The story sees Beebz venturing through the Demon World and taking out different turf leaders to climb up the ranks and defeat the Demon King. Along with platforming, Beebz can also push and pull enemies, using the power of physics in combat. Some interesting mechanics include the ability to place checkpoints anywhere (or nowhere at all to go for a flawless run).

After liberating certain levels, you can also go back and complete various other challenges. If you’re not keen on using mods, then there are dyes and pets to acquire as well. Demon Turf is slated to release this year – stay tuned for more details on a date in the coming months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDLYgcBq_f8

Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is celebrating its sixth anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, they’ve made a pretty big announcement- the opening of a new publishing label, called Playtonic Friends (which is the rebranding they were teasing earlier). Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Playtonic boss Gavin Price said that the new publishing label felt like the next big step for the studio.

“About a year ago now, on the back of launching Impossible Lair, there was an opportunity to do some reflection and say ‘Hey, how’re our games going, how’re our processes going, what do want to be doing with our own IP?’ But also as a business as well to think, what else can we be doing?” said Price.

Price also spoke about this next big step for the studio, saying that Playtonic Friends’ purpose is to help smaller titles get the recognition and success they deserve at launch. He remarked that with Playtonic staff (many of whom were at Rare during the Nintendo days) having had experience as first party developers, independent developers, and crowd-funded developers, they are in the unique position of having plenty to offer to indie developers in the industry.

“We like seeing great games come out and achieve success,” Price said. “We don’t like seeing great games come out and not get the attention or love, or the commercial success they deserve. Sadly that’s too common a story in the industry.

“We thought, well, if we can help great games come out and get attention and have that better chance, having given developers this long-term sustainability, everyone wins… We’ve always had people coming to us for advice, but one of the advantages of being old is having all this experience. We’ve had experience of being first-party, being independent, of doing crowd-funding. We have a lot to share.”

Price added that Playtonic isn’t looking for any specific types of games to publish, and that they want to have no arbitrary restrictions in place for the same. Additionally, developers they work with through the publishing label might be considered later for work on games in Playtonic’s own Yooka-Laylee universe.

“There’s no barrier to the types of games and people we went to help,” he said. “It would be arbitrary to say ‘we can’t help you because your game doesn’t have a million different collectibles’. There’s companies we’ll be working with and games we’ll be announcing which will make people go, ‘woah, how did we get from a chameleon and a bat to this over here?’

“But as we’re going to be working with great partners through the Playtonic Friends label, we may find some great people who can help us with content in the Yooka-Laylee universe as well.”

Three developers have already signed on with Playtonic Friends for their next games- Awe Interactive (developer of BPM: Bullets Per Minute), okidokico (developer of OK Golf), and Fabraz (developer of Slime-san).

Among the various new titles showcased during the Summer of Gaming expo by IGN is Demon Turf. This 3D platformer channels a 2D animated aesthetic and is about Beebz, a young demon set on becoming the Demon Queen. Check out the trailer below along with gameplay and an interview with developer Fabraz.

As Beebz explores the Demon World, she’ll take out various turf leaders and platforms her way through (even revisiting liberated levels for more challenges). Physics are pretty important as they’ll dictate the combat and even how you take damage. Checkpoints are also handled differently as you place them wherever you feel like, which sounds similar to Ori and the Blind Forest.

Other interesting features include Photo Hunt where you take pictures of hidden environments; mods that will change your playstyle; and much more. Demon Turf is currently in development for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC. It will release either in 2020 or 2021 so stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.