PLAYTONIC GAMES, a new development studio formed by the creative talent behind renowned adventure series such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country, is delighted to announce that its Kickstarter campaign for YOOKA-LAYLEE, the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, is now the Most Funded UK campaign ever for a video game, overtaking Frontier Developments’ Elite: Dangerous.
YOOKA-LAYLEE reached its £175,000 goal within 40 minutes of the campaign launching but also YOOKA-LAYLEE was the fastest game project in the world to reach a $1,000,000 equivalent. According to data supplied by Kickstarter, the YOOKA-LAYLEE campaign reached the figure in just 5 hours and 41 minutes - pretty impressive.
“The response to YOOKA-LAYLEE has been incredible and from all of us here at PLAYTONIC, we really want to say a huge, warm ‘thank you’ to everyone who has helped us exceed our goal,” said Gavin Price, Creative Lead at PLAYTONIC. “The enthusiasm and support from the community has been truly humbling. We’re now in a fantastic position to make YOOKA-LAYLEE at the level and scope that the fans have demanded.”
PLAYTONIC is still accepting pledges for YOOKA-LAYLEE until 12AM BST on Wednesday 17th June as it pushes towards the £2,000,000 stretch goal, which will reward backers with free additional game content, which will be planned, created and released after the final game is finished. The additional funding will also help PLAYTONIC to continue to polish the game to the Nth degree!
Who are the PLAYTONIC Team?
Founded in 2014, PLAYTONIC GAMES is an independent developer based in Derby, UK, comprised of:
Chris Sutherland (Project director): 25 years at Rare. Chris was the lead engineer on many of Rare’s classic IPs including Donkey Kong Country and Banjo Kazooie, and was Producer on Viva Piñata, Rare’s Avatars for Xbox and Kinect Sports.
Gavin Price (Creative lead): 15 years at Rare. Gavin joined Rare during the N64 era and moved up the design ranks at all levels working on the Banjo Kazooie series, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Piñata & the Kinect Sports franchise.
Steve Mayles (Character art): 22 years at Rare. Steve is responsible for creating the modern looking Kong family through his work on the Donkey Kong Country series, creating Banjo Kazooie and leading character art through Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Piñata & the Kinect Sports franchise.
Steven Hurst (Environment art): 18 years at Rare. Steve began creating backgrounds for the DKC
series, before leading background art for the Banjo Kazooie series, Grabbed by The Ghoulies, Viva Piñata & the Kinect Sports franchise.
Mark Stevenson (Technical art): 20 years at Rare. Mark became lead artist working on the Donkey Kong Country series, continuing in this role for DK64 and Kameo, before eventually becoming a lead designer on the Kinect Sports franchise.
Jens Restemeier (Technical director): 8 years at Rare. Jens joined Rare in 1999 and helped recreate Rare’s best known IPs on Nintendo’s handheld consoles before helping Rare develop its own internal technology and ship Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360 launch.
Andy Robinson (Writer): The only member of the team who wasn’t employed at Rare. Andy was a journalist for ten years, editing famous games publication CVG and contributing to Edge and The Sunday Mirror. He’s now a writer at Playtonic.
Plus: Legendary music composers David Wise (Donkey Kong Country), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) and Steve Burke (Kameo: Elements of Power) will create the score for YOOKA-LAYLEE.
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