Yooka-Laylee

Yooka-Laylee

Official artwork showing Yooka and Laylee
Developer(s) Playtonic Games
Publisher(s) Team17[1]
Director(s) Chris Sutherland
Designer(s) Gavin Price
Artist(s) Steve Mayles
Steven Hurst
Kevin Bayliss
Dean Wilson
Writer(s) Andy Robinson
Composer(s) Grant Kirkhope
David Wise
Steve Burke
Engine Unity
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox One
Release date(s)
  • October 2016
Genre(s) Platforming, action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Yooka-Laylee is an upcoming exploratory 3D platform game for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U and Xbox One with an expected release window of October 2016.[2] It is being developed by Playtonic Games, a group of several former key personnel from Rare during the Nintendo 64 era, as a spiritual successor to their work from that time period. Among them, Banjo-Kazooie designers Chris Sutherland, Steve Mayles and Steven Hurst reprise their respective roles of lead programmer and voice actor, character artist, and environmental artist.[3] Grant Kirkhope also returns as composer.

Gameplay

Yooka-Laylee features gameplay similar to spiritual predecessor, Banjo-Kazooie, where the player searches for and collects items in an open 3D environment.

The player controls Yooka, a male chameleon described as "sensible",[4] and Laylee, a female bat described as "a little bit crazy".[2][3] The game is intended as a resurrection of the "collectathon" 3D platforming game genre of the late 1990s and early 2000s.[5] During their adventures, Yooka and Laylee will explore worlds contained within magical books and complete challenges to collect "Pagies": golden book pages that act as the main currency in the game. Players can use their Pagies to either unlock new worlds or expand those which have already been unlocked.[6] Each world will contain a boss battle.

The characters will be able to transform into various forms, granting them more abilities. These will include "sonar blasting", "tongue whipping" and "sky soaring". The official website states: "Additionally, there may or may not be a move involving a giant fart bubble." Yooka and Laylee will be able to buy new abilities from Trowzer, a snake who wears pants.[7] In addition, Yooka and Laylee will be able to find and equip "Play Tonics", which modify players' abilities.[8] At least one secret arcade game will be featured in every level, hosted by a low polygon T. rex named Rextro Sixtyfourus, a homage to the Nintendo 64. There will be a "quiz show challenge" featured before the final boss, similar to the Banjo-Kazooie games. Furthermore, 2D and 3D "mine cart" sequences will be included, similar to those of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64.

The game will feature a local cooperative multiplayer mode for two players. There will be a 2–4 player adversarial local multiplayer mode with eight different minigames.[2]

Development

On 8 September 2012, a group of former Rare employees announced their intent to create a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. They joined under the Twitter handle Mingy Jongo, a boss from the game Banjo-Tooie, with cooperation from ex-Rare developers, such as Grant Kirkhope. The account was left abandoned and the project confirmed to be dead by Kirkhope in a Reddit AMA.[9] Later, the account was revived under its current name Playtonic Games. Playtonic then announced that they were planning a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie franchise titled Yooka-Laylee, formerly codenamed Project Ukulele.[10] Yooka-Laylee is believed to have been the result of Mingy Jongo's work, which was similarly based on the Unity game engine and was intended to be crowdfunded through Kickstarter.

The game's funding project was announced on Kickstarter on 1 May 2015. It reached its initial crowdfunding campaign goal of GB£175,000 within thirty-eight minutes[11] and its initial highest goal of GB£1 million in 21 hours,[12] at the time becoming the fastest video game in Kickstarter history to reach US$1 million.[13] Playtonic Games later sent out a public statement thanking all their supporters and promising more updates in the future.[14] The campaign added four additional stretch goals, all of which have been reached. Those who contributed predetermined amounts to the campaign will receive special rewards related to the game's release. It is currently the highest-funded UK video game in Kickstarter history, passing the previous record held by Elite: Dangerous,[15] earning GB£2,090,104.

Yooka-Laylee is set to be released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One,[16] with success in the crowdfunding campaign allowing a simultaneous release for consoles. The game will feature 3D worlds by environment artist Steven Hurst, whose credits include the Banjo-Kazooie series and Viva Piñata. Some characters will be designed by Kevin Bayliss, who helped design the modern Kong characters in the Donkey Kong Country series, and Ed Bryan, who designed characters in Banjo-Kazooie. Former Rare composers David Wise, Grant Kirkhope and Steve Burke will collaborate to compose the game's orchestral score. A soundtrack CD will be released and rewarded to certain supporters of the crowdfunding campaign. The game will feature an optional "N64 shader" mode, which will imitate the graphical appearance of Nintendo 64 games.[2] Additional post-launch downloadable content is planned, which will begin production following the game's release, and players who participated in the crowdfunding campaign will receive this content for free.[17][18] The game's native language will be English; but it will also feature professional French, German, Italian and Spanish translations. Other languages for inclusion will be voted on by the backers of the Kickstarter campaign. Former Super Play and Rare artist Wil Overton will be illustrating the game's instruction manual. The game will be published by Team17.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dring, Christopher (30 July 2015). "Team17 will publish Yooka-Laylee and eyes retail release". MCVUK. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Yooka-Laylee - A 3D Platformer Rare-vival!". Kickstarter. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Introducing Yooka-Laylee". Playtonic Games. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Man Behind Yooka and Laylee". Playtonic Games. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Hein, Daniel (9 December 2014). "The Nintendo Collectathon: A Genre of the Past". The Artifice. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Reseigh-Lincoln, Dom (17 May 2015). "Yooka-Laylee’s world is made of books you unlock by collecting pages". GamesRadar. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Wouk, Kristofer (12 May 2015). "Meet Banjo-Kazooie Successor Yooka-Laylee's Newest Character: Trowzer the Snake". Digital Trends. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Collin. "Yooka-Laylee isn't going to be a Banjo-Kazooie copy". Polygon. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "I am Grant Kirkhope, composer of Banjo and DK 64, along w/ developers Prismatic Games of the Party-RTS, Hex Heroes, for Wii U/PC". Reddit. 20 April 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  10. ↑ Macy, Seth (10 February 2015). "Former Rare Developers Working on Banjo Kazooie Spiritual Successor". IGN. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  11. ↑ Sheridan, Connor (1 May 2015). "Banjo-Kazooie devs' Yooka-Laylee funded in 38 minutes". GamesRadar. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  12. ↑ Playtonic (2 May 2015). "£1 MILLION! #YookaLaylee will release day-one on Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, Mac, Linux and PC!" (Tweet).
  13. ↑ Hannley, Steve (1 May 2015). "Fastest Video Game Kickstarter to Hit $1 Million". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  14. ↑ "1 Million & More Stretch Goals!". Kickstarter. 2 May 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  15. ↑ Lemne, Bengt (14 May 2015). "Yooka-Laylee breaks records on Kickstarter". Gamereactor. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  16. ↑ Krupa, Daniel (30 April 2015). "Spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie reveals its lead characters". IGN. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  17. ↑ "New Stretch Goal: Payback Time!". Kickstarter. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  18. ↑ "£2 Million Reached! You did it!". Kickstarter. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.

External links

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