Playtonic Games, an indie team composed of ex-Rare members who worked on games like Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, recently unveiled their new game. Yooka-Laylee is a 3D platformer that will serve as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, including a buddy duo as the protagonists.

In this case, it’s the lovable chameleon Yooka and the crazy bat Laylee. Playtonic Games’ artist Steve Mayles recently sat down for an interview and explained the meaning behind these names and how they came to be.

Question: Why ‘Yooka’ and ‘Laylee’? Seems a bit convenient to me? Mayles: It was planned like this from the start. Yes, that’s right. It wasn’t just a happy coincidence that ‘Ukulele’ splits so well into two character names, honest. Actually, someone on the team picked up a Hawaiian dictionary and apparently ‘’uku’ means ‘a small brained person’ and ‘lele’ means ‘to fly’ or, excitingly, ‘to get off of a vehicle’. That’s definitely not a coincidence either.

What do you think of the name choices? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Source: Playtonic Games

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