As some of you already know, today is the first anniversary of the launch of Sylestia! We couldn't be happier with how the game has progressed over the past 365 days. As a way to share our celebration, we will be giving every user who created an account during our first year a free [Sylestia's 1st Anniversary Party Hat] and [Celebration Confetti].

The process of handing out roughly 26,500 items is rather monsterous, so it will take about 9 hours to hand out all of the items. If you haven't received your items by the time you read this, don't worry, it's coming. At this time, only about 20% have been sent out.


A Special Thanks

First off, Faiona and I would like to take a moment to thank each and every user who signed up during our first year - and to those who will sign up in the years to come. Sylestia obviously would not exist without its community - and we couldn't have wished for a better community than the one we have. It's so heartwarming to see the generosity and willingness to help one another each and every day. Whether it's on the Forums, in the General Chat, or just the miscellaneous statistic monitoring that we do, we see these kind acts every single day.

Additionally, we would like to thank everyone for the very considerate words that have been said about us or about Sylestia. It's so awesome to see one of our players promoting Sylestia on another Site's Forums, or on Facebook, or Tumblr, or DA, or anywhere else. It's very surreal to know that something we've built has made so many people happy. It's a feeling that's priceless.


Sylestia's Growth

As to Sylestia itself, for those of you who have been here since the beginning, you are more than aware of how much things have changed (hopefully for the better) since we began 365 days ago. I've recoded some features so many times that I can only barely remember what they were originally like lol. I will try my best to recap the major things we've upgraded or added in the past year:

Sylestia Version 1.0
-Released the Umbra Forest region and its 6 zones
-Released 5 New Species: (in order) Morkko, Faelora, Bulbori, Lupora, Nytekrie
-Added Advancement Points
-Added the function to purchase additional Stables
-Added a Referral System to earn permanent account bonuses
-Added a Party page to more easily manage Parties
-Added a Player to Player Trade System
-Added Player to Player Pet Trading and Breeding
-Added Dynamic Events
-Added Repeatable Quests
-Added the use of hotkeys while exploring
-Upgraded the Wardrobe so you could actually choose Styles!
-Upgraded the Stables and Hatchery to be more informative and more functional
-Upgraded the Inventory and Equipment to be more functional
-Upgraded the Trade Broker
-Upgraded the Currency Exchange
-Upgraded the Quest Log

Sylestia Version 1.5
-Released the Astryl's Vale region and its 2 zones
-Released The Arena: Level 0-25 Bracket in Ethernia
-Released The Arena: Level 26-50 Bracket in Ethernia
-Released 4 New Species: (in order) Ny'vene, Lighira, Puffadore, Lunemara
-Added an Avatar Shop to purchase unique Avatar Items
-Added a Custom Order shop to order custom Genes, Mutations, or Avatar Items.
-Upgraded the Exploration System to be an explorable map system with Named, Nodes, Tasks, and so much more to come.
-Upgraded the Diamond Shop to be more user-friendly

Sylestia Version 2.0
-Released 3 New Species: (in order) Nephini, Kelpari, and Ryori
-Developed a brand new Layout with more efficient code
-Added a Task Log
-Revamped Ethernia
-Revamped the Home Page, Login, and Registration
-Revamped the Forums

Sylestia Holidays and Festivals
-Winter Festival of 2012
-Week of Love of 2013
-Saint Patrick's Day of 2013
-Spring Festival of 2013
-Summer Festival of 2013
-Fall Festival of 2013

Sylestia Miscellaneous Statistics To Date
-New Species: 12
-New Genes and Mutations: 350
-Users Registered: 13,250
-Pets Created: 440,000
-Items Created: 2,500,000
-Battles Fought: 2,500,000
-Enemies Fought: 10,000,000
-Dungeons Cleared: 11,000
-Comet Chat Messages Sent: 1,200,000
-Forum Threads: 9,000
-Forum Posts: 150,000


Sylestia's Future

Sylestia couldn't have a brighter future ahead of it. We have so much planned for the future and we can't wait to continue improving and adding to Sylestia. Below are our goals for 2014 (not in any specific order):

1. Completely implement the new layout throughout the entire Site. As we revamp each page, we will also completely recode it. This will be to not only improve its efficiency and performance, but to also add newly desired features. This will be our most massive project of the year.

2. Add a Pet Auction Feature (like a Trade Broker, but for Pets). Additionally, make multiple improvements to help improve the Pet Economy. Pets are the most important asset in Sylestia, so we'll do what we need to keep it that way.

3. Finish Astryl's Vale and upgrade both Viridian Meadows and Umbra Forest to the new Exploration System. When finished, we will also make available a way to replay the story.

4. Completely revamp statistics, level ups, proficiency points, items, and combat. The goal here is to create a much more intuitive and balanced system. Also, to improve tools on our end to more easily add content down the road.

5. Implement a Crafting and Gathering System. No details yet on this.

6. Create the first 'World' Event for the launch of the 4th Region. This will be a sorta "long" term event throughout the entire Site where the entire community must work together to shape the fate of Sylestia. Sounds cool, huh? =P


Conclusion

In conclusion, we thank you immensely for the amazing year that we've had and we can't wait to spend the next 365 days with you (and with those to come)!

Please, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reply to this thread. We'll do our best to answer any questions. =)

OMG it's sylestia's first anniversery?! This is really amazing, I thought sylestia was two years old or more because of it's amount of players and growth, but I was wrong.
This is really amazing and thanks Krindon and Fiona for making this! Sylestia that is!

Geez. I feel like Umbra Forest was just released yesterday.....

I also feel so OLD! xD

So great to be a part of this! Happy Anniversary!

YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 year of Sylestia!!!!!!!


I just wanna say thank you to all the Admins who made Sylestia possible, and even though i've only been here for a few months, i really love the community and all of the friends that i've made. And all of the Admins are just so amazing and kind, and i'm really thankful for all of you.
~Topaz

Thanks for the amazing items, pets, genes/mutations, and well, everything else on this site and thank you so much for working so hard to maintain and keep it nice for users such as myself! Keep up the good work! Happy Anniversary Sylestia! <3

happy first aneversery(probely said that wrong)

wow! only a year!? that's amazing! Happy anniversary guys and I hope I can be apart of this site and help it grow this following year :DD

Wooow, I thought this site was older. o_O You guys have really done a lot in only one year. Pretty amazin'. I'm glad to be a part of this site! The community is great and the pets are so much fun~ Happy anniversary Sylestia!

Happy Anniversary! :D