Viva Pinata designer Justin Cook joins Playtonic

Playtonic have announced another new hire, hot on the heels of previous hires Andy Wilson and Gary Richards. Playtonic are bringing former Viva Pinata designer Justin Cook to the team.

Playtonic announced their newest hire shortly after announcing that Yooka-Laylee has gone gold. There’s no word on what Justin Cook will be doing at Playtonic, but it could be that the studio is gearing up for its second project.

Cook started in QA at Rare, working on titles like Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day before he moved into design, prototyping what became Viva Pinata in 2003 before he went on to become that series lead designer.

In a blog post on Playtonic’s site, Cook said: “I came to Playtonic because I like working ‘hands on’ with a game as part of a small team of experts. Joining Playtonic now, feels like a chance to ‘be-there’ at the start of something special.”