Yooka-Laylee story details and new screens arrive ahead of demo launch

Playtonic Games have debuted a new look at Yooka-Laylee, its upcoming platformer and Kickstarter success story, on its website. In a blog post, the developer wrote that it was finally ready to show off the game's "final form."

A handful of new screenshots accompany the first hints at Yooka-Laylee's story. The game will take place "inside the work halls of a baneful business, as the buddy-duo seek out the magical Pagies required to explore the mysterious Grand Tomes," Playtonic explained. The titular chameleon and bat will have to stop the appropriately named Capital B from stealing and transforming all of the books in the world into cash.

Along the way are collectibles to grab and puzzles to clear, in keeping with the game's biggest influence, Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series. Playtonic Games said that there will be hundreds of items to discover, which will allow the player to buy new moves. They'll also meet a variety of other characters, all of whom Playtonic will detail in the coming weeks.

For Kickstarter backers, a special stand-alone build of the game will be available this July. The Toybox demo is a sandbox version of Yooka-Laylee, which the studio describes as "spoiler-free." Players will be able to test out the characters' moves and find a few hidden items.

Playtonic Games teased that more information about the game will come out of this year's E3 event in June. The Linux, Mac, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Wii U and Xbox One game is still planned for release later this year, although the developer was noncommittal about the release date.

"The Playtonic team is working towards the same release window penned last year, but as fans of some of our past work will attest, we're a group committed to releasing games only when they're polished, complete and at the quality level you expect," the studio said in the post. "As soon as we're confident we've ticked all of those boxes, we'll inform our backers directly of when to mark their calendars."

For more on Yooka-Laylee, whose Kickstarter raised over $3 million last year, check out our preview from last year's E3. You can get a taste of the game's finished look from the images below.

Grid View