Number of Worlds

[Mr Blowy]

Okay, so I've seen this discussion dotted around a few threads and there are differing opinions. I'm almost certain that there are six worlds, distinct from the hub world (Hivory Towers) and the starting area (Shipwreck Creek), and I'll explain why here.

The Totals screens

These screenshots from the demo have been posted in various places, showing

(1) the total number of collectibles

and (2) the number of collectibles in Hivory Towers

- The Hivory Towers screenshot shows 20 Pagies and 200 Quills in the hub world, leaving an 150 Pagies and 1200 Quills between the different worlds. This divides by six to give 25 Pagies and 200 Quills for each level, which is how many each world was planned to contain according to earlier interviews.

- There are six Mollycools (i.e. six transformations) in the game. It'd be unusual if there were transformations outside of a world and, as the second screenshot shows, Hivory Towers doesn't have one.

- There are six of each Ghost Writer. As I understand it, Ghost Writers are trapped inside the Grand Tomes (i.e. the worlds), so this again points strongly towards six levels. Again, Hivory Towers doesn't have one.

Collectibles in Shipwreck Creek

I know people have spotted that Shipwreck Creek has collectibles in it and this might point to it being one of the worlds in the game. I don't think so.

- We know that Shipwreck Creek is Yooka and Laylee's home (so presumably the starting area, equivalent to Spiral Mountain) yet Tribalstack Tropics has consistently been referred to as the first world. I think they've also referred to the fact that two worlds have been shown so far (Tribalstack Tropics and Glitterglaze Glacier).

- The collectibles there could have been included in the Hivory Towers totals since (I think) they're physically connected like Spiral Mountain was to Grunty's Lair and the rest of the Isle O'Hags. It's not very neat to lump Shipwreck Creek with Hivory Towers but it might be that Shipwreck Creek has so few collectibles that it doesn't warrant its own Totals screen, or it might be just that it's an early build and this is a placeholder.

- The collectibles could have been added after the demo build. It's possible they didn't initially plan to have collectibles there but wanted to add, say 5 Pagies (to bring it up to a 175 total) to Shipwreck Creek to make the area a bit more interesting. As I say, it's possible but I tend to think the previous theory is more likely.

But it's from an old build and Playtonic said five worlds

I take this point but Playtonic have been referring to five "planned" worlds for ages, certainly since before late spring/early summer when the demo build apparently dates back to. I'm also aware of Andy Robinson's cryptic tweet making note of the fact it's an old build.

What we do know is that Playtonic value the element of surprise and are careful not to give out too much information so as not to spoil the experience. With that in mind, would it really be a shock if they led us down the five worlds path and then gave us the pleasant surprise of a sixth? Not to me.

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tl;dr: Itt's possible I'm wrong but I think the game will have six worlds.

[Octopeart]

You make a lot of good points! Thanks for compiling all the evidence. I think you might be right about them combining Shipwreck Creek and Hivory Towers for the totals. I do think there's a sixth world, and I do think Playtonic likes to mislead, but I don't think they'd outright lie. Maybe it's a "Lost World" or something...

[yooka-dragon]

Mr Blowy your Total Screnshot is amazing, I never seen it. Thanks a lot! (the '7' in Pagies 1/170 seems to be strange but it's maybe because screen has a bad quality, I trust in you and in this picture).

So we are ok : 6 worlds with 25 pages and 200 quills per world.

And Hivory Towers with "only" 20 pages and 200 quills.

No Ghost writter in Hivory Towers so no Transformation, i'm OK, but don't forget we can out with the transformation in Hivory Towers. I'm asking if the transformations will be effective in every world, I opened .

For Shipwreck Creek, there will be collectibles like there were empty honeycombs in the Spiral Mountain of Banjo-Kazooie and Cheato Pages in the Spiral Mountain of Banjo-Tooie.

Really good job guy

[Meinhard1]

Surprised you missed that! It's an interesting piece of info. Here's Andy R's response:
https://mobile.twitter.com/AndyPlaytoni ... wsrc%5Etfw

In reply to the original post:
You are persuasive, but cuttently still believe there will be 5 worlds.

I come across most YL updates on my twitter. Here's a few pertinent tweets:

- In May 2016 Dean tweets about doing art up the final world
https://mobile.twitter.com/DeanWilsonAr ... 0487984128

- A few days later Playtonic replied to a tweeted question stating: "planning on 5 currently."
https://mobile.twitter.com/PlaytonicGam ... 1769700352
Clear wording, not coy/playful, and Playtonic didn't need to respond here.

- So: final world is apparently early-mid progress in March, they state 5 are planned.

- They decided to delay sometime in May and announced this beginning of June (i.e. When they delayed the game, they said the decision came about in last 2 weeks)

- At E3 Steve Mayles stressed the core content was about finished.

- They've continued to assert they're in a "polishing phase" since.

Considering the above, my conclusion:
I don't see where a 6th world's inserion fits in if we take thier PR at face value.
It is likely they had planned on 6 with their original "more than 5 worlds" promised but as development progressed it became clear that 5 worlds was already a lot of content for the team to create. The totals screen reflects content that was once planned but not formally cut at the development stage of the press/demo build. Andys's "dated build" tweet meshes with this!

My two bits, and this way I'm managing my own expectations!

[Mr Blowy]

You make a lot of good points Meinhardl.

One thing I'd say in response is that the demo build was "three months old" at the time of EGX, dating it to June. I guess the totals screens could be a fair bit older, though, I'm not really clued up on this sort of stuff.

Andy's tweet didn't really turn me off to the idea simply because I know Playtonic want to manage expectations and not reveal too much. This makes me think that, if it were the case that a world was scrapped from the game, then he'd just say that rather than having people think there are more worlds than there are and end up disappointed. Instead, he gave the mysterious answer...

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it. I'll be more than happy with five worlds if that's what it turns out to be.

[Meinhard1]

Nor I... in my head fixing a totals screen seems uncomplicated, yet (based on what they said prior) 5 worlds seemed to be where they were at, around.
Could just be the complex jaggedness of an in-progress game (maybe they had placeholder content for a 6th world they hadn't fully deleted at the time) or indication of something in the works.

I'm glad Andy addressed that image. His message was dismissive, but "may or may not" makes it maybe a bit "cryptic" as you say. Can't actually recall specific times they've said "5 worlds" in recent months (Gamescom, EGX interviews) but seem to recall it's been done consistently and in more straightforward assertions than that tweet particular. I know Playtonic would love to have a surprise 6th world in the works, but recent month's interviews seem to show a team focused on the games quality: iterating, fixing, bugs, getting that darn Wii U port to run nicely ... turning a good alpha build into the amazing experience we all hope for!**
I wonder what other posters here think?

[Octopeart]

Meinhardl, I think you've brought me back to earth. I remember Chris reiterating 5 worlds as recently as EGX, I'll try to find where he said that. I expect 5 (awesome) worlds and cannot wait to see the unique expansions they all have- I'm sure this will be a big game. I've seen people on other forums who are extremely upset because they expected at least 10 worlds after the developers said Yooka-Laylee would probably be bigger than Banjo-Kazooie.

[Spydr Webz]

Interesting points in the original post. I've been trying to wrap my mind around the totals screens since we've first seen them and all of this helps make sense of it. I never considered that Hivory Towers and Shipwreck Creek might share a totals screen but that would make sense!

Meinhardl also brings up good points though. An sixth world that was planned just in case they had enough time to build it and then scrapped would explain Andy's tweet. Hmmm.

I'd like to believe there's six, and I'm sure it's still a possibility. But I don't want to get my hopes up, so I'll continue to assume five.

[yooka-dragon]

[Rasmusic]

[Spydr Webz]

I agree with the above post. An entire world as DLC would be pretty huge. It'd be cool, but I don't see it happening. What I think is more likely is perhaps costumes that Yooka and Laylee can wear, or multiplayer gametypes or at most, an interesting new move or ability that the duo can learn.

[Exaskryz]

[Rasmusic]

[Exaskryz]

[Rasmusic]

[Rueckkoppler]

[Exaskryz]

[Rasmusic]