Swamp Level - Confirmed?

[Meinhard1]

Strongly suspecting a Swamp level based on the first part of the trailer.



- Mossy trees
- Brambles
- Stylized looking lamp

These assets are unlike anything in Tribalstack Tropics or Shipwreck Creek.
*Could* be hub-specific but it's already a library-factory-beehive. We see later in the trailer an area in the Hub that does have Tribalstack Tropics assets.

A counter-argument is that Grunty's Lair had a lava area with no corresponding level.

[Taylor]

[Pokemaniac Dan]

I'm not 100% convinced, to be honest, that a swamp level is definite. I just feel like it'd seem too close to Bubblegloop Swamp. Although we have an ice world, it looks and feels vastly different in tone than Freezeezy Peak or Hailfire Peaks' ice side. Of course, the swamp world in YL can also have a different tone or feel to it. So I guess my argument is invalid lol

But I don't want an alligator transformation. That definitely would be too similar to BK.

[Taylor]

[PixelKing]

I agree with all of this, except the level name should be "Stompin' Swamp"

[PixelKing]

There's also a pool of water to the lower right after Yooka and Laylee tongue grapple up, so maybe that cylinder in the middle is related to raising the water level, like the puzzle to Rusty Bucket Bay (just basing that on the thin blue line, it seems suspicious. Also, there seems to be a faucet above the pool?) Or maybe the cylinder is some kind of giant battery to power the swamp lamps? It seems very...duracell. Just speculating

EDIT: Another thought is that maybe the assets change in the hub world according to what part of the world you've unlocked/expanded with the extra pagies?

[Meinhard1]

Really did think those art pieces were going to be something more central to the game than world-specific concepts (i.e. What shipwreck creek is now). Definitely seems likely a world, at this point.


It's an interesting topic, how this might be different from Bubblegloop. Those art pieces seem to show an amphibious world (swimming) with a more lush and natural aesthetic. What I see in the Hub world reminds me more of DKC 2's Krem Quay, or Retros unused DKC:TF swamp concepts (eerie, as Taylor puts it).

Jungle, Snow, maybe Swamp ... The only other world theme that has been vaguely hinted at is "haunted" ... I forget where. I know Grant has seemingly teased spooky music. Could yet be a Spooky swamp world, or one that becomes spooky when expanded. Who knows!

[Taylor]

[Octopeart]

I think you all are on to something here. I think you can hear insects/critter noises in the background as Yooka and Laylee pass this area in the trailer- that makes me think there's a change in the music/sound effects, like how the music changes as you approach the level entrances in Banjo. So I'd bet it's a new level, and it could be a combination of Spooked and Swamp.

[Exaskryz]

I didn't see it mentioned above, so apologies if it had. Looks like when the underwater air bubble walk power is demonstrated in the gamescom trailer, it's in a swamp level.

[Meinhard1]

^^^ Some skillful spotting! There are some seemingly 'swampy' set-pieces in that segment, to be sure!
Still surfaces are swarmed with honeycomb-patterned things. Brick walls too!

[Taylor]

I presumed the water bit was the same area of Hivory Towers, but below the bridge you walk over. You can see water below if you look carefully enough and the brick/honeycombs are all around.

Edit:

Just discovered this screenshot. You can see the same 'swamp' trees; I presume it's the same area (or nearby) as it has the water, brick walls and honeycomb insignia. I'm a bit conflicted, though, because it looks more like the entrance to a Toxic/Grunty Industries/Rusty Bucket Bay level...

[GeneralWalnut]

[Meinhard1]

Definitely agree that the above: Hivory Towers will likely fill that industrial bit. I too recall Playtonic talking about having more varied gameplay / puzzles in the hub word also.

It is strange that this area looks outdoors, the other indoors. Maybe rather than world-themed "lobby" areas like in the past, we'll get something closer to more expansive jungle / winter / swamp zones within the hub.
(Somewhat related: both trailers had a hub area that looked jungle-themed. Trailer 1: where Yooka licks the iron balls. Trailer 2: the jungle tree area.)

[Taylor]

[Pokemaniac Dan]

That is a beautiful screenshot that gives me a lot of GI/RBB anxiety. I love it.

I do believe the fart bubble was in the hub world. There was a pagie right in front of a switch to ground pound, and for some reason I feel like that would be in an area of the hub where you come to after you learn the move in a specific world. The ground pound switch probably activates the rings to race around. Just seems more fitting than having a pagie in a cage in an actual world. In the hub area with the TT plants and torches, there's also another caged pagie. So it seems pagies are caged in the hub. Also, the lights along the underwater brick wall are honeycomb shaped, and are the same lights that can be seen when YL are swimming with the jellyfish, a moment in which you can clearly see other honeycomb shaped tunnels/tubes. Plus those lights are all over the hub.

Again, I'm still not 100% convinced of swamp world. But perhaps I'm just saying that to take on a different perspective just to keep the speculation running. It is odd to have swampy elements in the hub without an actual world that correlates. But then again in BT the worlds (except for the actual entrances themselves) never really had hub related decor. Who knows? Love speculating!

[Meinhard1]

^^ I understand we don't want to jump to conclusions. A Swamp world seems the simplest/most intuitive explanation but there's much we don't know.

It seems likely the power of the Grand Tombs is responsible for the presence of Jungle/Winter/Swamp(?) elements in the hub world but with all the book energy being vacuumed, it's *possible* elements from books we will not explore is present. The Swamp concept art are verrrry early-on: pre-alpha ideas, surely considered but could have been cut. Still could have made it into the hub.

Also possible that there will be mini-levels (sub grand tombs) but that may be demanding, development-wise.

[Octopeart]

This is pure conjecture, but I was thinking about the uses of Yooka's states we know- charged, luminous, sticky, heavy. I can easily picture a swamp having lots of dark places, or maybe lanterns need to be lit (luminous, charged)...I know it's a stretch, but it will be fun being wrong when we actually get to see the worlds.

[Yavga]

Those trees from the first picture really look out of place XD they are growing out of concrete?

Seems like some sort of mangrove though.

[yooka-dragon]

The Third World of Yooka-Laylee is a swamp it's 100% sure. But it's not only a swamp,
it's a city.

First a swamp because of the concept art very aqautic. Because of the Playtonic Page called Swamped. Because of the picture of Hivory Towers with swamped trees.

Now, this world is not only a swamp, it's a city like Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Because we can see a plud and a metal kart in the water which show an human activity.



An other interesting thing is the ionic column like Atlantis in Jolly Roger Lagoon.



So in conclusion, the third world is an aquatic city in a swamp with a lot of sub-marine sequences. It's a mix between Bubblegloop Swamp and Jolly Roger Lagoon.