Yooka-Laylee: development update (October 2015)

Today, Playtonic Games posted another development update on Yooka-Laylee’s Kickstarter page, in order to give some news to fans who are eagerly waiting for the game. Acording to the developers, the various environments are taking shape, and in fact, the first world is already fleshed out and running. Besides the environment and challenges, they had to make moves, animations and basic game mechanics work.

Here’s a gif of the Ghost Writer:

Next we get a look at a new character: an unnamed NPC that you meet in the first world. Apparently, she’s forgotten to turn off her iron, and you will need to go see her landlord to get her spare key.

There’s also a mini Q&A, in which they answer a couple of questions (more or less serious). The first one is about nostalgia vs new things:

“We try to present the player with things they might find familiar – for example the themes of the worlds or the look of certain objects. Many things in Yooka will hark back to other projects we may have worked on but they`ll all have a new spin on them to make them feel fresh and different to what the player has seen before.

“New technology means we can do things with levels that simply weren`t possible before and we don`t want to be seen as treading old ground – we aim to surprise people as much as we can!”

In the answer to the second question, the developers explain that there will not be gameplay footage for a long while; because they want the game to be really pretty the next time they show it.

Though we promise we’ll do our best to keep you up to date with posts like this, we want to make sure Yooka-Laylee is looking extra spiffing before we next plaster it all over the internet in video form.

Though the Kickstarter meant we showed off gameplay earlier than we otherwise would have, we’re still early in development and our various designs remain in flux. We’ll show the full game to you when it’s at a good standard to satisfy your expectations. Because disappointment is not in our business plan.

Also, y’ know, we’re still a full calendar year away from release, so unless you want to see every framerate-destroying Steven Hurst tree spoiled ahead of playing the game yourself, we’re better off keeping schtum for a bit, right?

Finally, here’s the recording of an interview of several ex-RARE developers at EGS 2015:

Yooka-Laylee (Wii U) comes out next year!

Source: Playtonic