Hey there, fellow Ylanders! 🌴
Unless you've stayed far away from Ylands for the last two years you know that the whole time we've been focusing on Adventure (aka Exploration). And because of that, we don't have enough time to work on another part of the game that keeps screaming for help - Playlands.
There were several reasons behind the creation of Playlands. Primarily it was meant to become a kind of social hub, where Ylands players would meet and just have some silly fun together in an optimized environment that allowed for a larger number to be present simultaneously. It helped us optimize the multiplayer code and gain a lot of experience while making the minigame in the Editor.
However, right now Playlands are pretty much dead. Partly due to their flawed design which makes it difficult for players to instantly play and enjoy any content, and partly because they're simply a remnant of times when Ylands was leaning more towards Roblox-kind of a platform game and those times are, fortunately, gone.
Could we make it work better, a more fun, intuitive and rewarding experience with what we learned since we introduced it?
Possibly.
Is it worth it / do we want to?
Not really. We believe that time is better spent improving Adventure and all that's related to it. Also, we have the powerful Editor and feel that making cool small games works better if they're part of the custom games ecosystem, instantly accessible by anyone willing to play them.
Long story short - in 1.11 we're removing Playlands. The minigames from it will eventually become available as separate custom games to play for anyone and so the love we put into them won't be wasted.
Playlands, however, are not just minigames. Players can gain points there which they use to select clothes they wear in other custom games. This functionality will be removed from Playlands and, later, made very likely part of the player's profile. In the meantime, we'll keep your avatars dressed as they were before the 1.11 releases.
Please note that if you're playing just the Adventure, the removal of Playlands will not affect you in any way.
Until next time...
Stay classy!