Yooka-Laylee news round up

[Zonda]

Yooka Laylee is one of the 3 main game releases I'm holding out for, the other 2 being Sea of Thieves (depending if Rare are still being milked by M$ or not) and BotW.

Agreed 100%.
One could argue MS buying Bungie is the same thing. Bungie before MS made some very good games. Pathways Into Darkness, the Marathon Trilogy and the Myth games were industry leading games at the time. Some fo the few games made primarialy for the Mac pre OS X. Post MS buyout, they have made Oni, Halo (and sequels) and Destiny. Good games, but Halo 5 did feel a little milking the cash cow.

In that respect, I think MS buying Bungie was actually a beneficial buyout for everybody including the fans, with MS only steering the Halo franchise wrong with unrealistic deadlines for 343 industries. The Activision buyout of that same studio, however, almost directly mirrors the MS buyout of Rare. Destiny was a half finished abortion of a game on launch with literally none of the promised features advertised making it into the final product. Year 1 players were shafted out of $140 for slightly less content than the second year players got for $60.

 

[the8thark]

New Yooka-Laylee kickstarter backer update

After a seven-day nap, we’ve finally recouped enough energy to share the sordid details of Playtonic’s E3 adventures, where we privately showed off Yooka-Laylee for the first time and, by our estimation, consumed about 15 burgers in a half-week.
.


A troop of online media outlets kindly came to visit our meeting room at the Los Angeles-based show, and we rewarded each with a short and sharp demo of Yooka-Laylee – the first time we’ve done so since our crowdfunding campaign a year ago.

The hands-off demo focused on the new stuff we’re aiming to inject into the platform genre; expandable worlds, tonics, freeform move unlocking and our revamped collectibles system. Thankfully they seemed to like it, as we picked up a whole bunch of Best of Show nominations, notably from IGN, MTV, US Gamer and more. We’re very appreciative of the support, so thanks to them!

.

But our backers will be the ones to play Yooka-Laylee first - we've made sure of that. At E3 we premiered to fans a glimpse of the Toybox (watch it above), a custom-built Kickstarter backer experience winging its way to appropriate tier backers sometime next month. Oh, and there’s a trove of glimmering new screenshots over on the Yooka-Laylee game page, so have a look.

You can see a summary of our English online coverage, along with a selection of mischievous Grant Kirkhope-related video interviews, via the links below.

Thanks again for your continued support and expect lots more content reveals over the coming months!

• Gamespot: "Yooka-Laylee is an auditory delight with a sumptuous, carnivalesque world to escape in."
• Eurogamer: "Yooka-Laylee looks fantastic"
• US Gamer: "Yooka-Laylee is easy to fall in love with"
• Forbes: "It’s an impressive experience both in design and really tactile moreish game-play"
• Metro: "Yooka-Laylee is Kickstarter done right"
• IGN: "9 little things to know about Yooka-Laylee"
• IGN: "Brings back Banjo-Kazooie nostalgia with a twist"
• Digital Spy: "It seems like Yooka-Laylee... [is] shaping up to be the 3D platformer everyone hoped it would be"
• Sixth Axis: "Playtonic are creating something that’s both an homage and a step toward the future."
• Xbox Achievements: "It can't come soon enough"
• Gamer Rant: "Yooka-Laylee looks to be the experience that every Kickstarter backer was dreaming of"
• PlayStation Universe: "It's easy to see how the unassuming pair can triumphantly spur on a reawakening of 'collectathons' for years to come."
• IDigital Times: "Clean, Bright, Modern Take On Classic 3D Platformers"
• Hardcore Gamer: "Yooka-Laylee is a breath of fresh air in a what is now a long lost genre."
• Games Radar: "That's a lot of people to please, but this clever expansion mechanic could make a world's load of difference."
• Gaming Trend: "The platforming revival you’ve been waiting for"
• Tech Raptor: "Yooka-Laylee hits pretty much all the checkmarks one would expect"
• Shack News: "It’s alive and fun, filled to the brim with activities and never shying away from brilliant colors"
• Wow247: "Exciting, colourful and full of energy"

Spoiler: Seven videos featuring gameplay footage and interviews with playtonic from E3

Yooka-Laylee Gameplay Demo - IGN Live: E3 2016



Yooka-Laylee New PS4 Gameplay - Everything You Need To Know



Yooka-Laylee Interview with Steve Mayle and Grant Kirkhope - E3 2016 Stage Show



How To Interview Game Devs And Get The Truth



Yooka-Laylee Developer Interview - Grant Kirkhope & Steve Mayles



Yooka-Laylee GAMEPLAY & CHAT/w Grant Kirkhope & Steve Mayles



Yooka-Laylee - Interview @ E3 2016

 

[the8thark]

http://www.playtonicgames.com/open-the-toybox/

The Yooka-Laylee demo/beta thing is here for the kickstartbackers who backed for it. Enjoy.

TOYBOX: THE FAQ

What is the Toybox?

The Toybox is a self-contained, spoiler-free sandbox designed to give Yooka-Laylee backers a taste of the platforming mechanics set to appear in the final game. There are moves to try, custom-built props to play with, secrets to discover and yes, shiny collectibles to hunt out, but it’s only a small sample of the finished production – and visually incomparable.

Is the Toybox a demo?

The Toybox has been created from scratch for our backers and is not a traditional ‘demo’. In particular, the environments you see in the final version of Yooka-Laylee will be far more vast and detailed than the intentionally-simple playground you’ll be able to jump around in this week. There are also far more moves, animations and general polish included in the main game.

What platforms is the Toybox available for?

The Toybox is available for PC, Linux and Mac via Steam.

Which backer reward tiers are eligible for the Toybox?

All tiers £20 and above are eligible for a Toybox digital code. All tiers £35 and above are eligible to receive a second Toybox+ add-on code.

I backed an appropriate Kickstarter reward tier. How and when will I receive my code?

Digital codes will be distributed via BackerKit beginning Thursday, July 28. Please log in and ensure that your e-mail address is current before then. https://yooka-laylee.backerkit.com/

How do I redeem my Toybox code on Steam?

1. Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account.
2. Click the Games Menu.
3. Choose Activate a Product on Steam…
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

What are the minimum required system specs?

PC

OS: Windows 7 (64bit)

Processor: Intel Core2Duo E7300 @ 2.4 GHz

Memory: 4GB

Graphics: NVidia GeForce GTS 450 / AMD Radeon HD 6850

Direct X: 10.0

Storage: 1GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Additional Notes: Please be aware that the game does not support integrated video cards such as Intel. We recommend playing this game with a Xbox 360 controller.

MAC

OS: 10.9.5

Processor: Intel i5 @ 2.7GHz

Memory: 8GB

Graphics: GeForce 640M / ATI Radeon HD5750

Storage: 1GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Additional Notes: Please be aware that the game does not support integrated video cards such as Intel. We recommend playing this game with a PS4 controller.

LINUX

OS: Ubuntu 14.04 or later or SteamOS

Processor: Intel i5-2500k @ 3.3GHz

Memory: 4GB

Graphics: NVidia GeForce GTS 450 / AMD Radeon HD 6850

Storage: 1GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Additional Notes: Please be aware that the game does not support integrated video cards such as Intel. Users with AMD graphics cards will need to run the application on the ‘good’ quality setting or below. We recommend playing this game with a Xbox One controller.

What if I didn’t back the Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter? Can I buy the Toybox?

We currently have no plans to make the Toybox available to non-backers.

What is the Toybox Plus?

The Toybox Plus is an enhanced version of the Toybox which includes combat gameplay and a new area to explore. The Toybox Plus will be supplied as a second add-on code.

Can I stream or capture video of the Toybox?

Yes, go nuts. Bonus points if you do it in your pants.

What input methods do you recommend?

Keyboard and mouse are supported, but we recommend the following input controls per platform:

Windows: Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers

OSX: PlayStation 4 controller

Linux: Xbox One controller

Any other controller that doesn’t work with the default mapping will need a custom mapping in Unity’s input dialog, which appears when launching the game.

Who can I contact for support issues?

Please email [email protected]

 

[Viral Maze]

I was excited until I realised it's backers only.

 

[the8thark]

Here are my opinions/review of the Yooka-Laylee Toybox+ demo. It's a long read so I'll throw it in a spoiler so no one is unintentionally spoiled.

Spoiler: My opinions and review of the Yooka-Laylee Toybox demo

I have played and finished the toybox+. Not in 7 minutes though. I took quite a bit longer. Here is my feedback on it for the Playtonic developers to consider. I played the toybox+ with a keyboard and mouse. I don't have a controller that would work with the Toybox+.

1. The Camera

Done Well

• A full 360 degree rotating camera. This feels just so good. DK64 did not have this. (I've not played enough of Banjo-Kazooie to comment on that game but I have finished DK64 many times). It only have fixed camera angle points. This made thw game so hard to play at times as you had to work within the camera's limitations. The camera did not work with the player. A 360 degree rotating camera is required and Playtonic delivered. Well done.
• The section where the camera went into top down view as you were pushing the boxes in the two rooms was very well done. That is the perferred camera angle for this gameplay.
• The water looks amazing. The surface of the water is really well done. Under water while swimming looks good too.

Room for Improvement

• The camera is very jittery. When the are in a corner or right up close to a fence or similar the camera moves all over the place. This I think needs to be dealt with. Maybe add in a camera sensitivity option. Well two options. One for the X/Y plane and a 2nd for the Z axis.
• I found it very hard to get the Z axis of the camera just right. Maybe it was just me, but maybe there should be an auto level out the Z axis camera as an option. Well for some of my run through of the Toybox+ I jsut accepted the camera being off on the Z axis. Pointing more to the sky or the ground than I would have liked.
• In the part where you have to climb the wooden seesaws, all attached to the same wall, to reach the top, the camera was all wrong. It should have not been in the usual over the shounder view and changed to a flat view of the entire wall so we can see all of the seesaws at once. This would make climbing up the seesaws much easier. DK64 did this with having fixed camera angles at certain points. Yooka-Laylee needs to do the same. Have a fixed camera angle at certain points of thew game, like in the above mentioned two rooms section. Also to this for other obvious locations like swwsaw climbing up a wall and other obvious areas. It's obvious where this needs to be done. Not doing it makes tackling the obstacle more tough and less fun than it otherwise should be.
• The camera while swimming is not bad but it should be looked at for a touch more polish. In most games swimming is one of the hardest things to get correct. Spending the time to perfect this is time well spent
• When in corners or right up close to certain objects or walls the camera will not rotate wround the fill 360 degrees.

2. Graphics

Done Well

• Overall the Toybox+ looks well for an demo area. Yooka and Laylee look well done. Their animations, when moving, rolling, flying when attacking and when idle for a while all seem to look fine and they are animated well.
• The world also looks fine. The colours are bright but not too bright and the colours are not over saturated for aesthetic Playtonic is aiming to achieve here.
• The screen transitions between entering various rooms was done well.

Room for Improvement

• There is no pushing animation when Yooka-Laylee pushes anything, like a box or a ball. Or when YL walks into a wall, they don't push it. I would assume this is a feature not in the Toybox+ but will be in the final game. Just something I noticed.
• The sparkle effects in the 100% completion secret room all look nice and show no noticable slowdown at all on my computer. The enemies in glass boxes, in the room on the DLC island also do not slow down my computer. I know this is very early days but these rooms all played fine for me.
• There is no wet Yooka-Laylee look just after he's gotten out of the water. Hopefully this is on the to do list for the final game.
• I do not remember there being a decent splash effect when Yooka-Laylee enters water. If it's not there, then it's a little more polish that hopefully the final game will have.

3. Gameplay

Done Well

• Yooka and Laylee play well. They move around just fine for the most part. Flying and rolling work too. So basically it's all ok.
• Y-L's turning circle while running is fine.
• The difficulty curve to learn to use all of the various moves is not high once a move is explained to you. I didn't know about the spring tail jump till the game told me about it. Not that I didn't know about it over all (DK64 had a similar thing) but it just didn't enter my mind till the game told me about it. I tried other ways to get around the map till I was told "hey you can spring jump". That made traversing the map a lot easier. In short, I would descvribe each moveonce Y-L aquire it and then let the player experiment with it. People will not just randomly stumble upon it. I didn't.
• Combat is done well. Of the moves the Toybox+ had, felt fluid and played well. Attacking the enemies on the DLC island felt good. Possibly adding a way to focus the camera on a specific enemy would help a lot. This might be outside the scope of what Yooka-Laylee is as a 3D collectathon though.

Room for Improvement

• There is a little lag some of the actions Y-L can do at times. In specific areas, like when trying to roll up the slopes of that tower (where you have to time rolling jumps well), there is serious lag when trying to make these jumps. It's not my system as I've been in more traphically intense areas on the map, tried roll jumping on flat ground and up slopes and no lag. This is all polish. I say this because even though it's a minor issue, Playtonic care about the polish. It's why they make amazing games. Fixing this will make rolling up hills annd roll jumping a lot less frustrating. Because of this I could not make the final part of that tower where you have to roll up, jump and turn a corner all at the same time. I reached the top of this tower another way, by gliding down from another area of the map.
• There is no jumping while sliding down a slope. Not sure if this is intentional or just a feature not yet implimented into the game. Hopefully this will be in the finished game.
• Swimming does feel a little slow. Also trying to collect anything while swimming is annoying. This is a common complaint I have with many games. Very few do swimming well. Swimmnig in Yooka-Laylee does need some polish. It's not (in my opinion) in a state up to the Playtonic standard to be released in the final game. A little polish here however can bring swimming in Yooka-Laylee up to standard.
• Y-L's turning circle while rolling is possibly a little too large and possibly should be looked at.
• In the terrain demo secret room, the water type floor had no visible splashes when Y-L walked on it. I assume this will be added to the final game in polish.
• Attacking with the tail while moving can help you cover more distance for jumps. As in you only start falling after the spin is done. Not sure if this is meant to be in the Toybox+ or not. The speedrunners are making full use of this.

4. Physics

Done Well

• Running around feels fine and there is no sliding to a stop on the standard ground.
  The different ground types in the terrain demo secret room all worked well. The slide on the ice floor type was well done. The differences when walking on them all were subtle (apart from sinking into the mud one).
• The floating logs move well in the water when Y-L walkson them or swims near them.
• The boxes and barrels move well. But the small ones feel very light weight and the big one feels a tough heave for what it is. I know they are just there as is for the demo, but that's my impression of them. Also they didn't land as a normal box would. Overall done well, but a touch of polish would really make them great.
• I feel mostly neutral about the ball. Without Y-L actyally pushing the ball (he only alked into it), it's ahrd to accurately talk about this. It moved well, it didn't get stuck in any corners. I did think the ball only had one set accelleration applied to it. Running into the ball didn't make it shoot off in a direction faster. Also ground pounding the ball did nothing. Rolling the ball up hill was a little tricky but not impossible. I do think with a little polish this could be done really well.
• The wind was done well. Possibly to have Y-L acellerate in the wind a little more slowly. But apart from that it just worked well.
• The mud floor type in the terrain demo secret room felt as it should when Y-L sank into it. Y-L sank into it at the right speed I think.

Room for Improvement

• Rolling on the ice floor type in the terrain demo secret room felt a little odd. There was no slow speed up as I thought there should have been and the slide when slwoing down didn't seem to be present. But with a patch of ice so small it's tough to tell.
• Y-L did not slide on the seesaws, no matter what the seesaw angle was. I fully expect Y-L to slide off when the seesaw angle became too great, but that mever happened. I would hope this is addressed in the final game. Without it, seesaws are just not up to standard. Apart fron this the seesaws do move well when Y-L walks on them.

5. Music

Done Well

• The music here was done very well. The world renowned musical creation talent on board for this game did not disappoint. The music game me a feeling of where the Toybox+ was set even though graphically this was not shown.
• The subtle differences of the music in the different rooms/areas worked very well.
  The music was not over produced. It said what it needed too and no more. Was not too intrusive. You can listen to it and still focus on the game, but also the music is good enough to listen to outside the game (ie the soundtrack).

Room for Improvement

• The music needs to keep feeling like the area it's in. Basically so you can close your eyes, listen to the music and you know exactly what area you are in. DK64 did this well. The three DKC SNES games did this amazingly well (DKC2 especially). The Toybox+ here does this well also. I just hope this continues throughout the rest of the finished game. I realise this is a rather lame room for improvement but I found it hard to find much room for improvement with the music. Music is something the Playtonic crew does so amazingly well. So well that even very good music will feel like a let down when compared to their amazing work of their RARE past.

6. Sound Effects

Done Well

• The jumping, landing, moving and general sound effects all fit well into the theme of that Yooka-Laylee is as a game.
• Landing in water sounded just fine as well.
• The enemy sound effects on the DLC island also went well with what these enemies are.
• I quite liked the sound effect in the transition between moving to a different room. Totally copied in style from Banjo-Kazooie and DK64. It works very well.

Room for Improvement

• Walking on the ice floor type in the terrain demo secret room just sounded wrong. Did not sound like walking on ice at all. Walking on the other floor types in the terrain demo secret room sounded as they should when walking on them.

7. Bugs/Glitches

• Apart from the camera being all wonky and rather all over the place at times and the rolling jump having way too much delay at times, the only major bug I experienced was getting stuck in a crevice between a rock and a corner. I could rotate the camera. I could not move or jump or attack. This forced me to reset the Toybox+ and restart the collecting of the 100 feathers.
  
  Here is an image I took (from my phone as proper screen shots would not work) of where this bug happened.
  
  
  

8. Conclusion
Overall the Toybox+ was very enjoyable and a nice demo of what is to come. The Toybox+ is not perfect but with some polish all the issues here could easily be ironed out for a great final game experience.

 

[Lozjam]

Here are my opinions/review of the Yooka-Laylee Toybox+ demo. It's a long read so I'll throw it in a spoiler so no one is unintentionally spoiled.

Spoiler: My opinions and review of the Yooka-Laylee Toybox demo

I have played and finished the toybox+. Not in 7 minutes though. I took quite a bit longer. Here is my feedback on it for the Playtonic developers to consider. I played the toybox+ with a keyboard and mouse. I don't have a controller that would work with the Toybox+.

1. The Camera

Done Well

• A full 360 degree rotating camera. This feels just so good. DK64 did not have this. (I've not played enough of Banjo-Kazooie to comment on that game but I have finished DK64 many times). It only have fixed camera angle points. This made thw game so hard to play at times as you had to work within the camera's limitations. The camera did not work with the player. A 360 degree rotating camera is required and Playtonic delivered. Well done.
• The section where the camera went into top down view as you were pushing the boxes in the two rooms was very well done. That is the perferred camera angle for this gameplay.
• The water looks amazing. The surface of the water is really well done. Under water while swimming looks good too.

Room for Improvement

• The camera is very jittery. When the are in a corner or right up close to a fence or similar the camera moves all over the place. This I think needs to be dealt with. Maybe add in a camera sensitivity option. Well two options. One for the X/Y plane and a 2nd for the Z axis.
• I found it very hard to get the Z axis of the camera just right. Maybe it was just me, but maybe there should be an auto level out the Z axis camera as an option. Well for some of my run through of the Toybox+ I jsut accepted the camera being off on the Z axis. Pointing more to the sky or the ground than I would have liked.
• In the part where you have to climb the wooden seesaws, all attached to the same wall, to reach the top, the camera was all wrong. It should have not been in the usual over the shounder view and changed to a flat view of the entire wall so we can see all of the seesaws at once. This would make climbing up the seesaws much easier. DK64 did this with having fixed camera angles at certain points. Yooka-Laylee needs to do the same. Have a fixed camera angle at certain points of thew game, like in the above mentioned two rooms section. Also to this for other obvious locations like swwsaw climbing up a wall and other obvious areas. It's obvious where this needs to be done. Not doing it makes tackling the obstacle more tough and less fun than it otherwise should be.
• The camera while swimming is not bad but it should be looked at for a touch more polish. In most games swimming is one of the hardest things to get correct. Spending the time to perfect this is time well spent
• When in corners or right up close to certain objects or walls the camera will not rotate wround the fill 360 degrees.

2. Graphics

Done Well

• Overall the Toybox+ looks well for an demo area. Yooka and Laylee look well done. Their animations, when moving, rolling, flying when attacking and when idle for a while all seem to look fine and they are animated well.
• The world also looks fine. The colours are bright but not too bright and the colours are not over saturated for aesthetic Playtonic is aiming to achieve here.
• The screen transitions between entering various rooms was done well.

Room for Improvement

• There is no pushing animation when Yooka-Laylee pushes anything, like a box or a ball. Or when YL walks into a wall, they don't push it. I would assume this is a feature not in the Toybox+ but will be in the final game. Just something I noticed.
• The sparkle effects in the 100% completion secret room all look nice and show no noticable slowdown at all on my computer. The enemies in glass boxes, in the room on the DLC island also do not slow down my computer. I know this is very early days but these rooms all played fine for me.
• There is no wet Yooka-Laylee look just after he's gotten out of the water. Hopefully this is on the to do list for the final game.
• I do not remember there being a decent splash effect when Yooka-Laylee enters water. If it's not there, then it's a little more polish that hopefully the final game will have.

3. Gameplay

Done Well

• Yooka and Laylee play well. They move around just fine for the most part. Flying and rolling work too. So basically it's all ok.
• Y-L's turning circle while running is fine.
• The difficulty curve to learn to use all of the various moves is not high once a move is explained to you. I didn't know about the spring tail jump till the game told me about it. Not that I didn't know about it over all (DK64 had a similar thing) but it just didn't enter my mind till the game told me about it. I tried other ways to get around the map till I was told "hey you can spring jump". That made traversing the map a lot easier. In short, I would descvribe each moveonce Y-L aquire it and then let the player experiment with it. People will not just randomly stumble upon it. I didn't.
• Combat is done well. Of the moves the Toybox+ had, felt fluid and played well. Attacking the enemies on the DLC island felt good. Possibly adding a way to focus the camera on a specific enemy would help a lot. This might be outside the scope of what Yooka-Laylee is as a 3D collectathon though.

Room for Improvement

• There is a little lag some of the actions Y-L can do at times. In specific areas, like when trying to roll up the slopes of that tower (where you have to time rolling jumps well), there is serious lag when trying to make these jumps. It's not my system as I've been in more traphically intense areas on the map, tried roll jumping on flat ground and up slopes and no lag. This is all polish. I say this because even though it's a minor issue, Playtonic care about the polish. It's why they make amazing games. Fixing this will make rolling up hills annd roll jumping a lot less frustrating. Because of this I could not make the final part of that tower where you have to roll up, jump and turn a corner all at the same time. I reached the top of this tower another way, by gliding down from another area of the map.
• There is no jumping while sliding down a slope. Not sure if this is intentional or just a feature not yet implimented into the game. Hopefully this will be in the finished game.
• Swimming does feel a little slow. Also trying to collect anything while swimming is annoying. This is a common complaint I have with many games. Very few do swimming well. Swimmnig in Yooka-Laylee does need some polish. It's not (in my opinion) in a state up to the Playtonic standard to be released in the final game. A little polish here however can bring swimming in Yooka-Laylee up to standard.
• Y-L's turning circle while rolling is possibly a little too large and possibly should be looked at.
• In the terrain demo secret room, the water type floor had no visible splashes when Y-L walked on it. I assume this will be added to the final game in polish.
• Attacking with the tail while moving can help you cover more distance for jumps. As in you only start falling after the spin is done. Not sure if this is meant to be in the Toybox+ or not. The speedrunners are making full use of this.

4. Physics

Done Well

• Running around feels fine and there is no sliding to a stop on the standard ground.
  The different ground types in the terrain demo secret room all worked well. The slide on the ice floor type was well done. The differences when walking on them all were subtle (apart from sinking into the mud one).
• The floating logs move well in the water when Y-L walkson them or swims near them.
• The boxes and barrels move well. But the small ones feel very light weight and the big one feels a tough heave for what it is. I know they are just there as is for the demo, but that's my impression of them. Also they didn't land as a normal box would. Overall done well, but a touch of polish would really make them great.
• I feel mostly neutral about the ball. Without Y-L actyally pushing the ball (he only alked into it), it's ahrd to accurately talk about this. It moved well, it didn't get stuck in any corners. I did think the ball only had one set accelleration applied to it. Running into the ball didn't make it shoot off in a direction faster. Also ground pounding the ball did nothing. Rolling the ball up hill was a little tricky but not impossible. I do think with a little polish this could be done really well.
• The wind was done well. Possibly to have Y-L acellerate in the wind a little more slowly. But apart from that it just worked well.
• The mud floor type in the terrain demo secret room felt as it should when Y-L sank into it. Y-L sank into it at the right speed I think.

Room for Improvement

• Rolling on the ice floor type in the terrain demo secret room felt a little odd. There was no slow speed up as I thought there should have been and the slide when slwoing down didn't seem to be present. But with a patch of ice so small it's tough to tell.
• Y-L did not slide on the seesaws, no matter what the seesaw angle was. I fully expect Y-L to slide off when the seesaw angle became too great, but that mever happened. I would hope this is addressed in the final game. Without it, seesaws are just not up to standard. Apart fron this the seesaws do move well when Y-L walks on them.

5. Music

Done Well

• The music here was done very well. The world renowned musical creation talent on board for this game did not disappoint. The music game me a feeling of where the Toybox+ was set even though graphically this was not shown.
• The subtle differences of the music in the different rooms/areas worked very well.
  The music was not over produced. It said what it needed too and no more. Was not too intrusive. You can listen to it and still focus on the game, but also the music is good enough to listen to outside the game (ie the soundtrack).

Room for Improvement

• The music needs to keep feeling like the area it's in. Basically so you can close your eyes, listen to the music and you know exactly what area you are in. DK64 did this well. The three DKC SNES games did this amazingly well (DKC2 especially). The Toybox+ here does this well also. I just hope this continues throughout the rest of the finished game. I realise this is a rather lame room for improvement but I found it hard to find much room for improvement with the music. Music is something the Playtonic crew does so amazingly well. So well that even very good music will feel like a let down when compared to their amazing work of their RARE past.

6. Sound Effects

Done Well

• The jumping, landing, moving and general sound effects all fit well into the theme of that Yooka-Laylee is as a game.
• Landing in water sounded just fine as well.
• The enemy sound effects on the DLC island also went well with what these enemies are.
• I quite liked the sound effect in the transition between moving to a different room. Totally copied in style from Banjo-Kazooie and DK64. It works very well.

Room for Improvement

• Walking on the ice floor type in the terrain demo secret room just sounded wrong. Did not sound like walking on ice at all. Walking on the other floor types in the terrain demo secret room sounded as they should when walking on them.

7. Bugs/Glitches

• Apart from the camera being all wonky and rather all over the place at times and the rolling jump having way too much delay at times, the only major bug I experienced was getting stuck in a crevice between a rock and a corner. I could rotate the camera. I could not move or jump or attack. This forced me to reset the Toybox+ and restart the collecting of the 100 feathers.
  
  Here is an image I took (from my phone as proper screen shots would not work) of where this bug happened.
  
  
  

8. Conclusion
Overall the Toybox+ was very enjoyable and a nice demo of what is to come. The Toybox+ is not perfect but with some polish all the issues here could easily be ironed out for a great final game experience.

You should post this in the Playtonic forums. They are taking feedback there.


I largely agree with you. There are some things that need to be polished up, however, they have like a 6-9 months to polish this all up. So I really have faith that Yooka Laylee will be good.

 

[the8thark]

You should post this in the Playtonic forums. They are taking feedback there.


I largely agree with you. There are some things that need to be polished up, however, they have like a 6-9 months to polish this all up. So I really have faith that Yooka Laylee will be good.

Thank you. I agree with you needs polish but they'll get right on it.

I did post this on their forums as well.
http://forums.playtonicgames.com/viewtopic.php?p=27688#p27688
under their huge Toybox feedback topic.

 

[the8thark]

Gamescom 2016 Trailer.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqmF8IgxtJ0

 

[the8thark]

Eurogamer playing Yooka-Laylee for 6 minutes.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F_bG-uJMns

Note well this is like BotW, as in the spoilerish moments from the game have been removed for this demo.

 

[LittleGumball]

KARTOS THE GOD OF ORE I'M CRYING THIS GAME IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD

 

[the8thark]

Yooka-Laylee gets worldwide playable debut at EGX
https://www.egx.net/egx/news/yooka-laylee-gets-worldwide-playable-debut-at-egx/

 

[the8thark]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/w...-ploughs-and-retro-dinosaurs----yooka-laylee/
Minecarts, chameleon ploughs and retro dinosaurs - Yooka-Laylee combines bright, bold aesthetic with classic adventure in this gorgeous gallery

Spoiler: the 10 images are here to look at

 

[the8thark]

https://www.facebook.com/playtonicgames/posts/1755552778045594
Yooka-Laylee gets worldwide playable debut at EGX

In addition to offering the world's first hands-on demos at EGX, the Playtonic team will discuss the creation of Yooka-Laylee in a developer session on Sunday, September 25 at 4pm.
Those not at EGX will be able to catch the session live on Twitch and it'll be available to watch later on our YouTube channel.

I certainly will be watching this when I can.

 

[the8thark]

EGX

 

[the8thark]

Character Parade & Shovel Knight Trailer
http://nintendoeverything.com/shovel-knight-will-be-in-yooka-laylee/