[UPDATE 4.7.23]

After reviewing the results of our test with the Explore Center, we have now made this feature available to all players. The Explore Center provides a wide range of tutorials that focus on specific parts of Upland. Visit the Explore Center now!

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Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” And with so much happening in Upland, it’s just as easy to miss the boat if you don’t know where to look. 

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That’s why we’ve launched the new Explore Center. Starting today, players can visit the Explore Center to become Upland masters who can get the most out of their time in the metaverse! And while we’re on a roll, we’ve rolled out a new online guidebook providing in-depth information on all-things Upland. Make sure you update the Upland app to see the latest changes.

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New features like the Explore Center are great opportunities to show new players what makes Upland special, but we want to make sure that it’s working as intended. As a result, this initial rollout will only be shown to a portion of new and existing users. This means that some players may not be able to access the Explore Center right away. If you’re really eager to check it out, you can try launching the Guest version of the Upland app in your browser.

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Note: Given the nature of this test, you might see a few bugs in this initial rollout, please let us know if you encounter anything!

Explore Center Details

The Explore Center has a collection of tutorials that cover specific parts of Upland. For example, the City Building tutorial teaches players about Upland neighborhoods, crafting Structures, customizing properties, and more. The Travel & Movement tutorial helps people with getting around cities and traveling at Terminals. We bet that even veteran players will find a few nuggets of useful information.

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Each tutorial is a guided experience that makes use of tooltips to explain what you see on the screen. These tooltips can also reposition the camera on any part of the map to give new players a taste of the vast nature of the metaverse. 

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To access the Explore Center, new players with Guest status will see the Explore icon (it looks like a compass) in the top-left of the screen. They’ll also receive an in-app notification to start exploring. For logged-in players, the Explore Center will be available in the Quick Menu To make room for the Explore Center, we had to shuffle the Quick Menu icons a bit, so it may be worth your time to review the new layout. 

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Inside the tutorials, players will see guided prompts offering definitions and guidance for key elements. Often players are asked to interact with elements on the UI to progress through the explorations.

The New Upland Guidebook

We’ve expanded and updated our Upland guidebook. This resource will be continuously updated with the latest feature and metaverse information as new features and content is rolled out in Upland. 

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This resource is a great companion alongside Explore Center. Check it out and bookmark it today! 

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Access the Upland Guidebook here. 

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Knowledge is power! So jump into the Explore Center and the online guidebook to beef up that llama brain! 

Branding Updates

As a heads up, you may also see that some Upland terms have gotten a bit of a facelift to give them more accurate definitions. Most notably, you’ll see that the term “Map Assets” is replacing “Outdoor Decor.” 

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The term “Outdoor Decor” isn’t entirely accurate, and unfairly boxes them in as an asset class that can only be used for decoration. Ultimately, this term is meant to represent non-living 3D assets that exist on top of the map, hence “Map Assets.” Our goal is to communicate to players that map assets can be more than just decorations. As we continue our efforts to grow the Upland developer ecosystem, we hope that map assets will play a crucial part in how developers build in Upland.

Future Onboarding Improvements

The Explore Center is a huge step toward improving our onboarding efforts, but there’s still more to come. At the moment, getting started in Upland is a complex task that requires a lot of time, effort, and research. It’s our goal to make that process as seamless as possible with the introduction of some additional features aimed at improving the onboarding process and user experience. Ultimately, Upland should be the easiest way to get started in Web3, and we’re committed to making that a reality. 

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