Playtonic Games is a British independent

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

. It was founded in 2014 and it consists almost entirely of former members of Rare.

History

Playtonic Games was founded in late 2014 by Steve Hurst, Steve Mayles, Gavin Price, Jens Restemeier, Mark Stevenson, and Chris Sutherland, all of whom previously worked at Rare. Of the founders, Price assumed the role of

studio head Studio manager, studio director, or studio head is a job title in various media-related professions, including design, advertising, and broadcasting. Design and advertising A design or advertising studio manager's responsibilities will typically ...

. They were later joined by

Grant Kirkhope Grant Kirkhope is a Scottish-American composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include '' GoldenEye 007'', '' Banjo-Kazooie'', ''Donkey Kong 64'', and ''Perfect Dark'', among many others. He has been nominate ...

and Steven Hurst. The first game the company worked on was codenamed "Project Ukulele", which was described as a

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...

to ''

Banjo-Kazooie ''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare (company), Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo & Kazooie, Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Banjo & Kazooie, Kazooie, who are both controlled by the p ...

''. The team launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign for the project, and it managed to reach the stretch goal of US$1 million within 24 hours. In part due to the campaign's success, the team's attention was often diverted to other aspects such as making merchandise items instead of focusing on game's development, and some choices related to game development were forced as well due to them being promised in the campaign. Project Ukulele was eventually unveiled as the 3D platformer ''

Yooka-Laylee ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game published by Team17 in 2017 for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, followed by a version for Amazon Luna in October 2020. Developed by Playtonic Games, a group of former key ...

'', which was released in 2017 to mixed critical reviews. Playtonic followed up on ''Yooka-Laylee'' with their second game, a 2.5D spinoff named ''

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair ''Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair'' is a platform video game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. As a sequel to ''Yooka-Laylee'' (2017), the game was released digitally for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbo ...

''. While bearing similarities with the ''

Donkey Kong Country ''Donkey Kong Country'' is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a reboot of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'' franchise and follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and h ...

'' series, the team opted not to use the moniker "spiritual successor" to market the game, unlike with ''Yooka-Laylee''. ''Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair'' was released in 2019 to a more positive reception than ''Yooka-Laylee''. Playtonic Games announced not only the rebranding of their company name now titled "Playtonic" but also the launch of a publishing division, Playtonic Friends, in February 2021, with three titles currently under development from partner studios Awe Interactive, Fabraz, and Okidokico. On 26 March 2021, Playtonic Friends' revealed their first game, ''

Demon Turf ''Demon Turf'' is a 3D platformer action-adventure game developed by Fabraz and published by Playtonic Friends. The game was released November 4, 2021 on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Serie ...

'', developed by Fabraz. On 29 April 2021, Playtonic Friends's announced their next game, '' BPM: Bullets Per Minute'', would be released in 2021 for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. On 19 May 2021, Playtonic announced ''A Little Golf Journey'', to be released on PCs and

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and developed by Okidokico.

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

acquired a minority stake in Playtonic in November 2021.

Games developed

Games published as Playtonic Friends

References

External links

* {{Tencent British companies established in 2014 Video game companies established in 2014 Video game development companies Video game companies of the United Kingdom 2014 establishments in England Companies based in Derby Tencent