Yooka-Laylee

"Bah! You've been reading Yookapedia, haven't you?" Spoiler warning! This article contains plot spoilers for Yooka-Laylee and/or Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

Developer:	Playtonic Games
Publisher:	Team17
Rating:	10+ ESRB for Comic Mischief and Cartoon Violence
Engine:	Unity Engine
Release date:	Tuesday, April 11, 2017 (Non-Nintendo Switch ports)
Genre:	3-D Platformer Action-adventure Collect-a-thon
Modes:	Single-player Local co-op Local multi-player
Platforms:	Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch
Media:	Digital download Physical Release

Yooka-Laylee (formerly codenamed Project Ukulele) is a 3D platformer and action-adventure video game developed by Playtonic Games, comprised mostly of former Rare, Ltd. alumni. The game is the spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. The game was released on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 with releases on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and was published by Team17. A version for the Nintendo Switch has been confirmed, though the release date is unknown.

Story

This story begins with Yooka and Laylee living in Shipwreck Creek until they discover a magical book that, much to their dismay, is stolen and shredded. The culprit is the dastardly tycoon Capital B, a business baron with a devious scheme to use Dr. Quack's invention, the Noveliser 64, to absorb all of the world's books and have a monopoly over the book industry. However, some one hundred "Pagies" seem to have escaped. So the discordant duo set out to collect the Pagies scattered throughout each world, which when united will reassemble their book.

Gameplay

At EGX Rezzed 2015, Playtonic revealed that the game will be a "huge celebration of 3D platforming games leveraging their experience." There will be sequences within the game where the player collects collectibles, with the main ones being pages called "Pagies." There will be several combos and moves to master alongside "beautifully themed" worlds to not only explore but to expand by collecting Pagies as well.

Characters

Laylee (top) and Yooka (bottom)

After the first teaser was released, many fans speculated what the silhouettes of the animals were. At EGX Rezzed 2015, the (possibly) two main characters were hidden in a bush in the first hub world screenshot and could only be seen in the version shown at the event, as Playtonic Games tweeted an identical screenshot, but excluding the characters. It was further evidenced that it was them, as Playtonic tweeted the following: "And for everyone asking why we didn't introduce our new heroes today - we did. Didn't you see them?" According to a Q&A on Playtonic's website, the characters would have a formal reveal sometime in May. On April 30, Playtonic fully revealed the main characters alongside with their names.

Development

Mingy Jongo

• In September of 2012, a Twitter account by the name of Mingy Jongo appeared and got the word out that a crew of ex Rareware members (including Grant Kirkhope & Steven Hurst) got together for a Banjo-Tooie Successor. They showed interest in Unity and Kickstarter. Sometime after the announcement of the spiritual successor, the Twitter page went silent.
• In April of 2014, Grant Kirkhope on a Reddit post would confirm that the Mingy Jongo project was cancelled. He stated: "The other guys actually had a secret meeting in a pub near Rare and we even got as far as having a character drawn up and a demo level type thing but it all fell to bits .... everyone's got other jobs etc."

• Later that year in December, the Mingy Jongo twitter page posted a series of tweets. The three one worded tweets they posted were "Ctrl", "ALT", and "Del", later followed by a tweet in January 2015 "Installing update 0x1D597." Being in hexadecimal form, fans were able to translate 0x1D597 to 120215 which can also be translated to UK date format, reading February 12th, 2015.
• On February 9th, Mingy Jongo would post its last tweet before the change, reading "Bzzt. Update Complete. Standby for reboot. Reveal mode engage......."

Playtonic Games Reveal

Teaser of Playtonic's future mascots: Yooka and Laylee.

• On February 10th, 2015, Mingy Jongo turned into the newly formed company Playtonic Games, which announced a "spiritual successor" to Banjo-Kazooie under the name Project Ukulele. Along with the announcement, they released a teaser image picturing the two unknown protagonists hiding in a bush.
  • The composers for the game's music were announced days later. David Wise, Steve Burke and fan favorite Grant Kirkhope were confirmed to be on board.

Teaser posted on Facebook on March 11, 2015.

• On March 11th, Playtonic Games posted a teaser picture of a palm tree on their Facebook with the caption "Soon... #Rezzed" referring to the reveal of their game at the upcoming EGX Rezzed event.

• On March 14th, a few details about the game were revealed at EGX Rezzed, showcasing screenshots of possible hub worlds and announced a Kickstarter to come in May for fans to support the game.

• On April 10th, Playtonic Games announced on their Twitter that the Kickstarter would go live on May 1st, 2015.

• On April 16, 2015, Playtonic tweeted the following: "Who could be hiding in there? Only 14 days left until you meet the buddy-duo heroes of #ProjectUkulele" with the first teaser image, referring to the launch of the Kickstarter on May 1st, 2015 which will reveal the characters.

• On April 30, 2015, Playtonic Games announced the game will be titled Yooka-Laylee, along with revealing the main characters.

Kickstarter

• On May 1st, 2015, the game's official Kickstarter was launched. It passed and surpassed it's goal in less than 30 minutes.

• On May 11th, 2015, the first major supporting character, Trowzer, was revealed.

• On May 29th, 2015, the Ghost Writers were revealed.

• On June 16th, 2015, the Kickstarter was ended and the project successfully raised £2,090,104 with 73,206 backers.

Post-Kickstarter/Pre-E3 Update

• On July 30th, 2015, Playtonic Games announced on their Kickstarter page that partnered with Team17 to be their publishers.

• On August 17th, 2015, Karn Bianco and Becky Lavender joined Playtonic Games.

• On October 5th, 2015, Playtonic Games revealed Clara and some new artwork.

• On November 15th, 2015, Playtonic Games revealed Rextro Sixtyfourus.

• On January 11th, 2016, Kevin Bayliss joined Playtonic Games.

• On February 10th, 2016, Playtonic Games celebrates their first anniversary with an update. They announced that Gary Talbot, Hamish Lockwood, and Damien Sparkes joined Playtonic Games. Also, the Kartos Challenge theme was released too.

• On March 4th, 2016, Simon Gerges and Lee Jackson joined Playtonic Games.

• On April 13th, 2016, Playtonic Games announced that Phil Tossell will be helping with the game, but not announced as an official team member.

• From May 13th, 2016, through May 21st, 2016, Playtonic Games made multiple hints of a big announcement about the main villain, by renaming their Twitter account to "Hivory Towers", and creating a new Twitter Account called "Quack Corp".

Raising the Curtain

• On May 20th, 2016, Playtonic Games announced a massive update to the game called "Raising the Curtain". They officially announced the main villain Capital B and announced two other characters: Dr. Puzz and Dr. Quack. Playtonic Games also announced that the Toybox will come sometime in July.

• On May 26th, 2016, Edge Magazine issue 294 was released, featured lots of new information on Yooka-Laylee, such as Vendi, Lady Leap-A-Lot, Transformations, Play Tonics, and a whole lot more.

• On June 6th, 2016, Playtonic Games released the E3 2016 Trailer, and announced that the game was to be delayed until Q1 2017.

• On June 15th, 2016, Grant Kirkhope and Steve Mayles were interviewed by Daemon Hatfield from IGN, and revealing first footage of the Toybox.

• On July 28th, 2016, the Toybox, and Toybox+ was released to backers of the Kickstarter.

• On August 16th, 2016 (August 17th, 2016 from Playtonic Games), Playtonic Games released a new Gamescom Trailer.

• On September 25th, 2016 Playtonic released the Character Parade Trailer at EGX, revealing guest star Shovel Knight in the game.

• On December 13th, 2016 Playtonic Games announced that they canceled the game for the Wii U. But they revealed that they are working on a Nintendo Switch release. Backers may also have the option to upgrade to a physical copy or change platforms completely.

• On January 4th, 2017, Andy Wilson and Gary Richards joined Playtonic Games.

• On January 17th, 2017, a UK PlayStation Magazine was released that talks about Yooka-Laylee, including name updates and other content like Pirate Treasure and new Minigames.

Yooka-Laylee 'Goes Gold'!

• On January 30th, 2017, Playtonic Games announced that Yooka-Laylee has 'Gone Gold', and Kickstarter Backers could change their platforms.

• On Saturday, April 1st, 2017, at 3:00 PM 0:00 GMT, Playtonic Games presented the final version of Yooka-Laylee at EGX Rezzed 2017 at the Tobacco Dock in Wapping, London where Playtonic Games showcased worlds, characters, transformations, collectibles, abilities, sounds, music, minigames, etc.

Post-Release

• Yooka-Laylee was released on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 for $39.99 USD. A Nintendo Switch release date is to be announced. A day one patch was released, fixing some of the major bugs that reviewers criticized the game for and removing JonTron's voice due to controversy prior to the game's release.

  

  Yes we cam

• On Tuesday, June 27, 2017, Playtonic Games released the Spit 'N' Polish Update for Steam users that gives the following features: ability to skip dialogue faster, bypass cutscenes, reduce gibberish voices, camera updates, pause menu music, and additional design polish.
• On Monday, September 25, 2017, Playtonic Games released an update claiming that they switched to a new version of Unity 3D 5.6 where they ran into additional problems. Yooka-Laylee is also on sale on Humble Bundle for $24.

Gallery

Artwork

Early logo

American Disc Box Cover for Yooka-Laylee.

Screenshots

Screenshot of early designs of Tribalstack Tropics during EGX Rezzed 2015

Screenshot of early designs of what is now Hivory Towers

Preview of the Glide

There was originally a nighttime version of the old Tribalstack Tropics

The world featured a bridge where 12 Corplets charged at the player

Early Designs for the Grand Tomes

Concept Trees

Planker

First Screenshots revealed for Tribalstack Tropics

Screenshot of Shipwreck Creek

The duo, flapping through hoops.

Early level concept.

The duo flying towards a castle.

In Snowplough Form

Duke's Temple

Pants