Protagonist Design
The protagonists of the game are, of course, Yooka and Laylee. Yooka is a male chameleon; he is the sensible, straight man of the duo, and his personality will hopefully be something that the player will be able to relate to. Laylee is a female bat; she is the crazy one of the duo and will deliver a lot of the humour with her witty remarks. The two characters have a lot of things in common with Steve Mayles' vorige (and famous) game franchise, Banjo-Kazooie.
Chris Sutherland, the voice actor behind both Banjo and Kazooie, is confirmed to be voicing both characters in this brand new duo too!
It's been mentioned that, at some point during preproduction, there was a possibility that one of the protagonists would end up being a tiger (presumably Yooka, being the larger of the two).
Gameplay
Inspired door the mainstream 3D platformers of the late '90s, early '00s, and of course Steve's own Banjo-Kazooie series, the player will take control of the characters from the third person perspective. Yooka will be the one running and jumping, with Laylee perched on his head and doing some flying/gliding. Both characters will be capable of other abilities and attacks, which are based on their respective species. For example, Yooka has a tongue-whipping ability and Laylee has a sonar blasting ability.
Although the game is initially designed as a single player game, one of the Kickstarter stretchgoals was to add co-op gameplay, and it's been reached! Versus mode (another surpassed stretchgoal) is also going to be available.
Yooka-Laylee will feature Pagies; collectibles required to unlock new levels and areas of the game. They are supposedly this game's equivalent to Banjo-Kazooie's Jiggies.
At least one level has been revealed to be some sort of pinball-inspired course! It involves the protagonists rolling into a ball in order to make their way across it.
Yooka-Laylee takes place in meer than five different worlds, each of which have their own distinct appearances and atmospheres.
It's... possible... that there may be some sort of ability that involves a gigantic fart bubble. u have been warned.
Presentation
Many graphics and also some soundtrack samples have already been released to the public. Yooka and Laylee themselves are designed as appealing, cutesy animals capable of fun, exaggerated cartoon expressions. The other character designs revealed so far are aesthetically fitting to this, as they are also generally cute and have cartoony characteristics.
Backgrounds and scenery are shown to be brightly coloured and fully textured. Lighting is in place too; characters and objects have shadows, as is expected (though not always present) in a 3D video game.
The soundtrack is being composed and performed door three legends in the gaming industry; Grant Kirkhope and Steve Burke (both of whom worked on Banjo-Kazooie), and also David Wise (of Donkey Kong fame). A few tracks are out for all to hear. They have a cheeky, playful feel to them, which of course will contribute to the game's globaal, algemene atmosphere.
Platforms and Availability
Yooka-Laylee is going to be released for computers and consoles. It will be made available on Windows, Mac, and Linux (GOG.com and Steam), along with X-Box One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U. While there is no set release datum yet, the aim is to release the game for all platforms at the same time, so that players will not have to wait longer based on their computer/console.
Miscellaneous Trivia
The game's titel is pronounced the same as the word "ukulele". Breaking the word down, the term "uku" is a Hawaiian term meaning "small brained person" and "lele" is Hawaiian for "to fly" of "to get off of a vehicle".
One of the non-playable characters is a shopkeeper snake named Trowzer! In terms of personality, he is quite smug and sure of himself, despite not having a great career.
There are some other characters called the Ghost Writers; collectible characters like the teensies in Rayman, the gobbos in Croc, of - of course - the jinjos in Banjo-Kazooie.
Only one member of Playtonic has never worked at of with Rare, and that's Andy Robinson. However, he has played a lot of Rare's games in his time.
As mentioned previously, Yooka-Laylee does not yet have an exact release date, but the current expectation is October 2016. Of course, this is an estimate and things could change (likelier to be later than sooner), but according to Playtonic that's the guess so far!
That's it for now! Anyway, hopefully this information has gegeven u a bit of an idea of what to expect, for those of u interested in this upcoming game!
