Yooka-Laylee / Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair

JayMoyles wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

Yes! Someone will have to kindly take that off my hands...

If you aren't planning to use it, I'll put my hat in the ring for the demo when it arrives. I could write a preview of sorts for Gintendo.  

It'd be an absolute pleasure, sir!

Thanks very much, Zero!

The Kickstarter has smashed its way to £1,000,000 and has met all of its original stretch goals. So, here's some new stretch goals! If you can't be arsed clicking through the link, it's a new DK-Rap style song for the credits by Grant Kirkhope and N64 graphical shaders for £1,100,000 and developer commentary for £1,200,000. I imagine both will be met in due course - they're only 60K away from meeting the first new goal already.

People obviously want this style of platformer, so why aren't there more of them?

Maybe there soon will be? The retro revival's thirst for 2D platormers is slowly but surely adding a dimension... and I like it!

I said that a while ago Zero when Yooka-Laylee was first announced that indies now looking at more 3D based stuff.

Mr. Kirkhope tells it like it is.

Yay!
Although they probably should've made it a little less close to Banjo-Kazooie's IP - Microsoft might get the shits on (same font, same string-instrument-pun-based-duo) I ain't complainin'. Nuts and Bolts actually made me sad - this has undone the damage.

Balladeer wrote:

Mr. Kirkhope tells it like it is.

I agree but let's say when these guys were still at RARE under MS who you guess GK has been telling like the rest of the team for years. Well that's all well and good but does the Xbox audience want a 3D platformer and the answer is very unlikely as the demographic of the Xbox is either dude bros or navy seals (you've seen the ad).

And all of RARE's games that doesn't have the words Kinect in haven't done great on Xbox platforms.

Just looking at people that have backed it that I know and that's a lot on Twitter are all Nintendo fans in some way that might just have Nostalgia like Jas points out, (I was never a big Banjo fan) in some way which a vast amount of Xbox owners don't have and if do they'll likely be like Drunka whom is more likely to get it on Wii U over ONE.

Also it's 36,063 people that have backed it so far, that would never be enough for MS to green-light Banjo-Threeie to be made and you wouldn't buy Balla as you don't own a ONE & neither would I. Also if we could it be what £40 if retail well some people have given £3,750 towards this kickstarter.

So I can see people like GK frustration as they want to make the game and we do want to buy but unfortunately 36,063 people isn't enough for a big company to green light also Yooka-Laylee is over 4 platforms not 1 which would have even less of a impact.

Balladeer wrote:

People obviously want this style of platformer, so why aren't there more of them?

Because the developers who could - and definietly should - have been making them were too busy fannying about with shiteing JRPGs, probably.

~

I'm well up for Yooka-Laylee in the sense that I'm well up for a game that captures the spirit of Banjo-Kazooie. I'm not, however, as up for an N64-style platformer with N64-era ideas. The last big-budget games that followed that sort of template was Disney's Epic Mickey...

Oh balls they are.  Nintendo doesn't develop any JRPGs in-house, and Microsoft (who own Rare) aren't Japanese. Also if the N64 spirit encapsulates the exploratory platformer, I (for one) am all over that like Mario over Bob-Omb's Battlefield.

Nope it's because it's all about the £$€ and like I said they don't bring in the £$€ like a silly kinect game will.

Raises the question, why haven't MS sold Rare? I'm sure they could still find somebody who would pay for the name and franchises. Any old muppet, probably costing less than the purchase price of Rare, could produce Kinect Sports 82: Help We're Down To Curling (he says with his minimal knowledge of games design).

M$ don't need the money and having the old IPs could be useful like KI was.

The people who've backed this are likely to be Nintendo fans, as mas says, who grew up with the N64 and now have a lot of disposable income to put into projects like this when they appear. 3D platformers are a genre that most gamers have left behind (sadly).

Well I've got a feeling a certain 3D platformer might make a comeback at E3

Next stretch goal is orchestral soundtrack.  
Y'all can probably guess how much I want this.  (And on percussion.)

TCK wrote:

I'm not, however, as up for an N64-style platformer with N64-era ideas.

This is the initial thing that has me worried about it plus I'm not one for collectables in games.

I think it will be but you know the saying if it ain't broken.

The_Jaster wrote:

TCK wrote:

I'm not, however, as up for an N64-style platformer with N64-era ideas.

This is the initial thing that has me worried about it plus I'm not one for collectables in games.

Aye, I hope they don't go too mental with the collectables. Banjo-Kazooie itself was a big game that took me fifty hours to complete fully as a nine year old, but it's much, much more than just a collectathon. Donkey Kong 64 in 1999 took the mick a bit, and is rightly remembered as being a bit heavy with the collectables. Banjo-Tooie completely ripped the piss in my opinion - it was such an overinflated, obese game that had you running about everywhere for about forty different things.

I'd like to see Yooka-Laylee more closely emulate Banjo-Kazooie in that sense, and learn from the mistakes of RareWare's later projects.

If you read the kickstarter, they bring up DK64 and to many collectables.

masofdas wrote:

I think it will be but you know the saying if it ain't broken.

It's easy to say that but I'd rather have a game that was engaging to play with clever/new ideas than have them cherry pick ones from a 17 year old game, as I said I think there's an element of being blinded by nostalgia at play here be it for ex Rare staff or wanting an older style 3d platformer.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

TCK wrote:

I'm not, however, as up for an N64-style platformer with N64-era ideas.

This is the initial thing that has me worried about it plus I'm not one for collectables in games.

Aye, I hope they don't go too mental with the collectables. Banjo-Kazooie itself was a big game that took me fifty hours to complete fully as a nine year old, but it's much, much more than just a collectathon. Donkey Kong 64 in 1999 took the mick a bit, and is rightly remembered as being a bit heavy with the collectables. Banjo-Tooie completely ripped the piss in my opinion - it was such an overinflated, obese game that had you running about everywhere for about forty different things.

I'd like to see Yooka-Laylee more closely emulate Banjo-Kazooie in that sense, and learn from the mistakes of RareWare's later projects.

That'd be fine but personally I hope it wouldn't be too close for the reasons that have already been stated previously.

Balladeer wrote:

Next stretch goal is orchestral soundtrack.  

I really hope - and I actually expect - that this goal is reached. Grant Kirkhope's music transferred to an orchestra is proven to work already, so well in fact that a piece from Viva Pinata was featured in the Classic FM Hall of Fame in 2013.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Donkey Kong 64 in 1999 took the mick a bit, and is rightly remembered as being a bit heavy with the collectables.

They actually reference this in the Kickstarter - "Yes, we employ the man responsible for DK64's myriad of trinkets, but we've had a stern word."

The_Jaster wrote:

masofdas wrote:

I think it will be but you know the saying if it ain't broken.

It's easy to say that but I'd rather have a game that was engaging to play with clever/new ideas than have them cherry pick ones from a 17 year old game, as I said I think there's an element of being blinded by nostalgia at play here be it for ex Rare staff or wanting an older style 3d platformer.

I'm surprised at you taking issue with nostalgia fuelling a game's development - Shovel Knight is quite plainly inspired by Mega Man and Castlevania, much like this is inspired by Banjo Kazooie. Granted, Shovel Knight was engaging to play, but I'm confident that PlayTonic will make Yooka-Laylee similarly engaging. I wouldn't have backed them otherwise. PlayTonic are flat-out stating that this is a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie - elements from that game are going to be present, but I would be astonished if they didn't update the game for a modern audience. They know what they're doing.

I'll be honest - very happy to wallow in 'newstalgia', as I just thought up (my understanding is that 'retraux' is the term). So, whichever way Playtonic go about this, I'm A-OK.

Hm.  Because SM64 is my ideal for this sort of platformer, and perhaps partly because I never picked up Banjo-Tooie, I didn't think much about excessive collectables.  Just to make a few lists, for my convenience (excluding health recovery items):

Super Mario 64
One-offs: Stars, coins, red coins

Banjo-Kazooie
One-offs: Jiggies, notes, Mumbo tokens, hollow honeycombs, Jinjos
Expendables: Feathers, gold feathers, eggs

Donkey Kong 64
One-offs: Golden Bananas, bananas, blueprints, fairies
Expendables: Ammo, Crystal Coconuts, camera film, coins

(Any I've missed, barring things like the hippo's gold bars that you only ever find in one world?)

Looking at those, I wouldn't say that DK64 was particularly bloated compared to BK - its crime was instead having five characters, each with their own collectables.  With only the two in YL, I don't think that it's likely to be a huge problem (particularly as bats don't shoot eggs or have feathers ).

A category-by-category comparison may not be the fairest thing to do, though: it's the volume of the things that counts. You could barely make it five feet through a DK64 level without tripping over at least seven collectables. Y-L's levels may be sparse at the moment but there's time for that to change. Don't do it, team!