In a Q&A published on the Playtonic YouTube Channel, community manager Steve James sat down with members of the Yooka-Replaylee art team — Ed Bryan, Nikita De Ruysscher, and Steve Mayles — to talk about the game's brand new look. And one section focuses on the wisecracking bat.
In 2017's Yooka-Laylee, Laylee's design is smooth — there's not a hair on her, except maybe her eyebrows. But in 2024, Laylee sports a whole load of purple fur. Steve points out that her new design was one of the "most notable" parts of the reveal trailer, and the team shared some insights.
Laylee was "never meant to be fluffy" according to Mayles, and after tweaking her initial model and popping her in the game, someone said "Wouldn't it be nice if she was furry?" to which Mayles dismayed a tiny bit. Mayles mentions that fur is pretty tricky to add and animate in 3D, but he's using a tool where he starts by adding one single strand to the character that may sound like a long process, but apparently "doesn't take that long" even with "a lot of tweaking".
The trio go into a lot of detail about the various processes involved in remastering a title like this, plus with Replaylee, there are lots of new assets such as new skyboxes, new lighting engine, and just how "interactive" the environment is.
You can watch the whole video below, but let us know what you think of Laylee's new design in the comments.
