They say that the apple never falls far from the tree, and that's certainly true of UK startup Playtonic Games. Based on an industrial estate in the middle of the rolling English countryside, this team of former Rare developers is but a stone's throw away from the historic town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper founded Ultimate Play the Game back in the 1980s. Just a little further down the road you'll find Twycross, where Rare relocated during its Nintendo years - first to a converted farmhouse and later to a state-of-the-art, purpose-built office complex, where it remains to this day under the ownership of Microsoft.
All companies change over time, and the Rare of today is a very different beast to the one which created titles like Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie. That is partly down to the change of ownership, but another factor is the migration of key staffers; over the years the likes of Martin Hollis, Steve Ellis, Mark Betteridge, Phil Tossell, David Wise, Chris Seavor and - of course - the Stampers themselves - have all moved on.
We've seen the likes of Nyamyam, Gory Detail and FortuneFish all appear in recent times, but few Rare off-shoots can boast the sheer volume of former talent that Playtonic can; with the exception of the company's PR expert and resident word-smith Andy Robinson - who is a former video game journalist and the ex-editor of CVG - every single Playtonic member is an ex-Rare employee. Project Director & Software Engineer Chris Sutherland was at Rare for 25 years and worked on the likes of Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, while Managing Director & Creative Lead Gavin Price had his feet under a desk at Twycross for 15 years, and oversaw titles like Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Piñata and Kinect Sports. Character Art Director Steve Mayles is the brother of Rare's current Creative Director Gregg Mayles, and spent 22 years at Rare creating characters for games like Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata.
Technical Director & Software Engineer Jen Restmeier worked on Nintendo's portables before helping to create the internal tech which would power Perfect Dark Zero, while Environmental Art Director Steven Hurst and Technical Art Director Mark Stevenson come with 18 and 20 years of experience at Rare respectively, having contributed to games like Kameo and Kinect Sports, amongst others. Add in the audio contributions of David Wise, Grant Kirkhope and Steve Burke - music-making legends as far as Rare fans are concerned - and it's clear that Playtonic has assembled a formidable selection of talent at its Burton Upon Trent offices.
"Having a studio that went back to making games like we used to at Rare back during the N64 days is something I've wanted to do for a good four or five years," says Price. "It was just about waiting for the right pieces of the puzzle to come together." Mayles adds that Playtonic is very much set-up like the Rare of the past, with each staff member encouraged to chip in with feedback or comments. "We're not precious about our own personal ideas," he says. "People feel they can say anything about any aspect of the game. That's kind of how it used to be in the N64 days really, with the small team size."
There's a real sense of camaraderie within this fledgling company, and listening to the interplay between the staff members it's clear that the friendships and bonds nurtured during their days at Rare are still going strong. There's an understanding here which transfers directly into the game Playtonic is creating: Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie which will be partly-funded by a Kickstarter campaign and is being constructed using Unity. Creating a game with an off-the-shelf game engine was important for Playtonic, given the small size of the team - but Restmeier doesn't feel that it will be detrimental to the end result. "In the past we've worked with a lot of our own engines that we wrote from scratch and we've seen all the things that can wrong," he says. "Unity is small enough that you can build whatever you want, but big enough that you don't have to start with the tedious work of writing an animation system, writing a particle engine, writing AI, and stuff like that. All that comes already in. Unity is the sweet spot between an engine where you basically plug in your data and an engine where you can build anything you want."
If you said Yooka-Laylee was Rare's next title, there would be little reason to doubt it. It has all the hallmarks of the developer's best work; large, explorable environments, engaging characters, infectious music and tight controls. We played a very early build of the game and came away suitably impressed; this is only three months of work, yet it already feels more complete than many fully-developed titles. Playtonic's Steve Mayles explains that the team is able to work so quickly and effectively because it has been structured in a way which apes how Rare operated back in the '90s; everyone has total trust in each other's abilities and no one is afraid to interject with feedback or suggestions. Another element which has been effectively carried over is the trademark British sense of humour; as you'll no doubt have noticed from the Kickstarter video, Playtonic wants to make people laugh as well as entertain them.
When you comes to Kickstarter projects, people tend to be sceptical when industry veterans - like the team assembled at Playtonic - choose to turn to crowdfunding rather than seek out cash themselves. In this case, the Kickstarter isn't the be-all and end-all, as Price explains. "We're not reliant on the Kickstarter. The Kickstarter really helps us 'level up' the game. I like crowdfunding - it enables creators such as ourselves to retain full creative control and ownership of IP rights, which especially important for us, with Yooka-Laylee also containing lots of characters that we want to define lots of our future games to, we can't do a deal with any publisher - we'd lose the rights to those characters." That seems to suggest that Playtonic wouldn't be open to the kind of relationship that Rare enjoyed with Nintendo and currently has with its current owner, Microsoft - but that's not to say that something couldn't be worked out in the future. "There could be chances that we might work with a partner, if it makes sense at the time," explains Price. One of those instances could be giving the game a physical release - something Price is very keen on. "My inner child would love to see [Yooka-Laylee] on as shelf and in a physical box, maybe a special edition."
Looking at Yooka-Laylee in action, it's clear that this kind of game is going to be of massive interest to Nintendo fans, who are arguably more accepting of this kind of cute platformer than their Xbox One and PlayStation 4-owning counterparts. "I think it certainly could be the case that there will be a lot of Nintendo fans in what we're doing," Sutherland says. "In fact, of all the emails and communications we get, a high percentage of them are asking us about Nintendo-related features. It's quite exciting for us because of where we've come from and our history."
When we departed the Playtonic offices - taking a moment to grab a snap of us wearing a massive Donkey Kong jacket handed out during the days of the SNES - we did so with a renewed sense of optimism. We'd rolled up to the door expecting to see little more than concept artwork, yet by the time we left we'd had the chance to not only see Yooka-Laylee in motion, but to actually get to play it, too. Playtonic insist that the game isn't reliant on the success of its Kickstarter campaign, but the fact that so much work has already taken place will bode well for the team. It proves that these guys mean business, and that they're not simply dragging up some old memories in order to fund their next venture. There's so much of that classic Rare magic within the walls of the Playtonic office that it's impossible to enter without taking a bit of it home with you - and from what we've seen of Yooka-Laylee, it's obvious that the company has been successful in embedding its work with that same unmistakable quality.
You can see the full interview, with a look at the game and Playtonic's development studio, in the video below.
Be sure to also check out our hands-on first impressions of Yooka-Laylee. The Kickstarter for Yooka-Laylee is live now.
Comments 45
Backed it for £15 the second it opened.
WELCOME BACK RARE!
Woo-hoo!
You are now an official backer of Yooka-Laylee - A 3D Platformer Rare-vival!.
If this project is successfully funded, the creator will send you a survey to collect information needed to deliver your reward.
Your pledge
£30.00 Edit
(Approx $47 USD, €42 EUR)
it only took them 10 minutes to get 1/3rd to their goal
Looks awesome!
The Kickstarter is exploding just like I thought. It will meet its goal in about an hour Lol.
I hope it reaches the 4 player modes stretch goal. Hype! I have no money atm but am so glad at all the support fans of Rare have been giving.
Edit: At this rate the project would be backed within a day. dsakjdnakdjnasd m
Day one console release is 1 Million stretch goal... what.
"Exclusive". That is all.
It's at over 80% already... crazy. At this rate it'll reach the million anyway.
@japfelix you mean an hour right? and then stretch goals by the end of the weekend. lol
£175,000 (~$264,900) doesn't seem like a lot to create a game that will be on multiple platforms. I hope they didn't underestimate their funding needs.
They already met their goal
@Plateface At this rate they'll reach it as they already have over $300,000
Pledged and they've already broken the goal! If only my partner would let me spend the wedding money on the £5k!
Looking forward the end result.
BANJO THREEIE HYPE
They were funded in forty minutes.
I'd say that final stretch goal is in the bag at this point.
Damien, PLEASE tell me you asked them if there was an ice key in the game...!!!
@Tazcat2011
It seems they already funded themselves to create a smaller game and the kickstarter is there in order to make the game bigger with many more features.
@aaronsullivan True, they do make it sound like they have a lot personally invested in this. I hope it succeeds as I love 3d platformers.
Would like to buy his Banjo-Kazooie teddy lol.
I have backed it for £70. I really want all the physical items, its a shame you can't choose physical Wii U game.
I was really tempted by the N64 Box version, but you don't get a physical game with it (unless you add on another £35) so i can't justify nearly £300 more for a box, even though it would be a great collectable.
Wow, it raised over £393,000, that was fast.
This game is now my second most anticipated game of 2016, second only to Zelda Wii U
Holy crap, at this rate, they're going to break the 1million mark by the end of the day!
This game looks and sounds amazing. I cannot wait!
@Tazcat2011 £495,000 and sure to pass 500,000 soon. This game looks great, can't wait to play it.
I am so jazzed, the music is new but still nostalgic! It'll be good to have a Rare-esque game developer again!!
I still don't see why people are hyping this thing up, it looks like another steam game. Then again, I never did really like collectathon beyond Galaxy and Sunshine. Never saw a liking towards them.
Wasn't surprised this game got funded so quickly. I can only hope the last stretch goal is met, I want the Wii U version at the same time as the Xbone and PS4 versions.
We are up to £700,000! Wii U day one release is imminent!
Over 700k pounds in one day. Dayum
Oh my what?! Some people are backing $1000+ dollars for this game, in some cases $5000+! I mean, I get that this used to be Rare, and Rare made great games, but.... $5000?!?! That's almost the price of my car.
Good for Playtonic! But I'm wondering what's going through some of these backers' minds...
@TeeJay Because people want platformers. It's sad that Microsoft and Capcom don't realize that, but at least people like Playtonic do.
@TeeJay Whenever I back a Kickstarter, I pledge the minimum amount possible to get the game on my platform of choice. The same thing happened here, but that's because this is what my disposable income will allow me to pledge aty the moment. If I were at a point in my life and professional career where I could pledge larger amounts, I believe I would, if the crazy rewards on offer were tempting enough.
In this case, one of the top pledge tiers allows you to attend a concert featuring David Wise and Grant Kirkhope music, accompanied by those guys, and then have dinner with them (on top of all the other rewards, of course). This would be an absolute dream come true for me, as I'm an amateur musician who adores their work, especialy the Donkey Kong Country tunes by Mr. Wise.
So yeah, I can certainly understand people pledging $5,000 here, because the reward is definitely something that would have the potential to be a life-changing experience for me. I just hope they can actually afford that and aren't doing anything crazy.
No Design Documents? is that a good idea?
This looks pretty cool.
Not bad at all for 3 months work with a small teams. Excited for the final product. We really need more 3D platformers. Nobody makes any aside from Nintendo(and thats just Mario) and a handful of indies(Gears for breakfest) Oh and Sonic does 3D games I guess but those usually get mixed to negative reception from everyone...colors being pretty much the only exception
Its all retro 2D Platformers, runners and crap everywhere. That being said a few devs really nail the 2D formula and are totally welcome to continue(Yacht Club games and Pixel for example)
Does this massive kickstarter response suggest that somebody i.e. Nintendo, should be investing a bit in teams like this and trying to make the new Rare their 2nd party "buddies"? It's clear that people want it, and will pay money for it.
I just finished listening to the music clips Playtonic posted on their Kickstarter page and I LOVED it. This is the type of game that defined my childhood, and I'm really looking forward to bring back those good days all over again.
I just love the massive catering bag of Yorkshire Tea bags in the background! So typically English.
Hit £1,000,000. So we get day one all consoles release. Can't wait to get my Wii U version I backed them for.
They've now added two new goals at 1.1 mil and 1.2.
With David Wise and Grant Kirkhope on board this game should be amazing just based off the early versions of the tunes they have uploaded to their kickstarter page. Sounds exactly like a Banjo Kazooie game, and I couldn't be happier with it!
@Dpishere
Woah, you mean to tell me they signed on David Wise too?!!
Great interview btw...
@JaxonH Check out their kickstarter page for yourself and some of the song clips they uploaded too! With them on the game the soundtrack will be incredible.
I was going to back this, but they are already well over where they need to be in terms of funding, and I'm holding out for a retail release, if it happens.
Either way, I'm definitely buying this day 1, and definitely for Wii U.
I've seen videos of it and it looks pretty good. I hope Microsoft NEVER gets this game since THEY ARE THE ONES WHO RUINED RARE! DEATH TO MICROSOFT!
£3,000,000 stretch goal: game gets ported to N64 on special custom 128Mbyte cartridge!
Make it happen guys...
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