Dev Diary #293 Artists Commentary: New Assets in Progress
Ahoy Ylanders!
Today we want to show you something artistic. Yes, there will be pictures, new pictures and assets that you can look forward to, but that's not all. Today you will find out what were the thoughts of our artists Filip and Kuba while they prepared the new assets. Let's get into it!
Chalk formations in Arid by Filip
"We are always looking for some references. As you can see, the chalk formations on Earth offer some really bizarre constitutions but once you put those into the Arid's orange/red shades it can emit some serious "Mars vibes"."
Skinwalker by Kuba
"Seriously, when I was looking up references for Skinwalker I ended up having nightmares. I guess it makes sense when your main reference is werewolf. I tried to make its face blunt a bit like the kobolds from World of Warcraft, so it wouldn't be that scary and also I aimed for, let's say druid-ish vibe so the Skinwalker fits among our Wendigo and Goatman."
Takahe bird by Filip
"It is quite interesting what you can learn through artistic research! For example, takahe bird lives in swamps, and if they eat some specific leaves then they lay blue or green eggs. Also, their eggs have interesting patterns so if you feed them correctly you don't need to paint any eggs during Easter! Fun fact, you might notice, that all Ylands' eggs are blueish, well, now you know why!"
Thank you, guys, for sharing your thoughts and creating these beautiful assets!
If you are even more interested into how Ylands assets are created, you should check the diary about Jackals right HERE. Let us know what you think about these assets and in the meantime...
Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #292 New Containers, Just as You Asked!
Ahoy Ylanders!
Today we will keep it short and offer you a sneak peek from your favorite section: "You want it, we got it for you!" - this time, featuring new item containers!
It has been a few weeks now, since we talked about our community suggestion list in the Dev Diary #285. That is exactly how these containers came into existence. You suggested them! The Suitcase holds clothes and into the Folder you can hide sheets of paper. So, feel free to start preparing for your Ylands bureaucratic career or just matching all the different outfits that you always want in your inventory.
Let us know what you think about the looks of the new containers and have a great weekend.
Stay classy!
Dev Diary #291 10 Ylands Easter Egg Highlights
Ahoy Ylanders,
recently you asked us a question on our Discord server, whether we have hidden any easter eggs into the Ylands. Hmm, did we hide something cool into the massive procedurally generated open world game where you can interact with basically everything? To offer you a simple answer let us quote Billie Eilish: "Duh".
Towards the more elaborate answer, let's look at some of those easter eggs. Only 10 though, you wouldn't like us to rob you off the thrill of the exploration, right?
Beluga car - Was named after Anna, our community manager and her nickname Beluga. Author: Designer Prokop
Winston ball from Cast Away - That is one we simply couldn't let slide. Yet, if you are lonely, we suggest you meet some other players for example on the already mentioned Discord server. Author: Former Designer Khan
Pipe from Wolfenstein - Do not attempt to use it for climbing! Author: Senior Artist Kuba
Crowbar from Half Life 2 - Who do you think is more famous Gordon Freeman or his Crowbar? We couldn't figure it out here. Author: Senior Artist Kuba
DayZ helmet and random encounter - When your pals next door are creating one of the most famous zombie games out there you just can't resist the urge. Author: Cooperation of DayZ and Ylands teams
"Minecraft" skull - In game of course called differently Strange Head Block. Author: Senior Animator Matěj
The secret behind that underwater eye-encounter - Easter egg which originated in the hearth of our community, the Ylands Discord server, call out Stiegi for more info!
Leeeeeeeeeeroy Jeeeenkiiiins! - The legendariest of the legendary legends of war crafts himself. Author: Lost in the history
One of the players Azeris wrote on discord: "I was searching a haystack in one of the REs and literally found a needle" - As much as we would love this to be coincidence it is not. Author: Wish to remain unknown
Go out there and find your own! There is plenty of these.
What easter eggs have you found already? Let us know in the comments and have a great weekend.
Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #291 10 Ylands Easter Egg Highilghts
Ahoy Ylanders,
recently you asked us a question on our Discord server, whether we have hidden any easter eggs into the Ylands. Hmm, did we hide something cool into the massive procedurally generated open world game where you can interact with basically everything? To offer you a simple answer let us quote Billie Eilish: "Duh".
Towards the more elaborate answer, let's look at some of those easter eggs. Only 10 though, you wouldn't like us to rob you off the thrill of the exploration, right?
Beluga car - Was named after Anna, our community manager and her nickname Beluga. Author: Designer Prokop
Winston ball from Cast Away - That is one we simply couldn't let slide. Yet, if you are lonely, we suggest you meet some other players for example on the already mentioned Discord server. Author: Former Designer Khan
Pipe from Wolfenstein - Do not attempt to use it for climbing! Author: Senior Artist Kuba
Crowbar from Half Life 2 - Who do you think is more famous Gordon Freeman or his Crowbar? We couldn't figure it out here. Author: Senior Artist Kuba
DayZ helmet and random encounter - When your pals next door are creating one of the most famous zombie games out there you just can't resist the urge. Author: Cooperation of DayZ and Ylands teams
"Minecraft" skull - In game of course called differently Strange Head Block. Author: Senior Animator Matěj
The secret behind that underwater eye-encounter - Easter egg which originated in the hearth of our community, the Ylands Discord server, call out Stiegi for more info!
Leeeeeeeeeeroy Jeeeenkiiiins! - The legendariest of the legendary legends of war crafts himself. Author: Lost in the history
One of the players Azeris wrote on discord: "I was searching a haystack in one of the REs and literally found a needle" - As much as we would love this to be coincidence it is not. Author: Wish to remain unknown
Go out there and find your own! There is plenty of these.
What easter eggs have you found already? Let us know in the comments and have a great weekend.
Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #290 Sounds of the world of Ylands
Ahoy Ylanders!
adventurous music, howling wind, waves splashing, boat parts screeching and your footsteps on the deck. Only rarely these sounds will draw your attention, but without them? You would hardly ever feel like you are truly on board. Are you curious about how this extremely important, immersive and beautiful part of our beloved game is made? Meet Jan, our senior sound designer!
Can you introduce yourself to our players?
I've studied sound design at FAMU (Prague film school), and I work at Ylands for exactly 4 years now as this diary is released.
What was your way into the Ylands team?
The usual, I found an open position and we got in touch with the recruiter. Funny enough, I was still finishing my degree during the hiring process and then I started to work at Bohemia Interactive.
Does sound in the Ylands game work the same way as in other games?
There are specifics since Ylands is a procedurally generated game. There are no fixed levels. For example, whenever a biome is generated, specific ambient sounds are generated along with it.
When do you create new sounds into the game?
When a new asset is added like an item or an animal or when a new feature is designed it often requires some sound support or even a whole new set of sounds, like when the underwater world was updated in update 1.9. Of course, there are also trailers and big marketing videos that I work on. Often, I work on redesigning old sounds that feel outdated, I am doing my best so that all Ylands sound are fresh and updated. Definitely let me know in case you think some sound should be better or more real.
What do you think is the main purpose of sound in Ylands?
It definitely brings the procedurally generated world alive, also the support of emotional impact of the game is really important. Just remember the last time you have entered a cave.
Are there any sound-based features that you created from scratch for Ylands?
Editor game logics would be the biggest ones probably as they present the players with an opportunity to add their own midi tracks and a lot of other options to work with sound and music. In adventure the coolest sound feature would probably be the real time sound calculating of effects like reverb and echo, so when you are inside a building or a cave, everything starts to sound very differently than outside.
What you like the most about game sound design in general?
Definitely achieving immersivity and a lively feeling of the world. Just try to play Ylands without sounds once. It's also quite cool to be able to offer information to the players from any possible direction, like from behind, above or even below! Unlike the visuals which can provide information only in a specific angle.
Thank you so much for your answers, Jan.
Do you want to ask Jan anything or are you curious about sound in Ylands? Just ask in the comments or on our Discord and we will let you know his answer.
Stay Classy!
2.1.4 Patch Changelog
⭐ Highlights ⭐
Crafting - Some statues gave you more stones than their cost after deconstruction. Not anymore. Handbook - Chilly Woes event fixed! You will no longer feel cold after finishing this event. Now, we let you craft and drink tea, which actually warms you up, instead of a soup which won't, since it seems to be a gazpacho. Handbook - The detection of the handbook opening works properly now. It helps us to keep improving your handbook experience.
FIXES
[YLD-47442] Fixed: Crafting: All eastern statues drop incorrect items after deconstructing.
[YLD-47572] Fixed: Handbook: Chilly Woes event directs the player to craft Stew which doesn't help against cold.
[YLD-47487] Fixed: Handbook: The detection of the handbook opening is not working properly.
Dev Diary #289 Main bug solution? Write /unstuck 0 in the chat!
Ahoy Ylanders,
Let's talk about your problems! More specifically how we deal with any issues or ideas you report to us. You usually contact us with three main things.
QUESTIONS
Questions are quite self-explanatory (pun intended). When you ask us about something, we answer. Obviously, we are not omniscient, sometimes we have to consult within the team what the correct answer is. I might be the Community Manager, but I don't know all the specifics and details about, say a programmer's work.
SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS
These are also fairly simple. I just copy-paste them into a channel on our work Slack. Once every two weeks I go through all of the ideas, and we inspect them within the team. What features and suggestions are the most wanted? How complicated they are and how will they affect the gameplay and fit into our plans? Based on that (and much more) we decide on their priority and start the implementation!
BUGS AND ISSUES
Definitely the most complex things we communicate about. As I try to remind on our Discord (which you should definitely join) - always report issues through in-game feedback messages. See, to understand what really went wrong we need your "logs". Logs are note files filled with various information about your last game session. For example, it can tell us what went wrong before a game crashed, or that you can't place that one block in your house because there is an unfinished Blueprint somewhere underneath.
When you send us an in-game feedback message logs are automatically included. Once I get the game report, I send it over to Quality Assurance team. They look at it and tell me whether it is a bug, a mistake or if something else is going on. Then I usually contact the player whether we are able to fix it soon or how they can get out of that buggy situation.
With that said please do report any issues you run into and give us all the feedback and criticism you can. All of that helps us make our game better as many of your awesome ideas have made it into the game already! You can read about those HERE. 😊
The most frequent advice I give? Write /unstuck 0 in the chat!
Stay Classy! Anna Community Manager
Dev Diary #288 What Ylands Devs Do Behind the Scenes?
Ahoy Ylanders, 🏝️
we opted for more personal behind the scenes today.
While we are at work, we are building Ylands together, whether that means programming, drawing jackals or designing new features, we will get back to these behind the scenes some other time. What we wanted to share with you today is what we fancy doing outside of working hours!
TOP FIVE YLANDS DEVS HOBBIES
1 Videogames
Booom, breathtaking, right? You will find literally any game genre among our favourites. There is even one person who is over 250 hours in the Baldurs Gate 3 right now (cca month after it is released). Just in case you need a proof.
2 Board games
Among ordinary board games, there is a special spot for Magic the Gathering and Pen and Paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, but there is also occurence of miniature wargaming games like Warhammer. 3 Watching movies and series That would be the case when you wanna play a game, but you need to handle your popcorn instead of the "insert your preferable control device, we don't judge". Just kidding we love cinematography, some of us even studied it at the university.
4 Reading books and Sports
Big battle for the fourth spot ended up... in a tie! There is decent amount of readers and sport enthusiats among us. Interestingly enough a lot of us likes to do both. Fun fact: we also have players of sports like curling or even quidditch!
5 Making music and visual art
Funny enough, music and painting/drawing/ etc... are also in balance in the Ylands team.
There is also a bunch of people like cosplayers, Rubic's cube solvers, slam poets, actors and, you would never guess this, hobby game developers! So that's us, come and meet some of us for example on our Discord.
See you there and Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #287 Your Suggestions Which Made It To Ylands
Ahoy Ylanders, 🏝️
Have we already mentioned how we like getting your feedback? Well, just in case, we love it! What we really revel in though, is implementing your suggestions! Here are the most impactful and/or recent of those that are already in the game.
Returning the first-person camera
Inventory sort button
Ghost pirates ARRGHHH!
I for inventory - TAB for latest tab
Bigger stack size for resources
Clay found in Tropical region (yea, it's caves but they are totally tropical)
Bag for ammo, pew pew!
Expanding usage variety of some containers (bye bye seashell jar)
More variety of blueprintable items
Less oppressive fog and rainy weather occurrences reduced
How do you like these changes so far, and how was Ylands life before these went live? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord.
What might come next?
Whether it will be the next update or the one after that, we are always making sure to implement some of your ideas. These are next in the queue!
Great return of clay to the starting yland.
Suitcase! Finally, a proper inventory container for everyone's fashion desires.
Aspiring lawyers and bureaucrats in the world of Ylands get ready, 'cause our eyes are set on the document folder inventory container!
If you would like to see the muuuuch longer list of what you have suggested, take a look at this recent dev diary about that very topic HERE.
Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #286 What Is Ylands?
Ahoy Ylanders!
Here and there we notice that some of new adventurers are not quite sure what Ylands is about. TLDR; Ylands is an adventure game. Whether it's sailing the high seas, exploring diverse ylands and vast underwater world or fighting in dangerous caves, building exquisite ship-bases, experiencing the story, creating wonders in sandbox creative mode and scripting in editor it is all there. Of course, you can always resort to slowly chilling through your days while growing crops, taming animals and watching beautiful sunsets. Alone or with friends, the choice is yours.
Since the forms and enjoyment of Ylands comes in so many forms, you just need to find your own, like other Ylanders! Read on and learn what they cherish the most!
What Ylanders love on Ylands
zenbubbha
"Moving into my first "Castle in the Sky" is my most memorable experience. Because I thought: "Here's a game that really rewards creativity and experimentation yet is structured enough that those creations can be found, explored, and used by other players just like any original game asset." That's a rare balance."
Thomas Lawrnece
"I love to play the game with all the feature, from the exploration with its beautiful places and editor for building new things and experiment. I love the fact that all the people are not toxic but gentle, want to enjoy the game all together and help others, and kind devs who are in my opinion the best devs I've ever met."
YoHasLEGO
"...Islands were pretty far apart at that time (early access), and we did not have the view distance like we have now. Spending days at sea, not knowing if you'll ever find another island. Those were the true adventures. (...) Nowadays I like to spend most of my time building in the editor. Not for minigames and such, but rather builds that could be placed in adventure. Being able to use them in this infinite adventure world, really gives them a sense of purpose."
spirit 2.2
"I stumbled on a multiplayer server called "World of Dreams: Journey to the 12 Kingdoms" that was created by Spyler and Christal and instantly became enamored of the effort they had put in the map. Here was a multiplayer server that had 12 ylands to explore, all with puzzles and monsters to defeat, and even the occasional boss monster. The structures they had created on these ylands were a sight to behold. It gave me inspiration knowing there was a lot more to the game than met the eye. The day I met Spyler and Christal and discovered a community of people that loved helping others is my most memorable experience, and I probably would not be playing the game these days if I had not discovered them."
What you love about Ylands and what you like doing in the game? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord server!
