Playtonic have released Yooka-Laylee’s Toybox to qualifying backers. While not a slice of the actual game, Toybox lets players get a feel for the finished product as they bound around an abstract environment and get to grips with the bat and lizard duo’s moveset.
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If you pledged $20 to the Kickstarter you should receive an email with a key the sandbox demo, hopefully keeping your tastebuds tingling for the full game, due for release early next year.
People who managed to pledge $35 or over will get access to Toybox+, which is the same thing but with an extra area and a bit of combat thrown in. The vanilla Toybox is all about the actual platforming stuff.
“As promised in our campaign, the Toybox isn’t a traditional ‘demo’, but a self-contained, spoiler-free sandbox designed to give Yooka-Laylee backers a taste of the platforming to come in the final game,” Playtonic explain.
“There are moves to try, custom-built props to play with, secrets to discover and yes, shiny collectibles to hunt out and we’ve even included a never-before-seen NPC to chatter with, but it’s only a small sample of the finished production – and visually it’s incomparable.”
Of course, the finished game will feature lush, busy environments, whereas things are kept simple for this for cost and timing reasons. It still has a certain charm, though. See for yourself in the trailer below: