Hey there, fellow Ylanders!
With the first week of the new year, we meet again to talk about all things Ylands! We hope all of you spent the holidays relaxing, playing games and having fun with your loved ones and so you're ready to dive into what 2022 brings (hopefully things that are much better than the last years). We at team Ylands are already at full speed working on the very cool update 1.9. Next week's Dev Diary will get back to talking about what you can expect to find in it, but for now, I would like to take the opportunity and mention what we've managed during the last 12 months.
2021 was a big year for Exploration. Just like we promised in 2020, much less focus goes towards the Editor which we consider powerful enough already (even though when it comes to user-friendliness there's still some way to go) and started changing and expanding Exploration. Now, a year later, we have a lot to show.
We've made the maps much larger. We made literally hundreds of improvements and fixes to the multiplayer experience. We made a list of all the most sought-after features and improvements you suggested and many of them you can either already find implemented or present in the upcoming 1.9. Ylands is already quite a massive game and so even when you add dozens or hundreds of improvements it's very likely that you still see things that need to be fixed or improved.
Speaking of things that we still have uncrossed on our list - we know you want things like the return of the first-person camera. Don't worry, we hear you and 2022 will, just as 2021, show that we are serious about making things right.
As much we've been trying to improve in everything we do, there are still some things we didn't manage to do right. One of the most important probably is communicating how the game has changed to players who come back after months or even years. Especially those who supported us when we were a premium title during the Early Access (or even earlier than that). We're failing at letting them know that even though the game is now Free to play, it's because of the Editor and minigames so that everyone can play with it and have fun and the game core, the Exploration, is still paid, which hasn't changed.
To name a specific case where we failed - we just found out about a player who has bought the game way back to support us and when they returned, due to a technical issue on our side the game indicated that they need to buy the Exploration DLC. At that point, they had all the right to be angry at us. And this is something that we must make sure never happens again.
If 2022 shows us anything, it's that we remember you guys and we will do a much better job at appreciating you. Thanks for staying with us.
So much for today's Dev Diary and the next week, we'll get back to discussing cool new features. Until then...
Stay classy and healthy, Ylanders!