Yooka Laylee & Shipwreck Creek. Part One.

Around this time last year, I decided to start making themed environment designs and ride designs because I enjoyed it. The Yooka-Laylee games became the inspiration behind one of the first in-depth ride designs I developed. I decided that any ride worth going out of your way for needed a cool environment around it as well, accompanied by various amenities and things to do. I set out to make a cool ride and themed environment out of this game world. I'll do my best to explain my thought processes around things I've done here in the blog, and add music from the game too. In part one, I'll talk briefly about Yooka-Laylee and the beginnings of my design.

Meet Yooka and Laylee.

A sketch I made of the two main characters, Yooka and Laylee.

These characters star in the two games Yooka-Laylee, and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair by a company called Playtonic. The kickstarter campaign to create the first Yooka-Laylee game in the series was one of the most successful kickstarter campaigns at that time. 

Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series released for the Nintendo 64 nearly 20 years prior. After years of planning to develop a new game, Playtonic Games initiated a Kickstarter campaign that attracted significant media coverage and raised over a record-breaking GB£2 million. The game follows chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee on their quest to retrieve a magical book from an evil corporation. [source]  

The games are heavily inspired by another company’s games from the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 era: Rare Ltd. (now owned by Microsoft). 

These games are available on a variety of modern platforms.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was a dynamic sequel to the original game that changed the playstyle

I’ve included some images from the games throughout this post to give you some context, if you’re unfamiliar. The core idea behind the first game is as a spiritual successor to a beloved game among many from the Nintendo 64 era, Banjo-Kazooie. The second game is more like a side scrolling adventure game, reminiscent of Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country (also developed by Rare, Ltd.). 

Both games feature two main characters that work together to solve platforming challenges in their environment, utilize special moves to reach hard to reach areas, and essentially combine to become one player controlled character on a platforming adventure.  Along the way there are certain things to collect, pathways to unlock, and problems to solve.  

Screenshot from the original Yooka-Laylee game, with Shipwreck Creek and the elevated pathways and ship in the background.

Here are trailers for the two Yooka-Laylee games:

Yooka and Laylee’s home base is called Shipwreck Creek. When I first loaded up the game into this area, I instantly thought how cool it would be for this to actually exist (with some adjustments, mind). Walking along those raised pathways into the hand painted artsy broken galleon had a really great look. I imagined what it would be like to stand in the queue and enter the ship and discover what was inside. 

While the game is creative and fun enough, I wouldn’t say it stands out as a groundbreaking game or intellectual property juggernaut or anything like that.

I don’t hold any particular fondness or nostalgia for the title, or hold any deep connection to the property whatsoever, as one might think of a fanart type of creation. 

There was something about the music working in tandem with the imagery that called to my imagination a wonderful vibe, that if it were to exist in reality as a dark ride, would be exceptional. This was really what drove me to design this.

Now in the game, their iconic ship is just freestanding in tree branches in this level and area, but in order to make a functional queue and immersive environment out of this, I decided to attach it into the rock facade behind, leading into the obscured show building. Guests enter the show building along the raised pathways entering through the belly of the ship. The actual queue entry to the ride itself sits to the side in a separate structure. 

Screenshot from the original Yooka-Laylee game from Shipwreck Creek clearly showing the main characters ship, named  'Bat-Ship Crazy'

Screenshot from the original Yooka-Laylee game with Shipwreck Creek and the ship in the background

My initial concern was that in reality, this might be confusing for someone walking up, as they would see the ship drawing them in and want to naturally head towards it. However, Splash Mountain has a similar issue in every park where it’s built, and no one seems to have trouble finding the entrance to that ride.  In case there were any issues, I made the main level pathways underneath that go to other parts of the land pushed back from the ship itself, so it would be clear you needed to trace back the elevated pathways to the queue entrance.

I also added the other side of the broken ship standing on end and incorporated it into the entrance building to draw some attention there as well. The entrance to the ride would in this way be clearly marked and obvious to a guest.

Here is a map overview of the area I designed. The map is a bit simple but should give enough information on where the main points of interest are. You can see the outdoor portion of the queue and how it uses the raised platforms, as well as the ship facade entryway and even the gift shop exit.

Rough overview map of the Shipwreck Creek area

Here are some sketches showing different highlights of the area. I’ve included some music from the game or remixes from fans that might be playing in hidden speakers around the area to give you some good vibes while looking through this.

Rough sketch of the Tonic Trouble dark ride entrance

Upon walking into the area, we pass Hivory Towers on the left, which is the headquarters of the main bad guy, an evil corrupt bee ceo. It’s also the main gift shop and the dark ride exits there (I know enough to at least get that right). 

We pass under a rock feature that covers overhead creating a point of separation into the land itself.  Ahead of us there is a statue of Yooka and Laylee. To the left is the entrance to the main dark ride in this area, Tonic Trouble. 

To the right we have some pathways that lead to food carts and a little restaurant and a couple of small attractions. One is a flat spinning ride, and the other is a fun-house style walk-through attraction, conceivably created by Yooka and Laylee themselves, retelling some of their past adventures.

Some little sketches showing some knick knack merch ideas.

Along the rock face at the back is a waterfall that flows into a river that wraps around and through the area and under the two main bridges, which act as entry and exit points into other areas where this might conceivably be built.

And here is my overview rendering of the Shipwreck Creek area; home of the Tonic Trouble dark ride, which we will begin exploring in part two.

My rendering of an overhead view of the Shipwreck Creek "land" including the queue for the "Tonic Trouble" dark ride. My intent was to clearly show the elevated queue pathway into the ship as well as communicate the overall vibe of the space.

I am pleased with the design of this area and land space. I think it suits the gameworld Playtonic created, brings the Shipwreck Creek game level world into a design that would work in the real world, and would be a relaxing place to explore and spend an afternoon. It also sets up the dark ride adventure rather well I think.  What do you think?  What could I have done better?  Is anything dreadfully obtuse? Let me know.

In the next entry, we will look at the main dark ride here, Tonic Trouble, which we will enter by walking through the queue together through the magic of storyboards!

-C