Hurrah for Christmas: Playing video games! Over-consuming! Fights with relatives! If you saw how much cake the Playtonic team consumes in any given week, you’d be genuinely concerned for our welfare.

To say that 2015 was a dream come true for us is really no understatement. The team has been truly humbled and amazed by the reaction to Yooka-Laylee and we thank you all for your incredible support over the past 12 months.

Sitting here today in Playtonic HQ – expanded for the third time this month – it’s quite staggering to look back at the journey we started a year ago, when six of us were cramped into a space smaller than the average pub toilet, with scribbles of bats and chameleons on the walls.

We couldn’t have made that journey without you. And so today the Playtonic team is more determined than ever to ensure that we repay the incredible support of our backers and fans by delivering a game worthy of your passion.

But first… we reward you with a spiffing holiday wallpaper:

Looking to 2016

Since our crowdfunding campaign concluded in June we’ve more than doubled the size of our development team… and the growth spurt continues.

Over the coming months you can expect us to capture more exciting programmers and art people – either via the Jobcentre or an ingenious net-and-cake-type trap – who can improve the quality of our debut project.

And when, we hear you bellow from behind your Christmas pud, can you see what we’re cooking? Soon.

There are plenty of surprises being busily constructed within our four (actually, I think it’s now seven—no, eight) walls and you’ll get to see all of them tantalisingly laid out over the coming months as Yooka-Laylee nears puberty and we’re ready to show our hand.

Keeping everyone abreast of Yooka-Laylee’s progress has, it’s fair to say, been one of the grandest challenges of Playtonic’s maiden voyage. Most games announce themselves to the world when they’re a year or two into construction: we did it at 3 months, and we graciously request that you continue to be patient.

There’s sparkly stuff phasing into existence behind the scenes and we promise we’ll show it to you as soon as it’s ready, just as we have been with character, music and art reveals over the past months. And we’re pretty sure you’ll like what you see once it’s ready.

Toybox update

Talking of patience, there’s another feature conspicuous by its absence this month…

Many Kickstarter backers pledged for our modest ‘Toybox’ gameplay experience, which we promised would offer a small taste of Yooka-Laylee’s mechanics in a Q4 2015 release.

At the time of our campaign we were confident we could meet this deadline, but due to several circumstances – including external factors making our initial plans for a web-based player impractical – the Toybox has taken longer than expected to create.

Just like everything we do, we want the Toybox delivered to backers to be polished, fun and representative of the quality we’re shooting for with the final game – not just a blank box to run around in.

So now we’re looking to release the Toybox in early 2016. It’s still totally exclusive to Toybox Kickstarter backers and it will still arrive long in advance of the final game.

The extra bonus is we’re making double sure that the final experience you get will be polished to the highest standard. Years from now that’s what we hope you come to expect from Playtonic, and after the stellar support you’ve shown us in 2015, the last thing we want to do is disappoint you.

Thanks again for a super year. We’ll see you in 2016 for an even better one!