Nikki Severin 1148 Posted February 11, 2022 Hey there, fellow Ylanders! In today's Dev Diary we would like to talk about some things that players often comment on in their reviews or forum posts.REVIEWS Speaking of reviews - during the last year, we saw the average current game reviews score raise substantially. Seeing the average rating rise some 20 % and keep going is a clear indication that we've managed to turn the ship around and things are improving - and we would like to thank you for your support and the trust many of you put in us when we said things would change. Apart from us not giving Exploration as much love as it deserved in the past, the main complaint players state in the review is often related to the game being free to play with Exploration being a paid "DLC" and the presence of monetization. So we feel like we should talk about this. EXPLORATION AND F2P Even though we're now fully focused on Exploration, Ylands is still a platform as well. We have a very sophisticated Editor and Workshop, where anyone can create, share and play each other's creations for free - with the emphasis put on "for free". We want everyone to be able to do this, it makes absolutely no sense to put these tools behind a paywall. That's the reason why Ylands went F2P, with Exploration remaining a premium segment. Now you might ask "So why didn't you make it two products instead and didn't keep Ylands Exploration as a premium title?" and that would be a very good question. The answer will become obvious once we release 1.10 later this year. But in a nutshell: our ultimate goal is to continue to create the Exploration world while also giving players the option to create their own "areas" within that world. within these "areas", they wouldn't be bound by materials scarcity or their skill to build something ingame, but to let them create their own Exploration adventures in the Editor. The Exploration and the Editor have a future together. Make no mistake, if you're interested only in the "original" Exploration you won't have to worry about anything else. If, however, you feel like creating an yland in the Editor and have other people visit you, we will give you the option. (screenshot by spiritchaser28) MONETIZATION And that leads us to the other topic, which is monetization. For obvious reasons, this is always a controversial topic but we feel it might be a good idea to summarize what Ylands monetization is about. Firstly, it's important to say that ever since we introduced monetization, it has remained the same - players can purchase only cosmetic items that have no impact on gameplay. Monetization was never really a priority for us: Not only, after years of development, there's still very little content for players to buy (which, funnily enough, we get some complaints about as well ), we actually even removed entire categories of objects that players could originally buy (weapon skins, armor skins) and let all the players have them for free (while, obviously, fully refunding everyone who has ever bought one). We never promoted our in-app purchases, which we believe is, when it comes to games with some sort of in-app purchases, rather rare. You never see a pop-up window urging you to buy a new pet or costume or anything and even when there's was a 50% off of everything in our store, in the game you could tell only by a tiny text over the the Store tab button and a Dev Message. We are doing our best so that players who are not interested in buying anything don't feel pressured in any way. FUTURE OF MONETIZATION So this is how it's has been for years now, but what about the future? Are there any ugly surprises waiting for you? Nope. We will keep adding costumes and pets. Not in huge amounts and only when we feel like we have some good ideas for those. Just like we've done up until now. We will be reworking Blueprints (and merging those with Compositions) so that you can create them in the Editor and let you, the creators, sell them to other players for coyns, so that you can buy things you want or pay for rented servers this way. This is why we're keeping monetization in the game - we want a functional ecosystem where those who create nice things are rewarded. NFTs And last the last thing - we've seen some people mentioning NFTs. So where do we stand with those? We don't like them. We don't want them in our game, and as far as we know, neither do you. The way we see it, they don't bring anything that wouldn't be in some way already possible in games and have no plans whatsoever on implementing those. And that's it for today! Thanks for reading so far, thank you for your support... and stay healthy and classy! 6 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deadeye_Rob 908 Posted February 11, 2022 26 minutes ago, Nikki Severin said: Seeing the average rating rise some 20 % and keep going is a clear indication that we've managed to turn the ship around and things are improving - and we would like to thank you for your support You guys need to give yourselves a Pat on the back for your efforts to bring exploration back from the brink. The idea of Coyns for blueprints/compositions is a great idea. Can I suggest however than when a person buys a blueprint/composition that certain measures are in place for them to not copy and undercut the original creator? 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miguel Preguisa 443 Posted February 11, 2022 I came here via the twitter post and I have to say I nearly had a heart attack seeing "NFTs" in your tweet 😅 Good thing it was not an annoucement but rather a "disnoucement" 😁 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
spiritchaser28 920 Posted February 11, 2022 Hey that's one of my first houses in the game Thanks for re-posting that old pic. Brings back fun memories of just playing and decorating islands and looking at the pretty lights. I will agree with staying away from NFTs for the game. Monetization is one thing but I think it's sort of ridiculous to incorporate that in this game. I do like the idea of monetizing blueprints and compositions and using those coyns for new pets and the occasional server rental. I know some people may disagree here. It's a fun way to maybe make some real money in competitions, but there are those that got fooled into the idea they could make a living from this by other communities. My only advice to those folks is keep your day jobs, Just have fun playing an awesome game, and don't get stressed out. It's just a game. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ocnoglittle 760 Posted February 12, 2022 Remember how there was just a competition for in-game artwork? Can we have a competition to decide the next pets/costumes? Maybe people can submit a sketch from real life or a digital mock-up? 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yo HasLEGO 193 Posted February 16, 2022 On 2/11/2022 at 3:08 PM, Nikki Severin said: We will be reworking Blueprints (and merging those with Compositions) 🤔 Does this confirm that every item will soon be blueprintable?? Because in compositions you HAVE to be able to include every item. It can't be that you can only use less than half of the entities in the game for compositions! Please don't go that route, devs 😅 And so if compositions and blueprints will be merged then...then that opens up SO much more possibilities! A new chapter will open up for us editor builders/exploration players! 3 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nikki Severin 1148 Posted February 16, 2022 11 hours ago, Yo HasLEGO said: 🤔 Does this confirm that every item will soon be blueprintable?? Because in compositions you HAVE to be able to include every item. It can't be that you can only use less than half of the entities in the game for compositions!Please don't go that route, devs 😅 And so if compositions and blueprints will be merged then...then that opens up SO much more possibilities! A new chapter will open up for us editor builders/exploration players! Can't say much more yet, but yes, with the upcoming updates, a new chapter will open up indeed 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deadeye_Rob 908 Posted February 18, 2022 After re-readin g this update, I Just wanted to ask the question: Will I be able to build something awesome in editor (Including Furniture placement, scripting etc) and then make it available to visit in Exploration? Because that would be cool! 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nikki Severin 1148 Posted March 16, 2022 On 2/18/2022 at 1:01 PM, Deadeye_Rob said: After re-readin g this update, I Just wanted to ask the question: Will I be able to build something awesome in editor (Including Furniture placement, scripting etc) and then make it available to visit in Exploration? Because that would be cool! Not in this coming update but the next one should be closer to this 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
spiritchaser28 920 Posted March 16, 2022 10 hours ago, Nikki Severin said: Not in this coming update but the next one should be closer to this All I can say is bring on summer! Woohoo! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
