[Update 2] Beyond any of Playtonic's wildest dreams, the Kickstarter campaign has crossed the final stretch goal of £1,000,0000 (the equivalent of $1.5M) all within a day. This means that there will be a simultaneous day-one release for Yooka-Laylee on Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
In fact, Playtonic is so surprised at the campaign's meteoric success that they've added another stretch goal at £1,100,0000 where they're going to add a N64 shader mode as well as a "GK Rap + Video" by Grant Kirkhope in the game's credits.
But if this keeps up, I suspect that they're reach that goal in about, I don't know, three hours? They're going to need some more stretch goals, methinks…
[Update] The Kickstarter for Yooka-Laylee has crossed £718,994, which when converted is comfortably beyond the $1M mark, an incredible sum for any Kickstarter campaign and especially for a campaign that's still in its opening day.
The day isn't over yet of course, and at this rate, it may just reach its final £1,000,000 stretch goal. If that happens by midnight, according to this tweet by Playtonic, we will see composer Grant Kirkhope playing the ukulele outside the E3 convention center. My camera is ready.
[Original] Yooka-Laylee, aka Project Ukelele, aka the spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie, aka what we wanted from Rare Ltd. a long time ago, has reached its Kickstarter goal in a single day.
By way of over 8,000 backers, Yooka-Laylee's original goal of £175,000 has been smashed and, at the time of this writing, is far over £375,000. And there's still 46 days to go.
The game will follow the adventure of the green chameleon Yooka with the wisecracking lady-bat Laylee through vivid, expandable 3D worlds that will remind you of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
If you head down the Kickstarter page, you can listen to the two songs "Jungle World" and "Jungle Challenge" which hit my nostalgic nerves squarely on the head.
The Kickstarter campaign has plenty of stretch goals, and by the end of the day, the total should move well pass the third goal of £330,000 for a "pre-final boss Quiz Show challenge." The release date and release platforms for the game will depend on which stretch goals are reached. The final £1,000,000 goal will see a simultaneous day-one release for Wii U, Xbox One, and PS4, instead of the initial plan of a PC release before the console SKUs.
Anyway, I think this is cause for celebration. So here's composer Grant Kirkhope doing a Banjo-Kazooie tribute!
