Playtonic Games is already made up of many of the developers from Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare. Today, they add one more to the team.
Character artist Ed Bryan, a veteran of Rare, has joined the Playtonic team officially. During his time at Rare, he worked on Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Pinata, most famously creating the Banjo character Mumbo-Jumbo.
He had previously contributed character work for the Yooka-Laylee series in an unofficial capacity, being cited as the father of the new character Dr. Puzz.
With Bryan joining the Playtonic roster, they now employ all of the major original character artists behind Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie.
Bryan, since 2011, has been developing children’s apps and books. Now, he joins Playtonic in bringing the old Rare visions to life in creating spiritual successors to Rare’s old titles, like Yooka-Laylee and Banjo-Kazooie, and the new Impossible Lair and Donkey Kong Country.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was released last month for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. Whatever Playtonic could be cooking up with Ed Bryan, it will probably take a while to see the light of day.
In the meantime, you can check out Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee-themed Mario Maker 2 level, or their Nintendo 64-inspired filter tonic for Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
