Hey there, fellow Ylanders!
Today we will mention one change that you will notice immediately after you start the new update 1.10.
So what is this change?
When you first start the new update, you will see the familiar Main menu, with some somewhat unfamiliar labels.
Instead of "Sandbox" there is "Creative mode", "Playlands" is now called "Minigames hub", "Custom games" have become "Community games" and, finally, "Exploration" has become "Adventure". We haven't gone crazy. We're not even trying to confuse players (even though yes, some slight initial confusion is something we expect). As weird as it may sound, this is one of the steps we've taken to get more players into Ylands. Let me explain.
Unless you disabled the anonymous data gathering in Ylands settings, we get information like "Some player started Ylands for the first time and first they clicked on Playlands. The second thing they clicked was Sandbox. Then they left and never returned". And because we consider Exploration to be "the game", something we want the players to try first to hook them up (and ideally never let them go :)), this obviously is a problem.
When you get info like this you need to dig deeper and then you figure out something like: way too many players consider "Exploration" to be something like "showcase of features" or some sort of "god mode" that lets you explore what the game has to offer - or some other things, but not something that holds the actual game. And pretty much every other choice they find more interesting. So they check one of those or two, if we're lucky, and they then leave and don't look back. Sure, it's not every player that decides to give Ylands a try, but the number is surprisingly large.
So, we have changed the labels to make Exploration stand out more (sure, it will be some time before we actually stop calling it this way and if you feel like calling it Exploration it's fine if you stick with it). The second reason is that it's not just about exploration but what ever you do, it's an adventure.
We will still have "Exploration pack" because it does what it says - it lets you explore, go farther, see more.
And speaking of the Exploration pack - we have some interesting plans with that that we'll talk about some other time, but in a nutshell - we want to give more freedom to those without the pack so that they can enjoy the game more, while at the same time owning the pack sounds even more interesting. That's yet another step we would like to take to bring in more players.
And that's it for today. Have a great week and until we talk again... Stay Classy!