Former Rare devs form Playtonic Games

Ex-employees of veteran UK games studio Rare have come together to form a new developer, Playtonic Games.

The new team is comprised of six artists, programmers and designers, all of who have worked on multiple classic Rare titles, such as the Donkey Kong Country and Banjo Kazooie franchises.

"We’ve got the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games," the studio wrote on its website.

Playtonic is currently hard at work on its debut game, dubbed Project Ukulele, which it claims willbe "a worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures we built in the past". Judging from the teaser image (above), it doesn’t take a genius to work out which IP the new game is most likely to be modelled on.

The studio warned that the project is still at an early stage, although it promises more updates in the coming months. It has also pledged to get consumers involved in the game’s development.

"We very much intend to get you involved and listen to your views on our game’s direction," the team wrote. "You’ll ultimately shape the destination of our project and we plan to continue exchanging sweet glances across cyberspace at you until we get there."