Playtonic’s Project Ukulele Becomes Yooka-Laylee

Playtonic has finally revealed the final name of it’s new game: Yooka-Laylee. Previously referred to as Project Ukulele, Yooka-Laylee is being pitched as the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, it even shares the same dual character mechanic. Yooka is a chameleon who rolls to attack enemies, Laylee on the other hand is a bat who is able to lift both characters, allowing you to cross wide spaces.

Yooka-Laylee is being developed by the same creative team who developed Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country. Yooka-Laylee will be funded through a Kickstarter campaign that launches tomorrow. All backers will be able to pick up the finished copy of Yooka-Laylee for £10/$15. There are also plans to include extras like soundtracks, art books, and a special ’64-bit’ special edition. Full details will be revealed tomorrow.

If funded, Yooka-Laylee will be released on Windows, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U. The release date of each version of Yooka-Laylee will depend upon the success of the Kickstarter campaign and its stretch goals.

“We’re trying to make something fresh,” says Grant Kirkhope, the BAFTA-winning composer of the game, who also created Banjo‘s superb soundtrack and audio effects. “It’s not just a retro remake.”

But the team isn’t satisfied to trade on nostalgia. We don’t want to make a knockoff. It’s about capturing a tone and a style of game more than it’s about just replicating everything. They want to do new stuff now.

While Banjo featured jigsaw-piece puzzles as collectibles that allowed the player to progress to new levels, Yooka-Laylee has collectable pages that complete a book, which is obviously a very similar activity. But they also have Play Tonics, an RPG-like mechanism that unlocks new character powers that the player can select. This is a significant addition, because it changes how each level can be completed by players, carrying different abilities.