Having the chance to talk to some of your idols it’s an humble privilege. As a platform worshipper being able to contact one of the team that made the history of the genre, in terms of innovation, humor and stability it’s simply amazing. Over the Kickstarter records Playtonic Games is the team to look forward for its portfolio and gaming approach. Cheerful, honest and dedicated to development despite the heavy heritage.
1) On a scale from 1 to 10 how much pressure do you feel promising the spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie?
Hmm, 6.4. A lot of the pressure comes from our own expectations, we’ve wanted to make this style of game again for a long time. We love this style of game and we’ve worked on this genre before so expectations are high, but that’s exactly how we want it. Both our fans and us love Banjo Kazooie, so it’ll be a pleasure to work on an all new IP with Yooka-Laylee within the genre as it gives us and fans the best of both worlds – all the gameplay they love already with the joy of learning about all new characters, moves and worlds too which bring all sorts of nice surprises too.
2) Do you think there is still place in 2015 for 3D platforms in a gaming industry which can offer huge open worlds?
No. I mean yes!!!! I think fans are as excited about this game just as much as we are for making it and our Kickstarter has really validated the love for the genre! It’s a shame that other genres pushed out 3D platformers from the release schedules over the years (I think as dev costs rise, publishers want to take less risks so they stick to whatever the current in-demand style of game is) but this isn’t a problem for us…in fact we see it as a strength that we can make the games that bigger teams daren’t attempt!
3) Despite the development of Project Ukulele, what made you decide to leave Microsoft and its “comforts” in terms of company?
We all left at different times for different reasons, but one common goal we all share is our passion for doing this game and within a company like Playtonic – sometimes you have to take a leap of faith to achieve your dreams! There were some nice things about working at Microsoft, but it’s just the case that big and small companies each have their own unique strengths and as creators you have to think “Which type of company suits me best?” When we answered that question there was only one choice and that was to create that company that helps us do our best work!
4) Are you already in touch with Nintendo, targeting Wii U as a platform?
We’ve been in touch with all 3 major console platform holders and we can’t wait to try out the devkits, especially Wii U! The gamepad really interests us! I really like the off-screen play, it means when my wife wants to watch TV I don’t have to turn the console off and I think this is a big strength for the machine! But there are lots of other Wii U features that we’d be interested in exploring too and I’m glad we will be releasing the Wii U version on the first day of release!
5) Why you have decided to open the Kickstarter months after your presentation?
Going to Kickstarter will help us create an even better version of the game than we originally conceived and allows us to release simultaneously on all platforms – we didn’t want any fans to have to wait for a later version. It takes a lot of time and preparation to do a kickstarter campaign right which is why we needed a couple of months after our Rezzed presentation. We had LOTS of fan feedback to read and listen to so we could give them the campaign they wanted especially in terms of tiers and goals.
6) What are your plans in terms of reveals? When are we going to see gameplay or some sort of trailer?
Hopefully by now you’ve seen the gameplay and it gives a great insight to our plans…there’s plenty more to come too! One of the best things about Kickstarter is that now our backers can closely follow our development and see progress. We will try not to spoil the gameplay too much so it feels as fresh and surprising as possible when the game comes out, but we look forward to sharing future news and assets with backers. Those that backed us on Kickstarter on the ‘Toybox’ tier will also get an early preview of character feel with a special demo built specifically for getting the player hands on with Yooka and Laylee but not spoiling any of the final game scenarios!
7) Aren’t you afraid of comparisons, or worse “more of the same”? Fans are great but the hype could be a double-edged sword, what are your plans of innovation for this game?
We aren’t worried because we are taking advantage of the advance n technology since we last made a game like this over 10 years ago. As creators we want to push ourselves as hard as possible and introduce new elements to the genre and make sure the things people love return but also with some new twists and turns! Enemies used to be weak and not really a feature but we want to give them group behaviors with different outcomes so when you have to deal with them, new surprises can happen. One of the big aims for us is to make the game less linear and allow players to explore the game their own way. We are adding more freedom to how you unlock the special moves and the levels can be expanded too by spending the main collectible called Pagies on them (as well as opening up new levels).
A big thanks to Gavin Pierce for his time, Andy for having put up with me in these weeks, now we simply have to wait until October 2016 and the updates on Yooka-Laylee, a hope for the future of platforms.