Yooka Laylee

Playtonic Games, a new studio comprised of ex-Rare developers, has been generating a lot of hype for its first project. We know from speaking to the studio, however, that it'll be absolutely stunned by the reaction to the Kickstarter campaign for its first game - Yooka-Laylee.

After launching on 1st May at 9am Pacific / noon Eastern / 5pm UK / 6pm CET, it smashed its core Kickstarter target of £175,000 in around 40 minutes. Though the crowdfunding campaign is all about expanding the scope of the project, and not required for the game to be completed, fans have wasted no time in showing their support.

As for the backer options themselves, $15 / £10 secures a PC Steam copy of the game, while consoles - including the Wii U - get a copy at $24 / £15. Putting down $32 / £20 gets you access to the game when released and also early access to a PC 'Toybox' demo. $535 / £340 is rather pricey but does get you a '64-bit edition', which includes goodies like a retro box, signed manual and special N64 flashcart.

What about stretch goals? There are plenty of them, many of which add new boss levels, characters and music. Some standouts include 2.5D and 3D mine cart levels at £435,000, a local co-op buddy mode at £535,000, local multiplayer modes and special games at £665,000, and importantly a day one simultaneous console release - including Wii U - at £1,000,000. Frankly, we wouldn't rule out a clean sweep of stretch goals based on current momentum.

With 46 days to go, this could certainly be one of the very biggest success stories for gaming on Kickstarter if it maintains strong momentum.

You can check out the pitch video below, but don't forget that we've got some exciting day one content on this game for you here on Nintendo Life. We have first impressions of playing Yooka-Laylee, and you can also go behind the scenes with Playtonic Games in our interview feature.

Are you excited about Yooka-Laylee, and are you going to back its campaign?

[source kickstarter.com]