Yooka-Laylee update reveals screens, story, and Dr. Quack

It was just over a year ago that the Banjo-Kazooie-inspired Yooka-Laylee walked away with more than £2 million ($2.9 million) on Kickstarter, an especially remarkable achievement given that its goal was £175,000 ($254,000). Things have been pretty quiet since then, but developer Playtonic Games revealed today that the studio has tripled in size over the past year, relocated, and "quietly slaved away on what would become the final form of Yooka-Laylee." 

“Yooka and Laylee’s adventure will take them deep inside the work halls of a baneful business, as the buddy-duo seek out the magical Pagies required to explore the mysterious Grand Tomes,” the update explains. “The dexterous pair will seek to unlock the ancient secrets of these bewitching books, as they battle to thwart corporate creep Capital B and his devious scheme to absorb all of the world’s literature… and convert them into pure profit.” 

The update includes a couple of new screens, introduces a pair of new characters—the “ruthless, exosuit-wearing fowl” known as Dr. Quack, and his former prodigy, the upstanding, multi-limbed Dr. Puzz—and reveals more about the game's many collectibles. There's also confirmation that the Toybox, “a self-contained, spoiler-free sandbox” demo, will be released in July to appropriately-tiered Kickstarter backers, and that it's taken longer than expected because it has grown into “a much more significant chunk of playable content” than had originally been planned. 

There's no release date yet, although Playtonic said it's “working towards the same release window penned last year.” More information will be coming over the next few weeks, and Yooka-Laylee will also be making an appearance at E3 in June.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in Action
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened