Playtonic Games - a classic Rare reunion

[Will T.]

Playtonic Games has apparently just made their web presence known this week. They're an "indie" studio (their quote marks, not mine) consisting of a band of veterans from Rare Ltd. who all worked on Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and their Xbox titles up through Kinect Sports. Apparently today was their day to recruit an audio person, which involved calling up none other than Grant Kirkhope and David Wise as potential candidates, along with Steve Burke, who worked with them during much of Rare's Microsoft era. Nothing's known on who among them is officially joining up yet, but they'll have news "early next week."

Their goal in this endeavor: to produce a spiritual successor to the classic Banjo N64 games. Obviously they can't use Banjo himself since he's Microsoft's IP, but if this thing holds together, we may be seeing a new 3D Rare platformer for the first time in over a decade. And barring unforeseen circumstances, it won't be locked to the Xbone the way an official Banjo title would be.

The band is getting back together, guys. I'm not ordinarily one to use the term "fangasm," but that's exactly what I've been doing all afternoon. Hopefully the fact that this was revealed to me on Friday the 13th doesn't mean anything for its future.

[Will T.]

EDGE Magazine has published an article about Playtonic that explains the reasoning behind the startup, as well as showing off the first bits of concept art for whatever they'll be doing. Unfortunately all I've got is an Imgur version that a friend sent me as opposed to a text version, but it's a good read even in image form. Their game is planned to release "on PC and certain console platforms." Will we perhaps see a Steam release?

EDIT: Grant Kirkhope is now confirmed to be on board as the composer for the new game! The hype just got even more real! David Wise and Steve Burke are also going to be working on the project, though Grant is serving as the music lead.

[Will T.]

The first real info for Project Ukulele (Playtonic's project's codename) will be announced on Saturday, March 14 at 4:00 PM GMT at the EGX Rezzed expo in London. In the meantime, they've tweeted a teaser image that doesn't really reveal anything. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for whatever comes out on Saturday!

[Will T.]

The first two proper teaser screenshots were revealed today:





There's still not much to see, but it's something. The art style reminds me a lot of Toki Tori 2+ on Steam. Everything seems much flatter and more "on a grid" than Banjo, but I'm guessing that's just because these are mock-ups to demonstrate the general art style.

Twitter keeps insisting that the game's protagonist is in these images, but I'm not seeing it. Can anyone spot them?

[metacide]

It's the mushrooms.

[Will T.]

Keith the Minion (name not final) is slated to appear as an enemy in Project Ukulele:



There's a bit more info on the news page as well, detailing what will happen in the next few months as far as information and community is concerned. To summarize:

- A Kickstarter will take place in May. What it will actually do is unclear, but apparently it's meant to speed up development somehow. It might also broaden the range of platforms on which the game is released. There will be physical rewards for backers.
- There are no solid plans on which platforms Project Ukulele is coming to, but they're not going to tie themselves down to just one - they want to release on as many as possible.
- Not only will levels unlock as you progress, but the ones you've already visited will have new areas unlock as the game goes on.
- The main collectible (this is a collect-a-thon game, after all) are called "Pagies."

The next batch of info is due out in May. Keep an eye out for that Kickstarter!

It's the mushrooms.

Do you think they'll collect plumbers to grow larger?

[Will T.]

It's been a long time since any news was released, but today's the day! The Playtonic website has received a huge makeover: http://www.playtonicgames.com/

And it's all to introduce the game's heroes: Yooka, a chameleon, and Laylee, a fruit bat. The game's proper tite: Yooka-Laylee. From the sound of it, the characters are pretty much identical to Banjo and Kazooie personality-wise, with some new abilities based on their species.

There's a new page for the game itself on Playtonic's website, and an article detailing what's next - a bunch more media will be posted up tomorrow (including music!), and their Kickstarter campaign will begin in less than 24 hours.

IGN (eww) has an article/video containing a bit of gameplay footage of the duo in action. Their moves showcased in the video look like a mix of the abilities of Banjo+Kazooie and Donkey+Diddy Kong from DKC Returns. They'll also have a lot of exclusive news in the future, apparently.

[Will T.]

The Kickstarter campaign ended about 2 hours ago. With an initial $270K USD goal, Playtonic raised $3.2M (~£2.1M). (They hit their original $270K goal in 40 minutes.) I'd say that's as clear an indicator as any that there's an untapped market for modern 3D platforming!

It's not yet clear what comes next, except that the game will go through with development proper over the next year, with a predicted release month of October 2016.

Due to the overwhelming Kickstarter response, not only were all of Playtonic's stretch goals reached, but they had to add several more (which were all also hit). Here's a recap of what we'll see thanks to the Kickstarter (from the stretch goals section):

- Simultaneous Mac, PC, and Linux release on day one
- Unique bosses in each and every level with unique battle themes, a la Donkey Kong 64
- A pre-final-boss quiz show like the ones Banjo-Kazooie is (in)famous for
- Transformations similar to B-K, plus "a new NPC" (a Mumbo Jumbo expy?)
- Minecart rides with a mix of 2.5D and 3D - "and not even limited to just mines either!" (DKC2 style roller coasters would be awesome)
- Local co-op with a "buddy" character
- 2-4 player local versus with "4 unique games!"
- French, German, Spanish, and Italian localizations, with the possibility of more community-selected languages
- Character designs from other ex-Rare character artists not currently on the core Playtonic team
- An additional 4 local multiplayer modes bringing the total up to 8
- Wii U, Xbox One and PS4 day-one releases (all planned platforms will now receive a simultaneous release)
- "N64 shader mode" (!) plus a new rap by Grant Kirkhope (I don't care how much people hate it, I love the DK Rap in all its deliberate derpiness and am excited for a new one)
- Developer walkthrough and commentary (will it be like Valve's in-game commentary? That'd be neat)
- Full orchestral soundtrack (I'm actually kind of disappointed by this - part of the charm of classic Rare music was its fake-sounding-ness. Hopefully they handle it well)
- A free DLC for all backers (they've made it clear that this DLC will be developed and released ONLY after the full game as they've planned it has been completed and shipped)

Beyond the game itself, I'm hoping that Yooka-Laylee will not only demonstrate that 3D platforming didn't deserve to die so early on, but also pushes more indies to break free of the security blanket that is 2D games and try more 3D stuff. The 2D platformer has been done to death and beyond, but I don't think there's been a single new open-world 3D platformer in the entire world since Super Mario Sunshine (if there has, please correct me, because I probably want to play it!). This could finally be the thing that draws late-90's gaming nostalgia into the spotlight.

[Zork Nemesis]

but I don't think there's been a single new open-world 3D platformer in the entire world since Super Mario Sunshine (if there has, please correct me, because I probably want to play it!).

Did you sleep through Super Mario Galaxy and it's sequel?

[Will T.]

but I don't think there's been a single new open-world 3D platformer in the entire world since Super Mario Sunshine (if there has, please correct me, because I probably want to play it!).

Did you sleep through Super Mario Galaxy and it's sequel?

While I enjoyed (one of) those games, neither of them is "open-world." The levels have a clear Point-A-to-Point-B structure as opposed to the free-roaming feel that Rare's classic platformers had, and SMG2 did away with the freely explorable hub concept. While I still like those kinds of 3D platformers, they're woefully few and far between, and they lack the sense of freedom and discovery that games like Banjo and DK64 had.