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Yooka-Laylee--PlayTonic's spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie
News reported by 
(Editor)
February 10, 2015, 21:29
 
UPDATE: Kickstarter is live, funded, and up until Tuesday, June 16th! Let's hit some stretch goals!


PlayTonic site link

Go check it out! There's only a couple nuggets of info (and a mysterious piece of art), but apparently Edge will be releasing a new issue on Thursday with the first look at this new game, "Project Ukelele." My guess is some sort of Hawaiian-themed 3D platformer? I'm down.


If you’ve made it this far towards our fine internet abode, then you’ve probably worked out that we’re a new game developer, formed by some blokes who did those games you may or may not have liked as a nipper.

However, if you’ve stumbled here by accident in search of non-sexual relationship advice, allow us to explain what on Earth is going on…

Playtonic’s the name, and fun games, unique characters and absolutely-frickin-amazing worlds to explore are our game. Or at least they will be, once we eventually get around to releasing our first project instead of faffing around on WordPress.

Ahem. Currently we’re a sextet of artists, programmers and designers – sort of like The Pussycat Dolls with computer science degress – with one thing in common; we were all once core member of famous UK studio Rare, where we helmed franchises such as Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Viva Piñata.

We’ve got the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games.

Together, our all-star ensemble is aiming to build its debut game, ‘Project Ukulele’, into a worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures we built in the past.

By now, you might be thinking, ‘hold on mate, didn’t you make similar claims after drinking too many shandies in the pub in 2012, you muppet?’ Perhaps. But this time it’s real! We’re making a real, proper, actual game. Look: we even managed to trick convince Edge magazine to do us some pages!

You can read all about our venture and see the first artwork for our game in Edge issue 277, which is on sale from February 12.

So what’s next? Well first of all you need to know that our journey is at an early stage – we’ve barely left the Shire and Sean Bean’s still an alright guy.

Over the coming months we’ll reveal more about our project and future growth plans, and we very much intend to get you involved and listen to your views on our game’s direction. You’ll ultimately shape the destination of our project and we plan to continue exchanging sweet glances across cyberspace at you until we get there.

So go on then – follow us on Twitter, slap your thumbs up on our Facebook and sign up for updates. ‘ Cos it’s time to get this wagon rolling…



(well, it definitely has Rare's quirky sense of humor and unusual vernacular)

What do you think?

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02/10/15, 21:29   Edited:  04/05/17, 22:56
 
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In terms of new, I'll be happy with whatever fancy moves a bat and chamaeleon bring to the party - plus the expandable levels.

Beyond that they need to just make a damn good 3d character platformer like they know they can!

Posted by 
 on: 05/06/15, 19:29
@GameDadGrant

What I mean is a progression from what Banjo offered similar to how Banjo was a progression of what Mario 64 did. It added specific moves that let you navigate your environment in different ways as you progressed a level. It added transformations to give you a unique mechanic in each world that had them. Tooie tried to do this to some varying degrees of success. Connecting the levels with one another as well as with the overworld was an example of this. I can't say what YL could do to achieve this specifically.

Posted by 
 on: 05/06/15, 20:07   Edited:  05/07/15, 11:17
I don't know about "moving the genre forward," but I do hope this game still ends up as its own unique thing and doesn't just copy the Banjo-Kazooie playbook.

Posted by 
 on: 05/06/15, 21:29
@Mop it up


Considering how the uniqueness of the characters is already influencing gameplay and level design, I feel confident it'll feel different than Banjo-Kazooie. I appreciate the similar configuration of the characters though.

Posted by 
 on: 05/06/15, 21:57   Edited:  05/06/15, 21:57
Yeah, I'm sure there will be enough changes to where it feels like its own thing... hopefully they can find the right balance between old and new. I very much want it to feel like a classic objective based 3D platformer, but that doesn't mean that they have to ignore everything from the last 15 years of game design.

Posted by 
 on: 05/06/15, 23:27
@Stephen

Yeah, I'm not sure what they could add either, but I heard that Yooka's ability to change color has an effect on the gameplay. So at least we know they have something cooking.

Posted by 
 on: 05/07/15, 15:39
Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter Update

£1,443,791 pounds raised!
44,170 backers!

equivalent of $2,232,822.78 raised!


Posted by 
 on: 05/08/15, 07:07   Edited:  05/08/15, 07:08
Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter Update

£1,486,404 pounds raised!
45,871 backers!


Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 13:52
I'm pretty sure they'll meet that last stretch goal of £1,500,000 by the end of the kickstarter. I really wish they found another way to get another surge of support. More cash means a more polished and on time game.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 15:04
@Abdooooo

By the end of the day is more like it! Don't worry, they'll get a big surge of traffic during the final week as well.

I'm still hoping for an additional world or two. I know it's a lot of work, but it'll go a long way in making the game feel fully fleshed-out. Do like one for 2 million pounds and then another for 2.5 million.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 15:26
@TriforceBun

That's actually my big question about the game itself. Did they ever say how long they plan to make it? When I backed it I was high on reminiscing about Banjo Kazooie. If this game had even half of the content that game had I'd be content.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 15:49
@Abdooooo
Not sure if they've talked about game lenght in terms of hours, but I seem to remember them saying there would be five worlds, unlockable Banjo-Kazooie style, and expandable in a similar way. Sounds like it could be pretty big, but it's hard to tell.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 15:55
@Abdooooo

They say in the Kickstarter "more than five worlds," which makes me think five main worlds and a hub (or final boss section). But if they can do five worlds with 180,000 pounds, surely they can do one or two more with an extra 500,000-1,000,000 pounds! Seven is just a good number for this kind of game...makes it feel big!

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 16:38   Edited:  05/11/15, 16:39
@TriforceBun

Especially if each "world" unlocks and expands the further into the game you go. Each individual world could take several hours to fully explore, so more than five could make this thing seem epic.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 19:57
@TriforceBun Yeah but keep in mind more money doesn't equal more time. So unless they expand the dev team or delay the game... you can't just throw in significantly more content just because you have more money without being willing to expand or delay.

UNLESS... everyone works overtime all the time.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 20:00
Zero said:
UNLESS... everyone works overtime all the time.

That is (er, was) the Stamper brothers' way!

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 20:07
@Zero

Well, expanding the dev team was the idea, but I get what you're saying. Not that I'd mind a delay anyway--that'd really take me back to the N64 era!

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 20:13
I think going with Unity should help with the development process significantly. Like they said, they can do things in a fraction of the time as it took in the 90's. It's already impressive that what we have seen so far is the product of only 3 months of work.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 21:25
@Hinph

Yeah, but they had they've been working on the prototype for over a year. I do think they have the talent and know-how to make the game scalable. What I mean is to make as many technical things as generic as possible so that they can focus mainly on the level design and story.

@r_hjort
@TriforceBun

If those 5 base worlds they speak of contain varied objectives and a good size, I'll be happy. I vaguely remember a snow board back in Banjo Kazooie (Freezeezy Peak?) where you find yourself at the very top of the world looking down on it all. At that moment I really thought my platforming skills had really paid off.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 23:00
@Abdooooo
Oh yeah, on top of the giant snowman, right? That's one of my favourite moments in the game. Ever since Super Mario 64 had me scale the mountain on Bob-omb Battlefield I've had a thing for climbing to the top of stuff in games like that, and Banjo-Kazooie delivered.

Posted by 
 on: 05/11/15, 23:05
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