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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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Funded! Main goal of $270,000 USD in only 39 minutes. Amazing. Good for them!

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 19:40
Already funded. I guess any worries about meeting stretch goals will be smashed.

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 19:41
Awesome campaign so far. I'm hoping they'll reach the million pounds (which is, what, 1.8 million dollars or so?) so that we can have simultaneous console releases. Not sure yet if they'll top Mighty No 9 since B-K doesn't have as much international appeal...but you never know!

Either way, this is destined to be one of the biggest Kickstarter successes ever. I've already pledged for the console version!

If there's one disappointment for me, it's the description of "more than five worlds." I'd gladly sacrifice some of the multiplayer stretch goals for doubling that number of stages. I know the game is very affordable, but I'd love for it to be at least as big as BK!

Also, this made me laugh:

Collect-em-up 2.0: A roster of shiny collectibles with gameplay progression at their core (as well as other, more valuable materials). Every collectible type in our new game will expand gameplay in a meaningful way. Yes, we employ the man responsible for DK64's myriad of trinkets, but we've had a stern word. Our main collectible, Pagies, are used to unlock and expand new worlds in Yooka-Laylee.


Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 19:44
@TriforceBun

I figured that Yooka was a girl and Laylee was a boy, too. I'm totally surprised!

This game already shows a ton of promise judging from the footage and the game's Kickstarter page. You can tell that the developers have big ideas for Yooka-Laylee and I'm confident that they can realize their vision and then some. I'm excited!

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 19:47
Geez. In one hour, it hit $100,000 more than its funding goal. These guys are going to be able to make a killer game...!

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 20:02
I'm pretty pleased right now. Looks and sounds very Banjo-Kazooie-y, and I've been promised a wise-cracking ladybat. So far so good.

EDIT: Oooooooh my friggin' lord -- that jungle challenge tune by David Wise is sweet! Kirkhope's song sounds exactly like it should and is great too, but Wise is the friggin' man!

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 20:04   Edited:  05/01/15, 20:06
The Kirkhope song is very BK, and the Wise song is very Tropical Freeze.

Sounds good to me!

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 20:07
Glad to see Wii U is a basic part of the project. The £1,000,000 target for a simultaneous release looks like it'll be a breeze too.

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 20:17
They want a fully orchestrated soundtrack, so that will apparently be one of the future stretch goals.

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 21:01
I made some fan art and sent it to 'em:



Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 21:59
The Kickstarter's now more than half way to the simultaneous console release. Wow.

Posted by 
 on: 05/01/15, 22:57
Holy cow, it's raised almost $1,000,000 USD in just a matter of hours.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 00:08
I never back these things, but I'll check it out if it releases on Wii U.

@Octorockin Yeah, I feel like it would make more sense the other way around, but oh well, it doesn't really matter.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 00:12
@TriforceBun

I think with the fact the worlds open up later, it might be bigger than it seems. I think we'll be pleased from the sound of it.

@TriforceBun

Brilliant fan art! Nice thought put into the concept. I hope they share it.

@Mop it up

It's going to release on Wii U if it releases at all. The final stretch goal currently is to allow them to be able to put it on Wii U immediately at launch or if they have to finish the game then more or less finish the port (for lack of a better term).

@ludist210

Yep, it's been about 5.5 hours now and it's at $934,124. That's $2,830 a minute since launch or $47.18 a second... whoa.

-----------------------

The local co-op buddy mode they just hit sounds interesting. I'm really happy to see a Quiz section returning. That's one of my favorite parts from Banjo-Kazooie... or it was when I first played.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 00:25
@TriforceBun
That's rad dude!

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 00:30
Over £680,000 earned now... so that means the next stretch goal was unlocked. A 2-4 player local multiplayer VS mode with 4 unique games.

Next up, at £715,000 we have professional translations for French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other languages.

Edit: And that goal was just met. Awesome. Next up...

£775,000 - Exclusive character designs from ex-Rare guest artists Kev "Kong" Bayliss and Ed "Mumbo Jumbo" Bryan.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 01:40   Edited:  05/02/15, 02:29
And now they've got that goal! So we're getting some special character designs from artists we didn't know we loved!

Next up is £875,000 for doubling the local multiplayer games/modes. Could be cool but I have no idea what it'll all be.

Less than £225,000 till we have a simultaneous launch of the game on all platforms.

Think they'll do more stretch goals? If so... what?

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 04:07
I'd be all for more stages! Hope they do some of those next.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 04:09
I went for the Digital Deluxe + Enhanced PC Toybox+ tier!

I may seemed critical in here, but I am actually quite hyped beyond belief.

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 07:19
The talent behind this has me pretty interested in it, but I feel like I'm kinda the only one who's not excited for the game based on what we've seen. Not to be a downer, but it kinda looks just like any other 3D platformer that would have been on the Gamecube. Is there something I'm missing? I mean, I hope there is, because Banjo-Kazooie is one of my favorite games ever and I'd love to get on the hype train for this. Everything surrounding this game is exciting, but I want know what the gameplay is--aside from just "platforming!"

The character models look kinda plastic-ey too. Music is great though!

Posted by 
 on: 05/02/15, 09:19
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