Playtronic aims to revive the classic 3D platformer genre

May 4, 2015 07:04 GMT  ·  By

Playtronic Games, an independent studio founded by ex-Rare employees, has just released its first project into the wild, on Kickstarter.

The game's official title is Yooka-Laylee, and it's meant to be a spiritual successor to one of the best open-world 3D platformer series ever created, Banjo-Kazooie.

So far, things have been pretty hectic, with the project getting crowdfunded about 40 minutes after launch, and managing to clear its initial stretch goals in just one day.

Since its May 1st release, the Kickstarter campaign has raised £1.3 / $1.9 / €1.7 million, making it one of the most explosive in the popular crowdfunding platform's history.

Playtronic has been working on the game for around three months, after spending an additional three months in pre-production. You can catch a glimpse of some gameplay in the Kickstarter pitch video below.

Classic action with a modern twist

The title will feature classic 3D platforming gameplay, using the same dual protagonist formula, this time around the stars of the show being a chameleon and a bat.

This enables the team to make use of a ton of exciting abilities that manage to stretch reality but at the same time feel organic to the two characters, as they explore gorgeous 3D worlds.

The enthusiasm that fans have manifested since the title's announcement in February has allowed the team to push for greatly expanding the scope of the project, and the Kickstarter campaign serves to secure the necessary funds to make it a worthy successor to Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, some of the most iconic platforming franchises ever made.

Yooka-Laylee will be released on the Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms, most likely at the end of 2016.

Rare is also cooking something

Rare, the original makers of Banjo-Kazooie, are now owned by Microsoft, and have been devoted to crafting experiences for the Kinect motion sensor, over the last decade.

The corporation did mention that the studio still had plenty of Steam, and that something other than motion-focused games would emerge from there one day, but nothing was set in stone.

Now it seems that the company is getting ready to show off its upcoming title at this year's edition of the E3 convention. There have been a lot of rumors floating around, but for the time being, there is no actual information on the nature of the video game, aside from the fact that it uses a new intellectual property and that it is likely to be exclusive to Windows PC and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One home consoles.