Playtonic Games has launched the Kickstarter campaign for Yooka-Laylee, the newly announced spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie from the series’ original developers.
The game is seeking £175,000 in funding, which guarantees an English language PC, Mac, and Linux release on day one, with console releases to follow. Then, there are the following strech goals:
- £275,000 – A unique, epic boss battle on every level + awesome boss tunes from David, Grant, and Steve
- £330,000 – A pre-final boss Quiz Show challenge level with a mystery prize
- £395,000 – Transformations into ‘unexpected things’ with unique controls and abilities, plus a new NPC
- £435,000 – A mix of 2.5D and 3D mine cart sections, not limited to mines
- £535,000 – A local co-op “buddy” mode so a second player can help out
- £665,000 – A two to four-player local multiplayer versus mode with four unique games
- £715,000 – Professional French, German, Spanish, and Italian translations, plus extra languages voted for by backers
- £775,000 – Exclusive character designs from ex-Rare artists Kev “Kong” Bayliss and Ed “Mumbo Jumbo” Bryan
- £875,000 – Four more local multiplayer games added to the local multiplayer mode
- £1,000,000 – Simultaneous Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 releases on day one
Update: The game is fully funded and all stretch goals have been met. The following two have been added:
- £1,100,000 – Goin’ old skool! N64 shader mode plus a credits “GK Rap + Video” Written by Grant Kirkhope
- £1,200,000 – Let’s Play! (Tonic) Developer walkthrough and commentary video
Here’s a rundown of the project:
About
Back in the mid-90s, Steve ‘don’t call me Steven’ Mayles came up with a famous bear and bird duo – and a platforming classic was born. When it came to dreaming up an all new buddy-duo in 2015, Steven set himself the objective of dreaming up the most delightful adventure characters possible. A platforming pair designed for fun gameplay first.
With Yooka and Laylee, we believe Steve has captured the spirit of his past heroes while introducing the most inventive moves yet seen in any of our team’s work. Like a cyborg Indiana Jones, our heroes are equipped for adventure and, brought to life by the voice of Banjo and Kazooie himself, Chris Sutherland, you can expect plenty of cheeky and irreverent gags, too.
Across more than five distinct worlds, Yooka and Laylee will tackle unique platforming challenges – such as rolling into a ball to navigate a pinball-inspired race course – in search of Pagies, the golden bounty used to unlock and expand new areas of the game. As is traditional in our team’s games, each world will be jammed to the gills with oddball characters and hulking bosses, many who communicate via a collage of burp and fart noises.
Features
- Heroes Built for Fun: Our new buddy-duo were dreamed up specifically for entertaining platforming gameplay and exceptional color coordination. We think we’ve captured the spirit of our past heroes while introducing our most inventive moves yet.
- An Arsenal of Abilities: Sonar blasting, tongue whipping, sky soaring… a move roster built for platforming fun – and unlocked with added freedom. Additionally, there may or may not be a move involving a giant fart bubble.
- A Dream Soundtrack: David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) combine in what’s sure to be a melodic masterpiece! Seriously, clean out your ears – they’re in for a treat.
- 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.
- Expandable Worlds: Experience more of the playgrounds you love by spending collectibles to expand your favorites into bigger, more challenging worlds.
- A Cast to Last: A huge cast of memorable characters to meet (or beat) brought to life by the art and audio teams behind Banjo-Kazooie and destined to endure in future games as part of Playtonic Universe. Expect all manner of grunts, squeaks and squawks.
- Introducing Play Tonics: Discover these unique gameplay modifiers and use them to customize gameplay to suit your style. Will you run faster, hit harder or fly further? Also, are they named after our studio or vice versa? We’ll never know.
- Arcade machines: Each world hides at least one secret arcade game encasing old-school gaming goodness. Complete its retro-tastic challenge to claim your Pagie!
Explore and Expand the World
During their adventures Yooka and Laylee will complete challenges to unlock and collect Pagies. These golden collectibles are the main currency in the game, used not only to unlock new worlds but expand them too.
In the jungle world showcased in this Kickstarter for example, new islands containing advanced features and challenges will become available once you’ve decided to hand your Pagies over to the world-building construction crew.
Don’t give a monkey’s? Spend your Pagies elsewhere. If you desire, world expansion can be ignored entirely and you can hop, skip and roll your way through the standard worlds towards the final boss lurking in his or her mighty keep. And once the pivotal villain is nought but ash on the pavement, you can still opt to explore the expanded worlds with your full moveset post-credits to hunt down those leftover Pagies.
Watch the Kickstarter pitch video below. Fund the game here.
Watch some footage, via Eurogamer, below. View the first set of screenshots and the game’s key visual at the gallery.
