Baldur’s Gate 3 should become D&D Beyond's VTT

I love BG3. One of the best games of all time. 

Where is the map editor, yo?

I’m on my second full run. Each time I play this game, as a creative type, all I want to do is create maps using this game engine to have others play.

During COVID, I played a few D&D games with friends using D&D Beyond and Roll20. They worked well together, especially as a player. I started putting together my own campaign, but I quickly realized how much I would hate the Roll20 system as the DM. I just hate flipping through slides, layers, and to do that during games seemed impossible.

Also, I’m not a math brain. Keeping a hundred numbers in my head is not my idea of a fun night. As a player of D&D, I can manage my one character. As a DM, this seems like a headache. I have been exceedingly close to purchasing a bunch of books and stuff on DnD Beyond, however the clunkiness of online gaming systems holds me back.

But I love online D&D for a few big reasons: I don’t have to drive home late at night after hours of playing. Literally, I can turn my computer off and flop into bed. Also, I can play with friends who live far away. That’s a big one!

All this makes me think... what if Baldur’s Gate didn’t just have a map editor... what if it BECAME D&D Beyond’s version of Roll20.

What if Dungeon Masters could use BG3’s game engine to create maps, set up worlds, and play online together? That's what a VTT (virtual table top) is all about. What if it was all integrated into D&D Beyond so that the game would fully align with character sheets, purchased books, etc.?

So, this would work like this: Each person plays their own character. One person plays as the DM.

Here, I put together a mock up:

One beautiful thing this would solve for DMs right off the bat: it does all the math for you. HP tracking on monsters and characters. Dice rolls with modifiers. Movement speed. Passive features that you almost forgot about. Passive perception checks for traps. Turn orders and initiatives. The number of bonus actions that rogue has left. Number of rounds that curses or bonuses stay in effect. Etc. Etc.

Absorbing the math element would allow for DMs to focus on the storytelling aspects more.

However, the DM would still have ultimate control. 

 The ability to pause the game (so they can act out character interactions, for example). Add stuff as needed. Turn on/off different options. Skip turns or give bonus rounds. Override game options to allow characters to get creative or use “theatre of the mind” options.

For example, let’s say the players want to solve something on the map in a creative way that the game engine doesn’t allow. Like, maybe there is a decorative ventilation system in a dungeon. Not meant to be used. However, the players want to open it and get to the other side of a wall. The DM can pause and opt for a “theatre of the mind” option. The DM could make them roll a strength check to open the vent. If passing, the DM could add a warp from the vent to the other side or wherever the DM decides to have it lead. Unpause the game. The game continues as normal. The ability for the DM to change things, add things, remove things, or break the game rules as creativity allows would be a really fun way to keep the spirit of “free” D&D in a solid game engine system.

Also, imagine the different ways a DM could create an NPC. Like, drop an elf into a town. The DM can click on it, write dialogue options and paths that are pre-set and ready to go when the players interact with it. OR, click a “Roleplay Override” option, where the DM can just speak into the mic and “be” the character.” Could add voice changers or use those face-tracking and AR filters that Snapchat uses to make the DM into the dragonborn NPC, for example.

The DM could choose to turn an NPC hostile or friendly as they deem fit. They could fully control each NPC in a battle, or, they could let the game engine’s AI to play out the battle. Or, perhaps the DM allows the minions to be controlled by the game engine and directly just controls the bosses. Either way, the DM can override at any point and take the wheel.

Of course, one huge thing: the DM can play the maps they create over and over. No need spend hours redrawing out on the dry-erase grid board and placing figures. It’s just saved to the cloud. They allow many different groups to enjoy their creations with no hassle.

A shocking thing I just learned is that Larian Studios, who created BG3, already made a Dungeon Master mode for one of their previous games, Divinity Original Sin 2. Here’s what that looks like:

Wizards of the Coast would also make a ba-jillion dollars, obviously.

Imagine being able to purchase new monster packs. Rainbow Mephits Pack! New flavors, such as the Lemon Mephit, which is yellow and has acid and plant powers. Then, you can just drop him into your games. Add a “gift” feature and players will reward their DMs for a game well played.

Same for new map biomes, furniture, hero skins, music packs, decorations, spells, playable races and classes, quest packs, plants, weapons, armor, even junk. Imagine all the stuff they could sell to DMs. They would love it just as much as I would.

New pirates pack is out! Now, your players can steal a ship and take to the seas. Etc. Etc.

Maybe even players could design and upload their own creations to sell on the market.

Other ideas:

AI voices pre-set for NPCs. Shy DMs could have characters still fully voiced by AI. Not to mention the Baldur’s Gate 3’s narrator voice could be used to narrate the scripts DMs write!

In game shops are pre-set by DMs, too. They would also be able to override and allow characters to try and haggle or steal.

Quest Pack Mode: No DM? No problem! Play pre-scripted quest packs that are put together by D&D Beyond or even other players around the world. Maybe creators could even earn money (or D&D Beyond store credits) for the sales of their quests. I envision playing through a number of D&D history’s most famous moments.

VR mode. OK, now you can play in first person. Imagine the DM floating above the players at all times. VR hands placing new monsters on the board. Could be cool!

Camp Headquarters: the DM can create a map that player can use DM-like placement tools to customize and place trophies, furniture, stuffed monster, etc. around, also storage and places where allies could gather. This could be a literal camp site, building, pocket-dimension, etc. Imagine those campaigns that you played for years. How awesome would it be to see the HQ of a player group change or grow over time? Maybe they even would have to defend it?   

D&D Beyond Streaming. Watch or broadcast live gameplay. Output to Twitch or YouTube, or watch right on D&D Beyond. Make money off ad revenue for your streams.

I'm making a video game

You may know that I am an aspiring writer, with a goal of selling a novel to an actual publishing house. This is a long and nearly impossible task, but it's one I really enjoy working toward achieving. 

I read that the average literary agent (the people who sell books on your behalf to publishers) gets about 20,000 submissions for books a year. So, it's not crazy to say that a non-famous person like myself needs a little bit of luck to get noticed. 

Of course, I've continued to write other things. More novels to query out. Short stories and poetry. But, lately, I've had an idea that almost seems like too perfect of a fit: make a video game. 

Stardew Valley is a farming and life simulation game that uses old-school pixel art. It was originally made by one person, Eric Barone, known professionally as ConcernedApe.

Although he partnered with a studio later, he made most of this by his lonesome. He taught himself how to code and make pixel art. He also had musical talents. Pull that all together, and you have the perfect storm. 

As of this writing, Stardew, released in 2016, has sold somewhere above 30 million copies (noted in Feb 2024). 

For perspective, Dark Souls 3, which also released in 2016 and is often noted as a "Game of the Year" contender, sold about 13.8 million. That game was developed at a studio with about 400 employees and probably cost 20 million to make. 

There are factors, of course, like DS3 was probably a 60 dollar game at launch, whereas Stardew costs $15 on Steam. But still, 30 million times only $5 is still $150,000,000. 

If one guy can create Stardew, then why can't I create something like that too?

Let's look at a couple of others...

Original series of games made by ONE guy.

Games spawned toys, movies, clothes, book series… hey, that's interesting. The guy who created Five Nights at Freddy's now also co-authors a number of books. He basically has the same kind of hold as the Goosebumps books I remember as a kid. FNAF is one of the biggest video games series going right now. Also, his marketing methods are genius. He stirs up mystery within the lore. His secrets keep the fanbase talking.

Minecraft is, with no hyperbole, the biggest selling video game of all time. (300+ MILLION sold, wow!). Yes, that's bigger than any Mario or Pokemon game.

Originally, made by ONE guy. Went on to open his own gaming studio then selling it all off to Microsoft for 2.4 BILLION dollars. 

All of these games have a few things in common other than being started as a solo project. 

The biggest thing and #1: they all have heart.

These inspiring video game developers didn't just make games to sell. They made games that went extra. Amazing, perfected gameplay. Unique ideas. Extra, quirky humor embedded within. Storytelling that is deep and mysterious. 

You can always tell the difference between an artist who cares and one that doesn't. As someone who has played each of these games, I can tell you, they CARED!

#2: None of these games are super HD, realistic glowing graphical triumphs. They are all simplistic. They go for style over luxurious visuals. Minecraft uses blocks. Stardew, pixels. FNAF has mostly-unmoving animatronics. 

#3: The games are all wildly fun to play. This may be the most important. These guys know what makes gameplay fun. That's not someone everyone understands. 

So, back to me. 

I teach several novels at the high school I work at, and I've gamified them into what I call the Inter-Class Competition. There's a map with several locations from the books and lessons we go over throughout the semester. They have to solve puzzles and challenges and one of the classes is then dubbed the winner.

Anyway, the students LOVE it. Some tell me it's the reason they come to school on some days. They've gathered together to try to break codes I've threaded into the games. Sometimes they try to "spy" and find intel from other classes to get the edge.

Well, one day at the end of last school year, one of my students said something like, "Mr. Aye, why are you doing this for us? We don't deserve it! Your talents are going to waste! You should be selling this!"

And it struck me, that yes I should be making a game to sell [also, students DO deserve to enjoy school and have teachers care about them!]. After all, I've been doing this kind of thing nearly all my life. I can't say I didn't already have a whole game idea outlined before that. 

And I'm a musician. I make art. I write stories. I create interactive experiences. I have some coding experience. 

I have the tools, the perfect storm of skills to make a game all by myself. 

One of the buildings
in my game's town!

My game is set in the world of my novel, and guess what? I'm going to use this game as a platform to try and sell my novel too. If my game were to blow up, then I bet I would have a better chance to get noticed! I could even put that on the login screen of my game. 

This is not a declaration of my beginnings; I've already been working hard at it. I've been working on code and gameplay, as well as art and music. Right now, you can walk around the town and do a few basic things. It's 2D sprite-style art, all made by me of course. 

I have some awesome plans! Perhaps I'll share more about my development as I go here on my blog!

The Sandbox Storytelling Success of Minecraft, Dungeons & Dragons, and Me...

2016’s Stranger Things kicked off a resurgence in the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, and I am a part of that resurgence. My D&D group began in 2017, a collection of longtime friends and theatre peeps.

art by my friend Casey

 Man, there were phenomenal actors in that group. I was the “backstage” guy, so it was a bit intimidating trying to roleplay with that crowd. I think I found my niche with a studious little gnome wizard named Jor R.R. Molkien. He was a bit self-centered with tunnel vision, but he did the right thing when it came down to it. We played together for four years.

 

My friend who ran the campaign (the dungeon master) allowed us to create our own mini-quests and have character goals outside of the story he had been planning. He had created a vibrant collective sandbox world for the players to play in.

 

In videogames, I think sometimes the concepts of “sandbox” and “open” world get mixed up, usually, I think, because many sandbox games are open worlds and vice versa. But, I’d like to give a quick definition: “Open worlds” are games where there are minimal limits to a player’s decisions about where to go on the map. Players are encouraged to roam, search, explore, and select the tasks they wish to complete. “Sandboxes” are games which give the player the tools to be creative and then sets them free to employ their imaginations. There’s a bigger emphasis on players being able to change and control the gameplay.

 

By my definitions, it’s pretty hard to think of a game that is a sandbox without being an open world. The one I’ve come up with is The Sims. Back when I was a teen, this game gave you a plot of land. You built a house, created a family, and then you got to watch your Sims play out their lives. You got the tools to enjoy messing with (or sometimes torturing) your Sims in a million creative ways, but it was contained to the house you built. There wasn’t a huge open world to explore.

 

On the flip side, a game that rests in an open world but is not really a sandbox might be Marvel's Spider-Man for the PS4. You can go anywhere you want in the world, but you can’t really creatively manipulate and control the world within all that much. For example, when you web a citizen, nothing really happens and they run away. There’s not much experimentation.

 

A more sandbox-level game like GTA would allow you to do what you want to the citizens (however, there are consequences, such as the police chasing you down). Actions get reactions, sometimes unexpected. Often generative of the moment. And, of course, there are varying degrees to which a game can employ the elements of open world and/or sandbox gameplay.

 

My DM would often say, “Tell me what you want to do, and I’ll tell you what to roll to see if you can do it.”

 

I think that’s what made my longtime D&D campaign so great. My DM understood how to properly balance open world and sandbox elements, which allowed the players to collectively be a part of the shape and direction of the story.

“The path is never a straight line.”

 

Minecraft came at me during a whirlwind time of my life. I got swept up and carried away by major life decisions and transitions, and I think this is where my virtual life became a bigger sandbox than my real life.

 

I joined during the Alpha. The first time I played Minecraft, it was just block madness. I remember my first time logging into a game. I played in-browser. You could place blocks or destroy them in an instant, and it was all creative mode. This was after summer, 2010. I had just graduated college with my English Education degree. I had no job prospects. I had no idea what to do next.

 

But I did have a girlfriend of two years. She set her heart on moving as far away from Belleville as possible, and to that, and my choice became either get married and go with her or end it and enter the unknown of adulthood by myself.  

 

I scrolled back through my social media during that time... interestingly, my reading choices then were Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Stephen King’s It. Both of those books are mind-bending cornerstones of my reading life. The end of It struck me from the inside out. <Spoilers> the town caves in on itself. Derry was the monster, or one aspect of it. With the death of Pennywise, the city could not maintain itself. I remember reading that, but I was there.

I was in Belleville, Illinois, but walking down the same streets as the Loser’s Club. Would I always be here? Or would I ever leave? My friends had moved on already, to live and work across the map of the USA. The prospects of becoming a “townie” were growing. I was Mike Hanlon, the only one to stay. My rock-and-roll bandmates left. My theatre company was nearing the end. Everyone else was finding success across the map.

 

Meanwhile, my digital life took off. I started a Minecraft server of my very own. It was a java server, meaning, I could update it with mods or whatever I wanted. I posted the link on a Minecraft forum and people started trickling onto my server from all over the world. We built cities on one map, which I titled “Otherside.” As the owner of the server, I played god. I could cultivate the community and set goals. I could destroy. I could create. I could fly around and make others take the train.

My escape into Minecraft was perpetuated, I realize, from my real life’s lack of sandbox and open world elements. I couldn’t go anywhere. I couldn’t do anything. In fact, I barely knew what to do next, other than go to work each day at the Home Depot, watching old ladies choose between swatches of carmine to crimson (don’t paint your living room red, yo, you’ll regret it) and blending it for them in the cheapest bucket they could find (but do we really need primer?).

 

So, when my girlfriend decided she was going to leave, move far away from Belleville with or without me, I chose what looked like the path of adventure. I got married in October of 2010. Minecraft went into Beta in December. My new wife and I moved to Seattle in July of 2011.

At a rest stop driving from Belleville to Seattle

Leaving Southern Illinois felt like my first true “open world” reality moment. I quit my job. I sold my car (my wife’s was better). I got rid of any possession that I couldn’t deem as essential. I even remembering telling my Minecraft server to expect a hiatus while I got settled in a new city. We packed a car and drove off across America. She had a job lined up, but I didn’t. We didn’t have an apartment, either. Nobody told me what I needed to do next.

 

All my life, there was a track. School, mostly. Elementary, middle, high school, university. I remember seeing the giant wind turbines in Wyoming, thinking, I was as free as could be. Not sure if I really was, but the feeling was there. We stopped and bought cherries, fresh from a farm, ate them while viewing the mountain ranges of the State of Washington for the first time.

 

Landing in Seattle had some beautiful chaos to it. We stayed in a hostel for a few week as we sorted out the details. Our stay was in the International District, and during the Chinese Dragon Festival. The streets each day were fun to be on. I explored this new world, doing whatever I wished. Of course, I also spent time job hunting. I got hired after about 2 weeks to one the hardest places I’ve ever had to work, which was at KinderCare Learning Center. We did get an apartment, too. Our first year in Seattle had many fun things: starting-over, making all new friends, seeing completely new sights... etc. After that year, I think the open world elements scaled back quickly. I don’t think either of us were happy. What had been refreshing—not knowing anyone and starting over—became isolating and lonesome.

 

I dove deeper into my Minecraft server. Back to my escape. My server grew. I had hundreds of different people on each day. People built entire cities. Entire worlds.

 

That marriage didn’t work out. I moved back to Belleville after two years, and my perspective was fresh. Seattle was different but not that different. Belleville wasn’t Derry. A few of my friends moved back, too. As my life lost direction, my need for Minecraft slowly faded. I enjoyed having a sandbox of reality again, and wild things happened constantly.

 

Minecraft.

 

I think what makes it easily one of the greatest games of all time is that it is not a story, but it is a platform for storytelling. It’s a reality, where storytelling elements are baked in. Secrets are threaded throughout, but the mysteries are what the players make of them. Imagine being teleported to the world of Sherlock Holmes—the atmosphere is ready, the world is populated, everything is randomly generated, and the clues have been hidden throughout. But—the clues direct the players to the mysteries the players they themselves generate. I think of this as sandbox storytelling. Minecraft is a platform, the game is whatever the players decide.

 

I have more to say about this, but I think I’ll end with this: My goal is to author a platform, not just a story. I want to figure out the magic that can turn a book I write into a sandbox where readers can take the lead and go wherever they want to. That’s the secret ingredient I’m working on discovering. 

2017 Game of the Year

So, this list isn’t a list of my favorite games that released in 2017… this is a list of my favorite games I played this year. Some are old games that I just finally got around to, some are new games.

Want to know who won in other years? Here’s the 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013 list.

2017 is THE YEAR OF VARIETY!

My favorite games spanned a very large pool of genres this year. RPGs, demi-sports games, 3D platformers, open world GTA-style games, stealth, city builders, top down RTS, detective games... This year was one of the best ever for gaming, no joke. It's been a busy year, and my tastes have been all over. 

So, without further ado, my 2017 list of favorite plays (in no particular order):

Yooka-Laylee

I'm the BIGGEST Banjo-Kazooie fan, so this game was a no-brainer for me. I loved playing this game, and I 100%'d it. There was a bit of turmoil, with a game-breaking bug that kept me from getting the last Pagie until the patch came months later, but I liked everything except that. It was surprisingly hard in some spots, a little cheap in others, but fun all around. I can't wait for what this dev does next.

Watch_Dogs 2

I picked this one up mostly because I trust Ubisoft with open world action games. I liked the look of it, and the style as just what I wanted. Mostly stealth, this game requires you to go into buildings or areas and obtain hacker-y stuff. Using a few drones and hacker tools, you complete objectives. Players are rewarded for avoided the use of guns... you're not unlikely to die with guns blazing. But stealth is key. The threaded in online was surprisingly fun too. It's woven into the mostly singleplayer game. Players just pop in and out of your world. Very cool. Characters and story were good too.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Got this free with a preorder (which, strangely ended up being cancelled because it was delayed so much), but I loved it. Feels like Super Mario RPG but with South Park characters. Really funny humor, good story, just the right length of game. 

Batman Arkham VR

My friend let me borrow his PS VR, so I played this. It was fantastic. I got all the trophies and secrets. Made me want a bigger Batman VR experience, honestly. I loved solving the puzzles. This developer is amazing. 

Rocket League

Once again, this game is on my list. The reason is BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS FUN. I respect this game dev because they continue to add stuff to this game, much of it is completely free, too. I can always play a round of RL and have a very enjoyable experience. 

Honorable mentions: (still just games I played in 2017, not necessarily released)

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator - played but really enjoyed watching it played on YouTube. The game dev because FNAF is one of the best devs out there atm. Smart storyteller. 

Just Cause 3 - got as a freebie with PS+, very fun open world - need to finish it!

Batman Arkham City/Knight - replayed after playing Arkham VR, still amazing games

Skyrim PC + Mods - replayed a bunch on my new gaming PC, still a wonderful game, mods add so much more!

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator - played the demo a hundred times, waiting for the full release

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate - a solid game that is fun to take over the city

Starcraft - replayed and enjoyed

Banished - a fun few hours on STEAM

Destiny 2 - got as a freebie with my new gaming PC's video card, fun dungeon crawler

Mario Run - I enjoyed playing this on the go

Portal 2 - rented this from my local library and had a blast, load times were awful though

Steep - felt like skiing, played this instead

The Oxyborb Blog Game Of The Year for 2017

Horizon: Zero Dawn

This game really took the gold this year in every way. One of the best stories ever written for a video game, mixed with very refined gameplay. I'd never cared for the games this dev made before this, so it surprised me how good this is. 

There's so much to love about this game that it's hard to put into words. The beauty of the landscape, the realism of what could happen, the sci fi that blows the mind. Yeah, this game will be talked about for years to come. Play it immediately. My review.

So, I guess that’s it for 2017. Let me know what you think in the comments, in fact, tell me what your personal GOTY was!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

UNRAVELSPACE UNRAVELTIME

Yooka-Laylee Review & What Should Come Next

Banjo-Kazooie (hereafter written as BK) is one of my favorite games of all time, in my opinion, it exceeds Mario 64. I think Yooka-Laylee (YL) is as good as the original BK game.

Yes, I recommend it to people like me who loved BK. No, it is not a game for everyone.

One thing that makes BK & YL so special is characters and story, strangely enough. Recent Mario games have bored me for this reason. Mario does the same thing over and over, beat level, kill Bowser. Yooka talks to shopping carts with eyeballs, and I think that’s hilarious. YL and BK have more personality than Mario, in that way. Also, the story is different, changing. Each World in Mario is the same, get to the castle, defeat the boss, save princess/toad. Each World in BK & YL has a different story, and the characters all have different issues. Drop pigs off in helicopters, save a skeleton from being stewed, console a cloud with marital issues, make bubbles in a sentient hot tub, etc.

Mario used to have different villains… Tatanga, Cackletta, Mouser, Wario, Smithy, Wart… but Nintendo recently has been sticking with Bowser for every single game, and it’s growing very dull for me. I guess this is a side note, but I would love a 3D Mario where he returns to Subcon or a brand new enemy entirely.

Anyway, I enjoyed my time with YL, and I believe anyone wishing for the next BK (no more, no less) will be happy with it.

Although, I must say that I encountered a game-breaking bug that is preventing me from getting the platinum trophy on PS4. Somehow, even after collecting all of the chips on Capital Cashino, I still am missing ten. My game shows 0/10 chips, even though I’ve turned all 190 in. I still have a Pagie missing. I’ve read online that this is a common glitch, when you turn in many chips at once and the game forgets to give you a Pagie. I’ve also read on Twitter that Playtonic is going to fix this issue.

So, yeah, I’m mad about that. I still like the game, but I wanted the platinum trophy, and now I’m locked out of it unless they patch the game.

OXYBORB.COM Official Review Score for Yooka-Laylee: 7/10   Now, I scored this as is with a caviot: If Playtonic releases a patch so that I can get the Platinum Trophy without replaying the entire game, then I will bump the score up by 1 whole point.

by the way, all screen shots were taken by ME during my playthrough

Now, on to the constructive criticism:

I’m an idea guy. I don’t just like to critique, I like to creatively think through suggestions to make games better. This is what I plan on doing with YL. 

 

First, let’s talk about Kartos.

The minecart-themed challenges in YL are meant to throw you back to the old rides in the classic Donkey Kong Country games. I’ve beaten all of these challenges, and the cart-boss, too. None of them are impossible. However, they each have issues that strike against the fun factor.

I would love to see Kartos return in Yooka-Laylee 2 under the condition that his challenges are vastly improved. Here’s how:

1. Straight lines only; no turns, no 3D – the challenges in each stage are set over the stages themselves. The tracks appear floating above the sets, weirdly. They curve around towers/mountains/etc. to fit within the bounds. This, however, is not a good thing for several reasons:

• A. Curving around makes it harder to see what’s coming next, so instead of skill at carting, victory is based on luck and rote memorization.

• B. If you jump/boost when a turn happens, your minecart can fly off the stage. This happened to me. This is really frustrating, given that there are many, many obstacles, to avoid, some during turns, that are hard to see.

• C. The cannon fires straight, regardless of curve. So, basically, you can’t shoot barrels or other stuff when there’s a curve. The curve renders the cannon useless.

2. Set each challenge in a cave, not over the surrounding stage – This piggybacks off of #1. If there was one generic cave background for all the cart challenges, then you wouldn’t need to set the tracks floating in the stages themselves. This, for one thing, would make the carting feel more realistic and moody (track hovering over ice castles and casinos is out of place), and also ensure that the carting can happen on a 2D, straight track. The other BIG reason for this is because it’s hard to see the gems, hazards, and jumps with such crazy backgrounds going on behind you. I’d much rather have a mostly-black, cave theme.

3. No more shooting – the cannon is not fun. I don’t enjoy having to shoot barrels to avoid crashing. Also, the cannon hardly ever hits the target, even when I do shoot. This is either because the curvature of the track in 3D space, because when you jump the cannon fires at an angle rather than straight, or because when you land from jumping there’s a few seconds of weirdness that make the cannon shoot in weird directions. Even if the cannon was fixed to shoot straight, I would not want it to return. Like Donkey Kong Country, I want to only be thinking about jumping while carting.

4. Speaking of jumping, let’s talk about that. One of the few movements Donkey Kong does while carting was jumping out of the cart, often to jump on top of enemies. Banjo, and now Yooka, are not Mario, they do not jump on top of enemies to kill them. So, YL solves this by having the entire minecart jump when Yooka jumps, and so the minecart can “hop” on the heads of enemies. The issue with this is that the giant apparatus of 3-characters-in-1 is bulky and the unforgiving game is more likely to give you damage rather than consider the enemy “jumped.” OK, now the fix idea I have for this is to just allow Yooka to purchase “Head Jump” from Trowser in the next game. This would allow him to jump out of the cart and on top of enemies. Done. Fixed. Yooka should jump higher, like DK, out of the cart, and then land back in it as needed. Just make sure the jump goes the same speed as the cart, please.

5. No bees, pick a different enemy, please. One that doesn’t explode when you kill it.

6. Less hazards in general. It seems like the devs got so good at playing the minecarts that they just kept upping the difficulty to unbearable levels. Think about this, sometimes I go play the minecart levels from Donkey Kong Country just for funsies. They have the right difficulty, a perfect balance of hazards and calm. I do not have any urge to replay the Yooka-Laylee cart levels because they are so ridiculously overly hazard-filled that they are not fun.

7. The camera needs to move OUT. I want to see more of the track. I want to be able to see what is coming ahead of me rather than just memorizing it.
8. The breaking/boosting thing needs to go. No more of that. Keep it simple. Think DK Country. I want to focus entirely on jumping, not whether or not I can make a jump by boosting.

9. The boss, I.N.E.P.T., was ALMOST great, but the pattern for jumping over the big spikey balls was impossible to do without taking damage. I honestly do not believe it is possible to avoid them all. Either that, or the pattern is so complex gamers cannot possibly learn it. Playtonic, as a player, I only want to take damage because of MY fault, not because the game’s fault. 

10. There needs to be a “RETRY” button, selectable at any time after starting and even after you die, so that way you do not have to go through the dialog with Kartos each time you die.

11. BONUS ROUND: You should add a minecart maker that allows you to send new tracks to your friends’ games to attempt to beat. That way if we want ridiculously hard levels, we can make them.

Use my suggestions, and I promise minecarting will be a POSITIVE part of your next game, and not a NEGATIVE in a review.

 

Next, let’s talk about Rextro Sixtyfourus and the minigames.

For one thing, it seems like they had to reuse assets because of development time, when they originally meant to make retro-looking minigames. I get that they didn’t have time, but it would have been cool to see some pixel art to match the retro-dino. Now, I have not played any of these minigames with other people, so I can’t speak about how fun they are with friends.

But I will rank them as far as how much I enjoyed them:

1. Gun-let Run
2. Jobstable Course
3. Blag the Flag
4. Bee Bop
5. Glaciators
6. Kartos Karting
7. Up ‘N’ Nova

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8. Hurdle Hijinx

Now, what strikes me as crazy is that my top 3 favorite minigames are the ones not featured in the single-player game. WTF?? They are the best ones, and yet you don’t earn pagies from them. Weird. Most of the minigames are easy enough, but I will say in general, remove the BEES from ALL of them. For example, in the Kartos one, if you shoot a bee it explodes, but the bees are all around corners and cannot be shot until you’re close. How annoying is that?

Side note, there needs to be a “RETRY” button, selectable at any time after starting and even after you die, so that way you do not have to go through the dialog with Rextro each time you die/fail.

Also, if I beat the high score on the first try, then I deserve to earn the high score and get the second Pagie WITH the first. Perhaps, I suggest, one Pagie could be collected within the game, somehow, like by driving into it or finding a secret within the minigame, and the second can be for the high score.

The only minigame that sucks is Hurdle Hijinx, which is sad because it could have been fun. Much like the Kartos minecart challenges, there are just too many hazards and therefore becomes infuriating rather than fun. You don’t lose Hurdle Hijinx because you mess up, you lose because the game isn’t good. Hurdle Hijinxs has serious framerate hiccups that keeps you from jumping. The jump often won’t allow you to switch lanes for no reason at all, and I don’t understand that. The roll move is useless, in fact trying to roll through more than one bad guy at a time will cost you a life. And if you get damaged, you die. It takes a huge chunk of your score and then sends you back so far that you’re not even on your television set anymore. This could have been more fun if your character ran in the middle of the screen rather than right at the very bottom. If this game had less hazards, it would have actually been a pretty fun game all by itself. The concept is really cool.

 

One of the coolest parts of YL: the minigolf courses.

The Capital Cashino’s golf course is nearly perfect. It’s one of the best challenges in the game, and I loved it.

The Black-Hole In One has one design flaw that was very frustrating: the gates. I didn’t think it was fun to have to run to a sonar-statue every few seconds to unlock a gate to pass my ball through. I loved the windmill (and I didn’t even know that there was a button) and all the rest, but the gate was annoying.

Don’t impede players like that. It was just really unneeded. Think about actual minigolf, there’s never a time when you have to go push a button to unlock a gate for your ball. If the gates automatically went up and down, that’d be a different story, but the fact that I had to stop playing golf to unlock the gate was annoying.

But I want MORE GOLF in YL2!

In fact, this could be a really cool multiplayer challenge. I would rather have a golf challenge in each level than a retro game or minecart challenge, in fact. Might even be cool if balls of all sorts were littered throughout the game and Trowser sold a “Golf Swing” move to really give you a good hit.

About the Boss Battles:

First, I’ll rank them in terms of which I enjoyed the most:

1. Trev the Tenteyecle
2. Capital B
3. The Great Rampo
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4. Brrreeze Blok
5. I.N.E.P.T.
6. Planette

The first three were good, the last three were bad.

Trev the Tenteyecle was the best, most fair boss in the game. Also, his section sported the best graphics in the game. Just a wonderful battle and very fun. Maybe even the best part of the entire game. Capital B was hard but fair. I died a lot but it never felt frustrating, only made me want to try better! Rampo became frustrating because of the amount of health you lose when you slide down (and then going off to collect butterflies repeatedly), hitting each level of logs along the way, but it was unique and fun too.

Brrreeze Blok was uninteresting and easy. Kind of seemed thrown in rather than thought out. I.N.E.P.T. was cheap, forcing players to take damage because the attack patterns were impossible. Planette was all just random chance. The ship transformation was hard to control in the controlled space of the boss fight, and so Planette’s projectiles were unavoidable. I mean, to turn, you had to switch the way you hold the joystick when you reach the walls or you just stop turning. Totally weird controls. Planette and I.N.E.P.T. were the worst because losing wasn’t the player’s fault, but the game’s. Winning equated to random chance rather than skill.

So, the best thing to remember when designing bosses for YL2 is this: When the player can only blame himself for losing, players enjoy the challenge and try harder. When the player has to blame the game’s cheapness or random chance for losing, then the player gets frustrated because there’s not much he can do.

Also, like the retro games and minecart, bosses need a quick retry button.

 

Powerups and downs

I LOVE that Yooka can eat stuff and become stuff and shoot stuff. The character design of the buddy duo is fantastic in that way. The range of moves is awesome. I also really like how Yooka can both become sticky honey man AND shoot snowballs at the same time. Very cool way to create combos.
What I don’t like is that the powerups disappear quickly. I know there’s a tonic for that, but you can only have one (and Fallproof is essential! Duh!) we’ll talk about tonics later. Somehow, I suppose powerups replace the eggs in BK, just as the stamina bar replaces the need to collect feathers and other stuff. I LIKE the stamina bar, and I also like that you no longer need specific platforms for flight and spring jumps. I love being able to fly wherever I am.
But when it comes to fire/water/ice flowers, then it gets a little annoying. I wish they were just ammo that I could collect and store.

My suggestion is this: You can shoot your ammo from anywhere. D-down is shoot. To switch between ammo options, just click left and right on the D-pad. Hold Triangle to access the emotions that currently reside on the D-pad.
The problem with the powerups disappearing on their own is that it turns every challenge that uses them into a timed challenge. You have to complete something in a certain amount of time. I hate being rushed in an open world game like this.

Speaking of timed challenges

It felt like too many challenges were on a timer, and that detracts from the fun. I hate being rushed. There was one in the Hivory Towers that is like a giant slide, and I kept missing the goal by 1 second. It took hours to beat, and it was painful (I beat it to get the platinum [which I can’t get because of the Cashino glitch, grrr!]). Had that challenge not had a timer, it would have been perfectly fun, though. Open world games should be more open ended.

Transformations compared to Banjo-Kazooie

The transformations are OK in YL. They aren’t as special as in BK, and I think I know why: In BK, each transformation made you more capable of movement around the level. In YL, each transformation makes you less capable of movement.
BK’s bee allowed you to fly, the termite could climb better, the croc could swim through piranha water, the walrus let you swim in cold water, the pumpkin could squeeze through holes, whereas YL’s flower prevents you from jumping, the snow plow is hard to control and slides off platforms into water constantly, the piranhas prevent you from leaving the water, and the helicopter makes you fly slower than you fly as normal YL. The pirate ship might be the exception.
In YL2, I want weirder transformations. The everyday automotives are now played out. How about an armadillo? A monster? A UFO? A broomstick? What if you could become a shovel and then play as Shovel Knight? A raccoon or squid would be cool.

Worlds, ranked

The best worlds in order:

1. Tribalstack Tropics
2. Moodymaze Marsh
3. Galleon Galaxy
4. Hivory Towers (the hub world)
5. Glitterglaze Glacier
6. Capital Cashino

I liked the worlds just fine. The hub world is fantastic! Cashino was good, even though I rank it last. It just felt emptier than the rest, and too many of the challenges were slot machines.

My ideas for new worlds:

World: Deep Dark Wood

Theme: pumpkins and creepy beasts haunt the dreary woods, almost an ode to the original Banjo-Kazooie’s Click Clock Wood but with more of a Halloween feel to make it different. A spooky mansion can be somewhere inside, as well as a family of witches wishing to fly to the moon and raccoons who are starving for trash.
           

Transformation: Either a raccoon or broomstick. A raccoon could climb the sides of trees and speak to raccoons or trashcans. A broomstick could fly and help witches complete tasks.
           

Moves to learn: Sonar-Sight, which allows you to see certain enemies and objects through walls.
Swing Launch – Yooka can grab vines and bars and swing from them

World: Coral Reef Corral

Theme: Deep within the ocean, Yooka and Laylee will find themselves in an underwater western, where a rancher of underwater squiddies needs your help.

Transformation: Squid – shoot through the water with a jet (like when Mario grabs a koopa shell in Mario Galaxy), sputter out ink, and also speak with Cthulu

Moves to learn: Batwing Swim – makes the swimming much better to control, like when Mario gets the frog suit
Bubble-lash – Yooka can now tongue-up bubbles to restore his air meter

World: Beanstalk Battlements

Theme: Set around a castle on a cloud, a family of giants stalk the area.

Transformation: UFO – controls like the past game’s helicopter, only MUCH faster. You can zoom around the level. You also have a tractor beam on your underside that allows you to pick up stuff and lasers for weapons.

Moves to learn: Jetboost – During flight, Yooka’s tongue lashes out on pillar points, launching YL into a jet boost [while still flying]
Dive Bomb – YL can now dive bomb during flight, soaring down and then swooping back up into the sky, sort of like Batman in the Arkham games

Tonics

 I love tonics. You should be able to pick more than just one at a time. I LOVE the one that prevents fall damage, but I can’t also use helium-voices? Why not? Why not just let the player decide how many to use? Or, at least, let me pick 3.

What I want from YL2 or DLC:

New Worlds, obviously.

Camera mode – I love taking screen shots… would be great to take better ones with a real camera mode like Horizon: Zero Dawn has.

A new set of expansions to purchase [with pagies] for existing worlds.

A Trophy Room: would be cool to go back to your ship and see some of the stuff you’ve collected or some random objects from your adventures. That party you see at the end of the game makes me think… maybe some of the characters you help can show up at the Bat Ship Crazy just to admire your “trophies” you collect during the game.