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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Racism isn't founded on rationality. It is not maintained via rational thought. So arguing with racists and making them looks like idiots is of limited use, because racism is not bound by logic. Logic may work when arguing in court in order to change systems that enable racism, such as with Brown v Board of Education. But having a rational debate with the assholes who mobbed the Little Rock 9 would not have accomplished anything. They were forced to allow those black kids to go to school and slowly came to terms with integration AFTER it had been achieved. The logic had already been empowered through court, which made action much more feasible. They were held back by force and law, not by logic and debate.

You couldn't have debated them to change their minds because that's not how human interaction works. If you make a racist look like an idiot for being racist, they aren't going to reconsider their worldview. They'll just be mad at you for making them look like an idiot and use that anger as fuel for their racist ideology. Making fun of shitheels on twitter doesn't stop them from harassing people. Picking apart Trumps stupid ideas doesn't stop him from trying to enact them. Because we're past logic. Maybe you'll convince a few people out of hate, but not most. And at the end of the day, they still have the power that they do (personally, politically, socially) and they still insist on using that power for harm despite attempts to reason with them.

So what do we do about racism, sexism, transphobia, islamophobia, and so on? I don't really have an answer to offer. If I think I can get away with it, you can bet your ass I'll punch a nazi. And I'll keep volunteering for the nonprofit where I work. And I'll protect my transgender brother in public bathrooms. And if someone fights us over it, we get into a fight. And if we get arrested for it, then we get arrested. Because I've reached a point where I've realized that logic doesn't stop hate; power and its enaction do.

Posted by

Hero_Of_Hyrule

on: 03/25/17, 06:26

Edited:

03/25/17, 17:06

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

'You can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into.'

Posted by

Stephen

on: 03/25/17, 06:52

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

The article I linked to talks about this. You bring up a good point: extremely racist people aren't going to change their mind after one debate. But you might be able to bring a Level 100 Racist down to a Level 99 Racist through a respectful conversation, even if they don't deserve it. Over time, maybe you can talk his grandkids down to Level 4 Racism. That's progress. If progress were impossible to make this way, racism wouldn't be as unprevalent as it is now compared to a few decades ago. You don't need to change everyone's mind, just the few smart people who are genuinely misinformed, people like the judges who changed the law to let the black kids go to school. If you could change 3% of people's minds this way, our most recent election would have flipped.

It's a slow process, but it's an asymmetric process too. Rationality isn't on the bad guys' side; they have access to all the same rhetorical techniques we do, and those can go either way ("Sometimes you get an Obama, sometimes you get a Trump"), but only we can keep winning people over through logic. I'm sure there were plenty of uneducated 16 year olds who love Jontron and ate up everything he said who then watched his debate with Destiny and realized that Jon is totally wrong.

Posted by

Secret_Tunnel

on: 03/25/17, 07:00

@Secret_Tunnel

I agree with what you are saying but it's important that we understand that people who do this are going above and beyond. You can't ask people to confront and try to reason with everyone who holds racist views especially when they are the ones suffering through them. Especially so if they are minorities who actually have to live with such statements being applied to them.

Posted by

Stephen

on: 03/25/17, 07:58

@Secret_Tunnel Of course, one might then ask... why not focus on the judges / etc. instead of the random convos it is easy to get into on the Internet a lot?

I've actually thought a bit about what I can do to fight against the tide of hate and I really am not sure the changing one mind at a time thing is particularly effective. I think maybe some more active forms of action with groups that work in broader ways (media / politician watch dogs, community diversity orgs, etc.) might be a better use of time. I'll have to think more about this and decide when and where to get involved.

Posted by

Zero

on: 03/25/17, 09:46

@Hero_Of_Hyrule
All of this. Especially this:
Hero_Of_Hyrule said:

So what do we do about racism, saw sexism, transphobia, islamophobia, and so on? I don't really have an answer to offer. If I think I can get away with it, you can bet your ass I'll punch a nazi.

No amount of logic, reasoning or diplomacy has reduced the amount of influence the fascist elements have in Europe. On the contrary, treating them like you would regular political beliefs has just normalized them, validated them and helped give them a platform. As a (now former) anarcho-pacifist I used to advocate this method, but it's ineffective and fucking dangerous at this point. It's too late for it now. Look at France, look at Denmark, look at Sweden, look at the Netherlands, look fucking everywhere. Look at the motherfucking POTUS. Education and logic can still work on a preventive level to some degree, but for those who have already decided that blacks are inherently criminal, that muslims are all potential terrorists or that gay people are potential child molesters, all we can do is bite back. Anyone advocating any form of fascist ideas makes this world a dangerous place for countless already marginalized individuals, and they should not get to feel safe while doing so.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 03/25/17, 11:51

Edited:

03/25/17, 15:35

Posted by

Stephen

on: 03/25/17, 20:02

Alright let's not get into Nazi punching we're kind of falling away from the topic of Yooka-Laylee at this point.

Posted by

Zero

on: 03/25/17, 20:36

@Zero
I'd say that happened a few posts before the punching was brought up, but fair enough.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 03/25/17, 20:45

True but I've noticed it's a super controversial topic, because it leads to "how do you define a Nazi nowadays?" and "doesn't violence beget more violence?" and then everyone gets mad at each other again in a thread about a goofy cartoon duo. Plus we already kind of had that argument here, don't need to have it again.

Posted by

Zero

on: 03/25/17, 20:47

Edited:

03/25/17, 20:48

@Zero
I figured that's why you didn't want the discussion, which is why I think you could have said so straight away. But I don't want to argue about that, like I said, it's fair enough.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 03/25/17, 21:13

When will this game release for Switch?

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 03/25/17, 21:57

Sometime after each Switch owner punches a Nazi.

I mean, sometime after April 11th

Posted by

mrbiggsly

on: 03/26/17, 00:35

Wow, what happened to this thread? I come in here expecting some awesome new Yooka-Laylee news and I get lefties whining about Trump. Nice job moderators.

Posted by

WrathOfSamus777

on: 03/27/17, 00:01

I hope we don't have to wait too long after the initial release to play this on Switch. Not that I don't have a ridiculous backlog that I can chip away at while waiting for it to come out.

I just don't like waiting.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 03/27/17, 00:43

@WrathOfSamus777

Zero said:

we're kind of falling away from the topic of Yooka-Laylee at this point.

Posted by

Hero_Of_Hyrule

on: 03/27/17, 01:20

Edited:

03/27/17, 01:25

Hero_Of_Hyrule said:

So what do we do about racism, sexism, transphobia, islamophobia, and so on? I don't really have an answer to offer.

Love. Love is the only thing that can change the human heart, and changing hearts is the only thing that can stop such things.

Problem is, few people want to do it. They'd rather hate and be angry and punch people and feel powerful. So the world continues the way it has for hundreds of thousands of years. And will continue, until people stop hating as an answer to hate.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 03/27/17, 01:55

Negative World is the Dark Souls of Nintendo forums.

Posted by

Hero_Of_Hyrule

on: 03/27/17, 01:57

@WrathOfSamus777

You did nothing there to contribute to the topic at hand either. It's annoying when off-topic things dominate a thread but hell, lets try to get it back on topic instead of complain and post gifs. (Which even I'm guilty of.)

Is anyone following Playtonic's blogs and twitter posts showing off the different characters? Seems like this game will have more unique characters than even Banjo-Kazooie did. Lots of unique folks with their one purpose, all seem well designed.

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 03/27/17, 02:21

@DrFinkelstein

I haven't. I'm trying to go in pretty blind. I've seen early footage of the first world, some of the beta test area, and a couple pictures of the snow world.

Does anyone know if the game costs the same between digital and physical. I know the PS4 disc is 40, but how much are downloads? And have they said how many worlds are in the game?

Posted by

Hero_Of_Hyrule

on: 03/27/17, 03:38