The Redemption of Ylands
The Ylands development team has spent the last almost 3 years shifting the game’s focus and perception by undoing a string of past mistakes. The game initially appeared to be moving in a Roblox-like direction up until late 2020. This approach proved to be unsuccessful as the game’s player base began to shrink, Steam Recent Reviews dropped to nearly 40%, and negative comments continued to pour in. This forced the development team at Ylands to reassess the game’s goals and begin to work hard on repairing the rifts between the game and its players. Their efforts began to pay off earlier this year when Ylands hit an all-time high rating of over 80% in Steam Recent Reviews, while simultaneously quadrupling its player base.
Ylands’ redemption story began in 2020 with the release of Update 1.5: Enhancing Exploration. The update focused on the game’s Exploration mode (now Adventure mode) and kicked off Ylands’ Era of Adventure.
The update’s success motivated the development team but also presented it with a new set of challenges. They overcame those challenges by paying attention to what the Ylands community had to say, and it was through that feedback that Ylands managed to find its proper voice, direction, and genre. Since Update 1.5, the developers have:
- Released 7 updates
- Added 90 features to Adventure mode
- Created 438 new assets
- Closed 4048 tasks
- Fixed 8598 bugs
The most important update, however, is getting released now.
Ylands Update 2.0: Adventure Awaits
The biggest update in Ylands history has been symbolically named 2.0 and marks a new era in the game’s development. It also highlights the team’s effort to please those who crave great adventures in Ylands’ charming and colorful world.
Ylands Update 2.0 introduces:
- Lore – the Classy Adventurers Guild and the first campaign-like yland
- Improved tutorial – smoother onboarding and new player UX
- Handbook – helps players navigate the game and presents them with Ylands lore
- Combat improvements – stamina, dashes, and power attacks to make combat more challenging but fun
- Assets & Crafting – new and simpler interface that helps players craft literally anything
- Terrain generation – more diverse and more varied individual ylands
- New main menu and shop – easier, less overwhelming, simple to navigate
- Mobile experience – quick game start with Google and Apple account logins, PC cross platform, UX improvements
- Multiple gameplay improvements and content – sailing with wind, easier fast travel, new random encounters, etc.
- There are plenty more improvements to be found in Update 2.0, though that list is far too lengthy to include here.
Side by Side With the Community
The development team underwent a few changes during the game’s difficulties. As a result, Project Lead Aleš Ulm took over the reins at Ylands once again. Here’s what he had to say about Update 2.0: “Our reviews since Update 1.5 (i.e. 2020) have been slowly but consistently improving. Our community on Discord is comprised of hundreds of active players and is still growing. They’re friendly and helpful, which is quite unique in the gaming world. Over the last almost 3 years, both the development team and the Ylands community have reshaped the game into an almost entirely new experience. All that hard work is now coming to a head with the release of Ylands Update 2.0: Adventure Awaits.”