

And that’s it for now, so have fun and stay classy Ylanders!

P.S. I’ll be on holiday 🏄‍♂️ next week, so expect less of my presence on the forums and also less content throughout the week (no Ynterview for example). But I will be preparing a Dev Diary (albeit probably not as ‘meaty’) so there’s that to look forward to 😊

[Asid]

Dev Diary #97
Sat, 28 September 2019

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!


Read on

[Asid]

Dev Diary #98
09/10/19

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!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #100
Wed, 16 October 2019

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!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #101
Thu, 24 October 2019

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:

[Asid]

Dev Diary #102
Thu, 31 October 2019

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?

[Asid]

Dev Diary #103
Wed, 6 November 2019


Today let’s talk Exploration 😊

We have already hinted a few features coming into Exploration with the release, but if you’ve seen the gameplay footage on our Facebook page, you might be intrigued further. While we have talked about the Yland tier system, now we have a final version of it. There are going to be 3 tiers of difficulty + a 0 tier as the beginning Yland. There you won’t get attacked by anything and you’ll have ample time to get familiar with the mechanics. But the other Ylands are in no way this forgiving. After a few nights, mutants will start hunting on the surface at night and no one will be safe. This is why a sturdy home will be necessary. But the brave may want to venture out into the night to hunt down the dreaded Alpha and stop the mutants from spawning. But this is really a challenge only for the hardened adventurer.


Tier 1


Tier 2


Tier 3


Random Encounters Gear (not all)

The animals and mutants will differ in power and image depending on the Yland tier and biome. So, for instance, you’ll be able to meet a normal Wolf, but also a Rabid Wolf, Furious Wolf and on the Mutant side a Mutated Wolf, Tainted Wolf and an Infested Wolf with all mutants having their own colour palette. Yland tiers also affect, what you’ll be able to craft in different tiers. So while in tier 1 you can craft leather and stone armour, you'll have to venture into the caves to get the right resources to prepare for tier 2 with for instance iron armour. You also might have noticed some weird armour not currently available in Exploration. This will be only available from Random Encounters, so look out for those Conquistadors in their shiny breastplates and if you want their gear, give them battle!


Mutated


Tainted


Infested

We have also decided to open up all the different now available skins to the public since interest in buying them anyway was very low. All the current owners will get a full refund of their Coyns and the skins will now become their own items in Exploration, that Explorers will be able to find in Random Encounters as unique items. So everyone will be able to enjoy the glorious happiness of wearing Legionnaire Armour...if you manage to defeat the mighty Legionnaires 😁 Also these before exclusive items will be added to the Creators Cube and will be part of the Editor to give Creators even more options for their games.



So as you can see, we have big plans with Exploration and it doesn’t stop here. After the release, we have even more ideas to make Exploration the go-to survival platform on PC and we will keep adding new and exciting stuff to this ever-evolving world, that is Ylands!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2603793446333085

[Asid]

Dev Diary #104
Thu, 14 November 2019

Hey there Ylanders!

Many times I was asked if we’re going to have ships and cars in blueprints. We already have houses, which you guys love (and we do too), but the questions kept coming and understandably so. It would be so cool to get the needed resources and then just plop your majestic steampunk ship you’ve been working on for so long and start exploring. We took this suggestion to heart and started working on implementing this and making it reality. In fact @Khanecz has been working his behind off for quite some time, but finally, we can say, that with the release, you’ll be able to capture any car and ship you create and use it later as a blueprint. And it doesn’t matter which boat hull you use, be it the small one, large one or the new Catamaran ship, that’ll also be available come release. This way you’ll always travel in style in Exploration. And while you won’t be able to capture blueprints on your mobile devices, you will be able to use them and download them from the shop 😊





And while we’re talking about everything blueprinty, we’ll also be adding a lot of cool premium blueprints you’ll be able to purchase for Coyns. A few highlights: the cousin of the dreaded Red Baron, the Crimson Train! This baby will get you anywhere in style. The Buggy, on the other hand, loves the feeling of sand under its tires and the large ship blueprint is fast and agile, ready for any adventure in a hurry. But we’ll also release some free blueprints to get you started, like the little basic ship, a basic car and some nice wooden buildings. Connected to this will also be the discontinuation of some of the older blueprints, which we found as not visually pleasing anymore and out of style. Those of you, that bought these or downloaded them will still be able to use them after release, but they won’t be available in the store.





So what will you make into blueprints and are you looking forward to whizzing around in your favourite car and ship around all the new and improved Ylands? Well we sure are 😉

[Asid]

Dev Diary #105
Thu, 21 November 2019

Hey there Ylanders.

So we have three significant pieces of news Ylanders, so strap in and get ready to rumble!

Firstly we are making some changes to how we deal with servers. Before we were quite free-handed with dedicated servers because we wanted you to experiment and there wasn’t a better alternative at the time. But now with the recent changes in monetization and the more demanding multiplayer games, we decided to streamline the server situation, so we can better protect and support them in the future. This way there won’t be any chance of manipulating the server information and scamming players out of their hard-earned Coyns. We also weren’t able to support private dedicated servers to any significant point, and so players using them couldn’t find random pets and encounters, which were available to others. To be able for us to protect all Ylanders and support them all, we have to know they are running the game on certified servers always with the newest version because in the past some players also reported bugs, that were outdated and fixed long before. So this is why we are discontinuing the support of private dedicated servers and in the future players will be able to rent servers directly from us or from our friends at Nitrado and you’ll be able to customise precisely what you need from your server and some of the options are mind-boggling!

In other news, we are constantly thinking, how to better reward our great Creators, that make great and fun games for the rest of the community. In our last big update, we introduced custom monetization for Creators, but we were asked (and quite rightly so) ‘now what do we do with all these Coyns’? Well while we will be adding some really cool premium blueprints and other fancy stuff into the in-game shop, we are also working on a type of ‘cashback’ system, that we’d like to implement next year. This means, that Creators will be able to turn in a specific amount of Coyns for a bit of real-life honest to god money. This will give Creators even more incentive to create some truly remarkable and fun games knowing, that they will be rewarded for their effort. And as you might have noticed, the release is just a few *an unspecified unit of time* away and with this release we are primarily opening the game up to Creators, so you’ll get a head start in creating your…creations and preparing for the cashback feature, when you’ll be able to turn in all your stockpiled Coyns 😉



And finally the biggest news: Today we are opening up a beta, that will become in time the final version of 1.0. You won't be able to try out Exploration just yet and it will be just PC, not mobile, but Creators will get to tinker with all the new Editor features and see if their games run in the new environment but also help us make this release the best it can be. We need you to test out everything and tell us, what’s not working, what could be better and what you’re enjoying/not enjoying. You should, before plunging in, back up your files, because anything could happen. You won't be able to upload games to the Workshop, because they would be deleted anyway, but you'll be able to try out the Sandbox mode, Editor, local games and some of our gameplay showcases we created and you'll find an updated Playlands too with two new games bringing the total number to six. So this is really just to test everything out and see, what you think 😊 Also we wouldn't recommend making any purchases (and we'll disable them wherever possible), because you won't get to keep them after the release. Further down you’ll find the access code with which you’ll be able to activate the beta in the Ylands properties section. Now remember, that this will be a highly unstable environment because it’ll be constantly updating and changing, so have patience on that front 😊 And please send as much feedback to our forums (https://ylands.com/community/forum/14-bugs-technical-issues/) as possible, because it will greatly help us, especially with stuff we can still quickly fix and improve.

Steam beta branch access: BackupYourData

So there it is Ylanders, all pretty exciting stuff but still not as exciting as the nearing launch 😁 We are really looking forward to it, but remember (because we sure do), it wouldn’t have been possible without your help, and for that, we give you our thanks.

So until next time, stay classy Ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #106
Thu, 28 November 2019


Hey there Ylanders!

So we have some mega big news today! You might have noticed the kind of countdown we had going on Social Media and might have wondered, what it was for. Well not anymore! Because we are releasing the release candidate (or update 0.15.1) which is the final version of the game before release! This means we are all but ready to release 1.0 and this was the final step, the final part of the puzzle. Now we’re giving ourselves a little bit of breathing space for a bit of fixing and polishing and then it is off to the official release of the game, which is coming REALLY soon! We are releasing this update as a kind of soft release to see that everything works and get some feedback from you guys and then we'll go official 😁



So what can you expect today?

Well, obviously the update and all that comes with it. Every feature we announced, that would be in 1.0 will be in this update and you’ll get to try it. You’ll finally get to try out the new Exploration and all the cool things we added in there, such as new encounters, animals, map functionality, sleeping saves, ship and car blueprints, hunting mutants and Alphas, much-improved weather system, Yland tiers and much more. Please give us your feedback on what you think about these changes because Exploration will always be a work in progress and we’ll always add more things in and more features. Not to mention all the features added into the Editor and we can’t wait for you to try out and experiment with 😊

At this point, we are moving dedicated servers to Nitrado, so those of you that had dedicated servers set up, these will shut down. You can now purchase Dedicated Server time through the in-game shop and we are also working with Nitrado to bring you the option to buy servers directly from them to give you full control over them while still making them certified and fully supported by us. We are also introducing much more capable servers, that will be more efficient and powerful, so try them out and tell us what you think, because we can still tinker with that till the release 😉

We are also releasing over 400 fixes and improvements, which we’ll list in a changelog (link at the end).

Some of you will also get to try out the Mobile version. We are releasing Ylands on Mobile in Scandinavia, Canada, Czechia and Slovakia for iOS and Android. The version currently on Testflight will also be updated, so everyone with iOS will be able to try out the final Mobile version too 😊

And finally I want to thank you all, that stood by us all these years. Today is Thanksgiving Day in America, which seems fitting because we have a lot to be thankful for. For being able to work on a project we feel truly passionate about, for all the great people we are surrounded by but especially for having such a great community of players, that stuck with us through thick and thin. Your support, suggestions, criticism and bug reports were instrumental in making Ylands what it is today and so we offer you our deepest and most sincere thanks.

And now off to Explore dear Ylanders and stay classy 😁

Changelog:

https://ylands.com/community/topic/26189-0151-ylands-yncoming-ylands-10-release-candidate-28112019/


Dev Diary #106

[Asid]

Release of 1.0 Now Available
Thu, 5 December 2019

Ylands launches out of Early Access with the Ylands Yncoming update




The newly released free to play version of Ylands brings players infinite potential for fun!

The 1.0 version of Ylands - the definitive creativity toolbox from Bohemia Interactive - builds on the foundations laid down in Early Access and complements the core gameplay with many new features and additions to bring limitless fun and creativity to old and new players alike.

Ylands will undergo some important changes with the 1.0 launch.

•   FREE TO PLAY: Ylands is now free to download, install and play - anyone, anywhere can access the endless library of player-created games or take a jab at creating something of their own via the built-in Editor.


•   EXPLORATION: The "Explore mode" is now a stand-alone DLC (that is freely available to anyone who bought the game during early access).


•   YLANDS MOBILE: The handheld version of Ylands is designed from the ground-up to support and work on mobile devices. Most of the games are shared between desktop and mobile versions, so you’ll have access to worlds of content.


Especially the Free to Play aspect is a big move for us and it has come from many months of research and deliberation.

Ylands is an awesome creative platform with many cool features, especially in the Editor. But for this platform to work properly, we decided to go Free to Play, because then anyone can create and share their games with other like-minded people. This step will open up the doors of Ylands to a huge audience and anyone can give Ylands a go.

We will keep supporting Exploration of course, because it is a huge part of Ylands and we love it and players will be able to support our efforts with the Exploration add-on but if you are into creating and playing new and original games made by the community, you won’t have to dosh out a single cent.

[Asid]

Dev Diary #107
Thu, 5 December 2019


Tl;dr
- A thank you to our Early Accessers
- Interesting facts from production
- Dev Team Video

Hey there Ylanders!

So…we have released the game! You can now play Ylands in 1.0. There are new Exploration adventures to be had new Editor features to play around with but most importantly there will be a host of new players coming in trying out your games Creators, because of going Free-to-Play, there should be an influx of players and we need to capture their imaginations 😊 We are really looking forward to seeing, what you come up with and since you have been with us the longest, we are doubly excited, what new mini-games and even proper games will pop up in the marketplace because you guys know more about the Editor than anyone else 😁

It will really be quite exciting in Ylands now, so hold on to your socks. And while I’m sure you’ll all be tinkering with the game now and enjoying the new features, I’ll cut it short and add the facts we were teasing 0.15 last week with for those, that might have missed some.

Did you know, that Ylands wasn't supposed to have deformable terrain? So Ylands were made out of huge hexagonal blocks that randomly generated glued together.


We started out with five devs, two of which are still working on the project. Aleš as Creative Director and our Lead Artist Karel. Now there's almost 10 times more of us.


Did you know, that as the crew grew bigger and bigger, we moved or did a major office layout change seven times 😱 Most of the team is now stationed in Prague, the capital of Czech Republic.


There were 4 major UI overhauls before we found the one we like the best…hopefully 😁


There are Currently around 150 Random Encounters that players can run into while exploring. The newest addition were aggressive NPCs.


In the last two years, we've optimized the game so much that some scenarios increased from running at just 10 fps or less to now running at a steady 60 fps and more.


Hardly a day goes by here without someone quoting the TV show Red Dwarf.
For instance, Marci and I use this one pretty often:

"Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard and hit it fast with a major - and I mean major - leaflet campaign."
- Rimmer, Polymorph.

or

"I've been so worried I haven't buffed my shoes in my two days."

- Cat, Marooned

And this has been circulating the office since Adam started doing the Western series… not quite sure why…

"I've seen Westerns, I know how to speak cowboy." [Steps up to the bar] "Dry white wine and Perrier, please."

- Rimmer, Gunmen of the Apocalypse


Did you know, that for the first prototype of the game (that had very little to do with what the game is now) we used a soldier borrowed from the Arma Tactics game as our main character...now we're stuck with Major General 😭


And that’s that, so enjoy yourself Ylanders and remember, this isn’t the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end but rather the end of the beginning. Now we’re off again to prepare the next big update, to fix what needs to be fixed and to make the game even better, than it is now. Stay classy Ylanders.




Changelog: https://ylands.com/community/topic/26346-10-ylands-yncoming-game-released/

[Asid]

Dev Diary #108
Thu, 12 December 2019


Tomáš Gestinger:

What’s up Ylanders!

I’m happy to make your acquaintance, my name is Tomáš Gestinger but you can just call me TG to avoid the confusing Czech/German combo 🙂 I‘ll be filling the role of Content Specialist which is a fancy way of saying I’ll be the person responsible for helping all of you with your wonderful creations, showing them to the world, and for making sure your voices are heard here inside the office. The content you create or want to create is going to be my bread and butter. I’ll be working closely with Adam so you’ll soon see both of us moving through the forums and other places.

To introduce how I got here, I have a pretty diverse background – I used to be a teacher, which is what I originally studied, then I moved on to game design, content production and management, and other boring stuff. I’ve been designing and producing different types of content for a while but the Ylands editor is a whole new level of excitement for me so I can’t wait to see what we’ll be able to create! My goal is to make sure the creative community surrounding Ylands can grow, to challenge all of you to make awesome stuff that will shape the future of the platform, and most importantly I want us to have fun with the game. 🙂 I'm a sucker for good stories, especially interactive ones, so you can expect some of that showing up in my work too.

If you're interested in some totally not boring and random stuff about me, the next paragraph is for you! Video games are a huge part of my life and when I'm not working on one, I'm usually playing one if there's enough time. My favourite game of all time is Gothic 2 (best game ever, fight me) and I love RPG games in general. Because of my love for storytelling I also love reading and playing DnD so if you have any tips on good books and/or role-playing related stuff, let me know. 🙂

Since we’ll be working together a lot you can always contact me or @ me with your creative troubles or ideas and I’ll do my best to help. Or just send me your freshest memes, I always appreciate that. 🙂

See you around and stay classy!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #109
Thu, 19 December 2019


TL;DR
Our Creative Director answers player concerns
- What to do in Ylands?
- Maps are small
- Can't find resources
- Game is crashing
- How can we play with friends?


Hey there, fellow ylanders! It's Aleš here, the Creative Director of Ylands.

Ylands 1.0 is out and even though we're already working on update 1.1 and planning many others that you will see in 2020 this feels like a good moment to slow down and address concerns that you voice the most.


We don't know what to do in Ylands

Right now there are three things you can do in Ylands.

Play Exploration (if you bought the DLC or if you are an Early Accesser), which is a survival game that is still being improved and enhanced.

Play other games - basically embrace Ylands as a platform. While Exploration has been around for some years the platform is fairly new and it will take weeks (and possibly even a few months) before the newly come creators get a full grasp of what it can do and interesting games start to appear in a higher number. The same goes for Playlands. We have bigger plans with it but we'll start by continuously adding more and more games. We are even planning to find a way how you, the creators, could have your minigames become a part of Playlands.

And finally, you can Create in the Editor or Sandbox. The Editor is more aimed at game creation with a huge amount of options, including visual scripting, while Sandbox is pretty much a playground in which you can build, experiment and more. We have already registered quite a few new creators, which makes us very happy and we are looking forward to your creations. If you need help with anything, don't hesitate to ask our new Content Specialist TG.

Exploration maps are small. We want bigger maps with more ylands. We want to be able to explore more.

We understand that this is a crucial issue. After all, it's called "Exploration". The reason why we had to shrink the map is purely technical. It doesn't have anything to do with the mobile platform since it doesn't include Exploration anyway, but we are already working on a way to give you a much bigger world to explore. We will be able to tell you more early next year.

We struggle when finding various resources

We hear you. We have gathered enough feedback and you will see some improvements in the next update 1.1.

The game is crashing, there are some problems with servers.

Unfortunately, the ultimate test for a multiplayer game is its release. A lot of never-before-seen stress-related issues surface and have to be dealt with. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. We've already released the first hotfix and are working on fixes that will appear in 1.1 that will be released in early 2020.

You've taken our private dedicated servers. We can't play anymore with our friends ... or can we?

The removal of private dedicated servers has caused a lot of accusations and wild rumours. Let's go over what it means and what it doesn't 🙂

Players can no longer host Ylands on their own dedicated servers. In other words, you can't have Ylands server running on your own hardware. But there are still many other ways how you can play with your friends and some of those come completely free.

If you don't want to spend any money you can host the game locally. That means that you will run Ylands on your own PC (not as a dedicated server but as a common game) and let other players join you. This obviously has one major disadvantage - other players can join your world only as long as your game is running.

If you want to do this but at the same time let your friends enter your world even when you're offline, you can use a feature we call sharegames. By using sharegames, your world can be dynamically hosted by any of your friends that are currently online. This way you can all play in the same persistent world.

The paid option is to rent a server from us and start your game there.

And in early 2020 we want to give you the option to be able to rent your own server from a certified third party server provider. That way you will be able to have full access to the hardware and decided yourself how and what is run there.


I hope this answers some of your most asked questions. We will be monitoring everything you tell us and do another dev diary just like this one soon.

And also we are entering the Holiday Season and so I'd like to wish you all a peaceful few weeks 🎄 The next Dev Diary will be next year the 9th of January, so see you then.

In the meantime - stay classy, ylanders!