Topic: Yooka-Laylee's Platforming Dilemma: A Game Design Rant

[John Rairdin]

Does game design ever spoil?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/44431/yooka-laylees-platforming-dilemma-a-game-design-rant

As Switch owners eagerly await a portable version of this Banjo Kazooie spiritual successor, we take a look at the game's PS4 release. As we dug into this 90's inspired 3D platformer, we had to ask ourselves whether this 20 year old game design would still hold up.

[Phil]

I'm confused. What's the difference between not enjoying Yooka-Laylee for having open-ended levels that don't tell the player where to go and something like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which also doesn't really tell the player where to go with its world? One world is much, much larger than the other, and Yooka-Laylee's levels will eventually have players stumble upon something fishy or suspicious that begins a type of platforming challenge to get one of the game's Jiggy-like collectibles.

Also, DAMMIT-- stop missing a note in a trail of notes! >_< (I kid here with my anger, but it was note-ice-able.

[Soren]

I am also confused. So...Yooka-Laylee's issues mostly stem from a lack of portability or convenience? Cause that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Yooka-Laylee seems firmly anchored in late 90's 3D platformer game design and that's just not something that's going to appeal to most people today. The genre grew up and evolved. And even as one of the most successful Kickstarter stories, less than 80k people donated to the campaign (which is not a bad thing as I see this game as a great example of what Kickstarter can do for niche video game genres).



Also, only the Chu Chus in BotW have googly eyes.

[John Rairdin]

I am also confused. So...Yooka-Laylee's issues mostly stem from a lack of portability or convenience? Cause that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Yooka-Laylee seems firmly anchored in late 90's 3D platformer game design and that's just not something that's going to appeal to most people today.

Not quite. What I'm trying to get at is that the general consensuses that seems to permeate many of the reviews for the game is based around the game being time consuming and directionless. Reviewers often state that this is the result of bad level design. My point is that the levels are supposed to be that way and that its a part of the genre. I'm not saying its a problem that its not portable, merely that for me that portability will add a lot to what I already consider an enjoyable game. I should also be more clear that in the case of this video we are focusing mostly on the collectathon sub genre and not necessarily 3D platformers in general.