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?

URL to share (right click and copy)

J.K. Riki said:

The countries that cling to driving on the left side of the road even when they border every other country that drives on the right is a dumb decision. (There is a bridge between two of those countries that required millions of dollars just to do crazy road cloverleafs so when people crossed it they were deposited on the other-sides' "right" side of the road. Would anyone deny this is absurd?)

On that topic, that's your own dumb fault Left side driving was the standard going way back to Roman times. Then the French revolution happened followed by Napoleon, they switched it to the right side and forced it on bits and pieces of Europe. Nazi Germany got in on the act later too. WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING NAZIS?!

Bottom line, y'all switched from the Left to the Right, made things complicated and expect the rest of us to fall in line. Pffft to you!

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 04/10/17, 04:16

Edited:

04/10/17, 06:47

@Shadowlink

But now the majority has switched, so come switch with us.

One of us.

One of us.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 04/10/17, 06:07

@J.K. Riki

Never!

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 04/10/17, 06:53

The game released today. Did anyone pick it up?

I backed the Kickstarter for the Wii U version, so I'm waiting on the Switch version now.

Posted by

V_s

on: 04/12/17, 04:54

@V_s

Waiting for Switch also.

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 04/12/17, 05:53

I tend to agree with Dunkey's opinions on games, and he didn't like it at all:

Posted by

Secret_Tunnel

on: 04/12/17, 06:36

I'm about 5 hours in. Having a real good time with it. There are some camera issues but nothing particularly vexing.

Posted by

chrisbg99

on: 04/12/17, 08:21

I'm hoping mine comes in the mail before the week ends. As a backer, I thought I'd have received it by now. Blah.

Posted by

ploot

on: 04/12/17, 14:57

I played a couple hours and it's a bit disappointing. I mean, it's fantastic just to be able to play a brand new 3D platformer like this, but it feels more like a fan tribute. The concept is on point, but the level design is bland, the controls could be better, and the world doesn't feel alive. This is no Mighty No. 9, but it's no Banjo Kazooie either.

This video basically expresses my exact thoughts. Even though it's more of a comedy video, if you stick with it he makes some good points that I agree with.

Posted by

GelatinousEncore

on: 04/13/17, 17:34

Edited:

04/13/17, 17:35

@GelatinousEncore

Another mark in the Disappointment column, and sadly those puppies are adding up day by day. Well, I guess in retrospect expecting Another Banjo Kazooie was a little insane. We're talking about one of the greatest games ever made, here. Oh well.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 04/13/17, 18:21

I'll be the judge of that.

Posted by

carlosrox

on: 04/13/17, 21:08

@J.K. Riki

I disagree with this article saying that Banjo-Kazooie isn't still a great game that deserves all the praise we continue to pour onto it, but it makes a point that I've felt ever since Looka-Yaylee's kickstarter: simply emulating what Banjo-Kazooie did is not enough to make the next Banjo-Kazooie.

Look at Breath of the Wild. We're all putting that game on a pedestal next to Ocarina of Time because it did a brand new thing and upped the ante just as much as Ocarina of Time did back when it came out. When you look at a game like Twilight Princess, which tries to be "Ocarina of Time but better," you still get a great game, but it's not as mindblowing as it could've been had it tried to do something new.

Posted by

Secret_Tunnel

on: 04/13/17, 21:58

@Secret_Tunnel

Fantastic point. I suppose what I meant by "Another Banjo Kazooie" is the Breath of the Wild of BK, lol. Not in terms of scope or style, but natural "same but new" way it evolves the series. In fact, from now on you can expect that any comment, ever, implies "This needs to be the BotW of _______."

YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL, BREATH OF THE WILD!
*goes back to playing Breath of the Wild*

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 04/13/17, 22:01

What I've been getting from all of the reviews is that Yooka-Laylee seems to be another Banjo-Tooie with a little dash of DK64 thrown in. Which, to me, is fine. I liked both of those games, but I liked B-K slightly more than B-T and both quite a bit more than DK64. I was hoping this game would be closer to B-K, but it sounds like they went for something a bit bigger, which has landed them in B-T/DK64 territory. So I anticipate having fun with the game, but not as much fun as I originally anticipated (but hopefully keeping my expectations low now will surprise me when I finally get to play the game).

Hopefully Playtonic's next game (assuming they make another) will take some of the constructive criticism of Y-L to heart and deliver a more fine-tuned experience.

That said, since Playtonic has been talking about wanting to do different games in different genres pulling from characters from within Y-L's roster, I wonder if the next hypothetical Playtonic game will be a Yooka-Laylee 2 to try and get things right and win back the critics of the first, or if they'll jump to a completely new genre with a new character so there won't be comparisons to Y-L (which could offer both promise and trepidation given how little they've proved themselves in any other genre outside of maybe the FPS).

Posted by

V_s

on: 04/14/17, 21:12

Edited:

04/14/17, 21:13

@V_s

Yooka-Laylee: Screws and Nails. Coming soon to every console that isn't made by Nintendo near you.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 04/14/17, 22:58

@V_s Oh wow, if they made a spiritual sequel to Perfect Dark (Flawed Light?), that would be pretty awesome. It would prove quite a challenge though, since any FPS game these days needs to have online to catch attention, and that could be tough to set up for a small company.

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 04/14/17, 23:26

I think they made a spiritual sequel to Perfect Dark not too long ago, it was called The Conduit

Posted by

GelatinousEncore

on: 04/14/17, 23:47

@J.K. Riki
I actually enjoyed Nuts & Bolts quite a bit. It's not amazing but I had fun, and everything about the presentation and atmosphere was amazing. I guess it helped that I played it in 2013 for the first time not expecting anything good, much less a a BK sequel

Posted by

GelatinousEncore

on: 04/14/17, 23:49

The main thing that held me back from Nuts and Bolts was that it just ran so poorly. Does it run any better on XBox One? I figured it probably ran worse.

That, and I guess I just never really felt like taking the time to learn the systems. Maybe I'll give it a shot one day.

Posted by

PogueSquadron

on: 04/15/17, 04:13

@GelatinousEncore

I think I'd have liked it more if this were a "Hey Pikmin" situation rather than a "Chibi-Robo Zip Lash" one.*

*Hey Pikmin is a weird spin off of a classic series, but the main series continues to grow and be amazing. Chibi Robo Zip Lash is an abomination created instead of a real Chibi Robo game, where Chibi Robo was one of the greatest games I've ever played.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 04/15/17, 06:26