Some Issues with Yooka-Laylee I've noticed.

[Viellain]

I want this game to be all it can be and frankly I have some complaints. These complaints are for the good. I know it's a demo version and I really want to ensure that people are aware because every improvement counts.

Now firstly Text.

When you see text. It it going to be the things you're going to be seeing and what you will be immersed by. You want stuff that fits in a long with the environment. When I see something like this (yes I know it's a demo, but I really hope they realize this).
http://i.gyazo.com/9fe2ef25b038571db2fc8bc801043fe6.png
I can't just help, but be intimidated by the circa 2003 Windows Vista Powerpoint fade-in text style. Fonts, text, and all that stuff may be overlooked by many, but it is essential and cruecial to the immersement of the game. Also I really hope the text to text bubble ratio isn't that small because I think the text should at least be enough to fit 2 lines at most just like the original Banjo Kazooie and constant pace that really immerses yourself and is ideal for reading speed. I know it's a demo and I really hope they do realize this. I don't like to take chances and just keep my worries to myself. And the fact that there's lowercase is kinda annoying. The original Banjo games had the text with all capitals and it seemed so appealing and when Banjo Kazooie did it it just felt so fitting. Compare this:
http://i.gyazo.com/cbfe6786417936a5e64b608cc420e338.png
To this:
http://i.gyazo.com/1c8e14d3104ba6bc839673d64e24346a.png
The first style just felt so right and immersed with the environment. My only worry is that they'll overlook this because it isn't major or something. I liked the fancy, all-caps, slanted; yet intricate design. The fade in effect already blemished the entire text for me as soon as I saw the demo design.

I am saying this because I want Playtonic to make a great game. I want them to succeed. Every little detail counts.

Now Graphical Design.

The sound is on-spot and this is where they really have their strengths, but graphics I feel is a big part of it and it looks awfully sparse in terms of detail. The terrain doesn't seem inter-connected and instead looks as if they had some editing program and placed stuff together. I assume most likely they're doing this for beta purposes, but I worry about this. Nuts and Bolts graphical design wasn't the best. This is a problem many small game studios tend to have. The palettes attached to some objects or textures are much more diverse in the modern world and with Nuts and Bolts it just appeared too sandbox-esque. Just attaching random stuff to others. The N64, Playstation 1 days were limited in terms of what textures and so when they did it, they had one damn good looking design. Now if you misplace textures next to each other it doesn't really connect. So instead in the modern world games like The Wind Waker go for an absolute cartoonish look because it's easier, and isn't as much experimenting and just connects well. A Hat in Time also goes for this type of appeal. The N64 worked great for platformers because texture designs were just simplistic and they matched and they weren't that detailed and they were a bit fuzzy. Now we're in the High Definition Era where you can see every sharp detail and textures flat out appear bothersome if it doesn't look sharp enough. So as a result tons of detail has to be put into this. I feel bad for the 3d modelers who have to design everything to make sure it fits well with the environment because graphics these days have to be done to pitch perfect quality due to the fact that they need to strongly correspond with their textures. There was no simple ploygons. You can still do polygons, but they're going to be sharp looking polygons with curved design.

Graphical Design is where people will easily get the most turned off if it looks bad. So it's important that it mixes well with the environment. It isn't a Banjo Kazooie game without a colorful, vibrant, intermixed environment that just yields strong appeal to its theme. That's one thing that got me hooked to Banjo Kazooie and I can only ever wish more that this game will do just that. This is also the place where the most work is definitely going to be put into. The most thought, the most creativity, the most expressionism, and this needs to coincide to perfectly form an environment. Also with the Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts design it really just felt too much like as if this was Yoshi's Wooly World or Kirby's Epic Yarn in terms of the design. It just doesn't feel like an immersing environment. The music helps, but the graphics don't. I really hope and see what they can do with the graphics and such. The graphics is where the game really presents itself and what you want to advertise when you show someone a picture of the game.

That's pretty much all that I have to say right now so far. I don't really have much to say for other stuff due to how well they nail the music and the lack of information regarding the game. Do well, make history happen, and try to invent a masterpiece that will stand to the iconic IPs of the past and just form a new road for yourself.

[chameleojack]

[Taylor]

100% agree about the text; I think Yooka-Laylee should use the Banjo games as a starting point and see if they can make improvements from there, but all I can think of is slightly clearer text (less pixelly). Capital letters and talking head icons are a must, I think.

[croissant]

I recall those text bubbles turned me off, too. I'm sure they will change it to something more BK-like, though.

[dotEXE]

I believe the text used there was just the in-engine default text asset. I'm sure they'll be adding custom text boxes and more fitting fonts. They could even use different fonts for different characters maybe, to add additional ... well, character.

[Rueckkoppler]

[Unexpected]

While we're at it, there's just a very small detail that I wanted to comment... Am I the only one who's bothered by "a FPS" instead of "an FPS" in that text box?

[Exaskryz]

[chameleojack]

[Viellain]

I definitely enjoy the support. I can agree that I maybe was a bit too overlooking in terms of the graphics, but honestly Nuts and Bolts wasn't really known for its graphics and I feel that when you make the graphics of a game like this it just feels too separated. In Nuts and Bolts the environment didn't seem connected and it seemed like they just dragged and dropped objects and placed them and there really wasn't that much detail. I remember Nuts and Bolts for its unique and innovative gameplay, not its sounds or graphics which were somewhat abysmal. But the text box bothered me a lot.

[Jellyfunk]

Once again they threw all this together in 3 Months. 3 MONTHS.

They were

Creating all of the models.
Animating the characters.
Programming the gameplay.
Creating two test levels.

On top of that preparing a kickstarter.

While your concerns are valid, Playtonic isn't dumb.

[rocho]

[selebu]

No it depends on how you acutally pronounce the next word.
So with "FPS" you pronounce it as "eff pee ess" which means they should use 'an' in front of it.

Fun example is university, where you use 'a' in front of it because you pronounce it similar to "you".

[chameleojack]

You're both saying the same thing!

[rocho]

[Jellyfunk]

Both are correct.

I want to play an FPS(ef-pee-ess)

I want to play a FPS(first person shooter)


It's less about grammar, and more about making words flow easier.

[chameleojack]

[Unexpected]

I see, I guess it makes sense for it to be meant to be him saying "first person shooter" instead of "eff pee ess". But it just seems a bit odd to me to use the abbreviation while pronouncing the actual full term :X My mind instantly reads the individual letters when I see "FPS".

[Viellain]

[Jellyfunk]

I know a lot of people who say "first person shooter" when it's written as "FPS." Don't get worked up over it. It's correct.