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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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@Shadowlink
Even better if Playtonic, on their own, pulled a Project Cars and just said "Oh, due to some weakly contrived circumstance or other, we suddenly can't complete the playstation and xbox builds and we also can't refund any of this money we got from playstation and xbox fans! If you would like to upgrade your preorder to the Wii U sku then we'll be happy to proceed as usual. If you don't have a Wii U then it'd probably be best for you to get a Wii U because "sadly" that's the only one we can complete in the foreseeable ever, and the PC build will just be the Wii U one without the 2nd screen and touch-screen features, woopsy!

Posted by 
 on: 06/08/16, 11:58   Edited:  06/08/16, 11:59
carlosrox said:
OmFg I need this game in my life.

Whoa, since when was the Wii U version the lead version? I almost thought the Wii U version was a stretch goal or a maybe or something?

Maybe you were thinking of Bloodstained? That one had Wii U as a stretch goal, despite Castlevania being a huge part of Nintendo history.

Posted by 
 on: 06/08/16, 15:39
Kinda disappointing to see people wanting Playtonic to get bought out purely so others won't have access to their games.

Also, I'm fairly sure that the PC is actually the lead version and the Wii U port is just internal. The game as I recall was always planned to hit everywhere but stretch goals made it so that would all happen on the same day. I think the PC version was always planned to come out earliest otherwise. Nevertheless it is encouraging to see them handling the port themselves and not farming it out. When Mortal Kombat X was made it was Netherealm who handled the PS4 and Xbone versions which were both perfectly capable. They handed development of the PC version to High Voltage Studios (yes, that one) and they fucked it up royally. If I was to make a list of developers who should never be trusted Team 17 and HVS would both appear. I don't expect the ports they are handling to be at all up to speed.

Still, I'm fairly sure the Wii U version isn't the lead platform. If someone has any proof that it is please by all means share it.

Posted by 
 on: 06/08/16, 22:13
Support for a buyout wouldn't be purely for that reason. I'd love if Nintendo could build some close partnerships with developers like this.

Posted by 
 on: 06/08/16, 23:15
@Stephen
Bungie's on my list of developers not to trust.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 01:59
@carlosrox

lol okay.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 02:24
I think Playtonic is working on the Wii U version internally to familiarize themselves with Nintendo's current platform. I have a strong feeling they want Nintendo to notice and make a move in the future (unless the game is absolute garbage) or at least secure them as an exclusive 2nd party.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 06:09   Edited:  06/09/16, 06:10
@Marsh

Wouldn't surprise me given all the stories that came out of Rare after the Microsoft regime tightened it's grip. The company culture just wasn't the same. I can fully understand wanting to try and get back some of that old magic.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 06:33
Bu- bu- bu- only fanboys would want that!

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 07:19
I highly doubt they want to get bought out by Nintendo. Indie is a mindset, indies tend to like retaining as much freedom as possible. Plus here is the honest fact... if you're a standout indie you can make a LOT more money than you ever would working for anyone else. Yacht Club, for instance, are all millionaires right now (unless my calculations are missing something huge, but they sold over a million copies of a game priced at $15-20 and there are only like 6? 7? on the team... even if they only net half of the income, they should all be millionaires. Yes I know sales and bundles exist but they made millions of dollars one way or the other), something that would never have happened if they were bought out by Nintendo or something. Same with a bunch of other indies. Toby Fox, millionaire. Whoever created that new farming game everyone is going nuts about, millionaire. Etc. The indie world is booming, and sure 99% of indies don't make jack shit, but if you can stand out and have one of the top selling indie games... the indie world is making several millionaires a year. Whereas you go work for a company, even as a skilled developer you're making what... 100k a year? Still nothing to frown at, but definitely not at the same level.

Is Playtonic in that position? Hard to say, but it sure looks like it. A game by the developers of Banjo-Kazooie is pretty huge, and they already brought in over 2 million dollars on their Kickstarter alone. If you're in the position, as Playtonic may be, to have that next big indie hit and become a bunch of millionaires... why hand over the money to some other party?!

With that said I hope they have plans for an NX version because at this rate I doubt a Wii U version sells much. Then again Yacht Club did see a lot of their sales on Wii U, but... they also released their game before the Wii U was "dead".

Now, for smaller indies it's a whole different story. If Nintendo wanted to buy me out I'd be like HELL YEAH, TAKE ME PLZZZZZZZ.

PS. Ok totally an aside, and I'm sure it is different company to company, but I've been legitimately wondering what happens when a company like Yacht Club hires new people. Do those people get a big cut of the future sales like the founders (I'm assuming here) all do? Or do they become just a normal employee? It'd be weird to be the one person at a company working for normal wages when everyone else is a part owner (again, assuming, but I've heard comments from them that suggest this is true) and making potentially millions off of your work.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 16:40   Edited:  06/09/16, 16:49
@Zero

I don't know how gaming companies or indie companies generally function but I would think that a new employee coming on to a somewhat established team would have to prove themselves before getting a piece of the pie. Kind of like working to become a partner in a law firm.

Posted by 
 on: 06/09/16, 20:41
Awesome fan art.



Posted by 
 on: 06/10/16, 16:54
That is stellar!

Posted by 
 on: 06/10/16, 20:39
Did anyone get the Toy Box that was released today for the game? If so, thoughts?

Posted by 
 on: 07/29/16, 04:54
@V_s

I'd like to know too. I didn't pledge for it because I wasn't sure it would work on my computer. They did do one for Mac but it does need 10.9 and I never upgraded to that.

Posted by 
 on: 07/29/16, 13:39
I have the toy box (plus!) on my computer right now. I'll dive in sometime tomorrow.

Posted by 
 on: 07/30/16, 08:31
I messed around in the Toy Box for about 15 minutes last night and I'm not sure what to think of it.
The controls are pretty good and the Old B-K humour is there.

The "toy box" isn't really very impressive however. With its lack of interesting textures and absence of much to do (aside from finding the 100 quills), it was a little boring really.

I'm sure the final game will be great, with NPCs and proper stages.
In the meantime, I'll try to get all 100 quills sometime and see what it unlocks.

Posted by 
 on: 07/31/16, 15:58
Wow! Just watched the 2016 E3 trailer and this game looks amazing. I have not kept up with this game at all, since it was announced. Kind of a bummer that it has been delayed until 2017, since it is the only game I was looking forward to downloading and playing on my Wii U this year.

Thankfully, Playtonic is developing the Wii U version, instead of farming it out. I hope it really sticks faithfully to the BK model, nice sized worlds to explore,(though, I hope its not like Banjo Tooie, that game was too confusing due to it's size & I kept getting lost, which eventually is why I stopped playing the game) many items to collect, & the cute, quirky dialogue between the characters.

Here is the trailer, for those who missed it on the previous page.



Posted by 
 on: 08/01/16, 01:58
Game looks amazing at 60fps. Definitely will be looking at on PC.

Posted by 
 on: 08/01/16, 21:52
New trailer:



Posted by 
 on: 08/17/16, 16:29
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