Ex-RARE devs discuss what it was like reuniting for Yooka-Laylee

A portion of a Game Informer interview with Grant Kirkhope, David Wise and Steve Burke...

GI: Fast forward to just a couple of years ago: what was it like when you got the call to do Yooka-Laylee? What was it like getting the band back together?

Wise: Very much like getting the band back together. We worked together for so many years, so it was very reassuring to be able to pool our creative talent together once again. Also, when we were no longer at Rare, it gave me time to reflect on exactly how much I had enjoyed working there – especially the people I was working with – and had just taken that experience for granted at the time.

Kirkhope: A lot of people said I was crazy, it was never gonna happen, people don’t want that game anymore, and I’d gone on about it for quite a lot of years. And, to get to the point where we’re all actually doing it again was just unbelievable. It was a set of fortunate disasters that got us to this point. Some guys got laid off from Rare, some guys quit… People were available for the first time in 15 years to do this.

Burke: One of the most fun games I’d worked on at Rare was the music to Jetpac Refueled, and it felt like I could go down that retro route again with Yooka-Laylee.