Yooka-Laylee

[SuperPang]

http://www.playtonicgames.com/"

We’re a sextet of artists, programmers and designers – sort of like The Pussycat Dolls with computer science degress – with one thing in common; we were all once core member of famous UK studio Rare, where we helmed franchises such as Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Viva Piñata.

We’ve got the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games.

Together, our all-star ensemble is aiming to build its debut game, ‘Project Ukulele’, into a worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures we built in the past.

[Rossyra]

we helmed

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Sounds promising.

[idc]

Sounds promising.

Sounds like Rare is pretty much dead.

[moshpit]

They need a Webdesigner

[idc]

They need a Webdesigner

Yeah, I refreshed the page twice thinking it hadn't loaded fully before timing out.

Nope. Apparently, that's the design.

[SuperPang]

Sounds like Rare is pretty much dead.

Although I can't pretend to have any insight into the goings on at Rare in recent years, it seems to me that MS have completely wasted their talent. Many of the key players have clearly left or been laid off. Nice to see them regrouping and hoping to create some magic again.

[CTN]

Even their homepage gives me a 90s flashback. There is hope for greatness to come

[geotrig]

Lol I thought rare were already gone

[gray117]

Curious to see how this goes... not imaging we'll see anything for a while though. Dubious but hopeful; it would be nice to see a veteran developer success story - especially a collective of them - not just a token figurehead.

Is it odd no there's mention of nuts and bolts, or just that they think it carries no cache/rep with old fans?

[SuperPang]

Kickstarter open and past its initial goal in under an hour.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pl ... nav_search"

[Sobriquet]

I was applying for a role at Rare as a developer in ~2002 the very week the rumours of the MS acquisition surfaced. I think I said something stupid to one of the Stamper brothers along the lines of liking the idea of developing on GCN, and Xbox didn't interest me as much if the rumours were true. Not sure if I got the rejection letter first or the deal was announced.

[SuperPang]

This is about to sail past its top £1m stretch goal in less than 24 hours

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

This is about to sail past its top £1m stretch goal in less than 24 hours

Making a Banzo Kazooie game where Banjo has Spyro's head was a brilliant move then.

[gray117]

Making a Banzo Kazooie game where Banjo has Spyro's head was a brilliant move then.

^ Ha! ... they're certainly mining/milking/copy/pasting their tropes... but I suppose that's really what they want to be doing...


Not a fan of these games myself, but intrigued to how these chaps might get this going - it's kind of nice to see them do what they want. And this is a decent, level headed kind of concept demo, delivered in good time too. They could really do better with some of the art - environment texturing in particular, and I reckon come up with a bit more of an elaborate shader to help soften it off, and elaborate shapes/materials a bit - it looks a little 'raw' as is ... but hell this seems a to be perfectly honest example of key gameplay concepts already up and running - only a start, but more to see than I expected.

I'd have expected something more showy like an animatic of the main character doing something daft/endearing - but they're really just concentrating on the core game which is to be applauded I suppose - very interesting indeed!

[SuperPang]