Can you fathom that in just over two months Yooka-Laylee will be released? And as our proverbial tank treads take us thundering us towards d-day, our ranks grow ever larger…

Too Many Cooks

Hot on the heels of recent arrivals Andy Wilson (producer) and Gary Richards (designer), please welcome Viva Pinata designer Justin Cook to the Playtonic team!

Here’s his RPG backstory:

Like all most initiates, Justin had to prove himself in the QA trenches before he could scrap alongside the battle-hardened level scribblers we call ‘designers’.

Cook worked in testing on games such as Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day before joining a tiny team in 2003 to prototype what eventually became Viva Piñata – and ending up as the series’ lead designer. His design credits also include It’s Mr. Pants, the Kinect Sports series and more.

Harassed for a few nice words over Skype, Justin eventually conceded: “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.”

Welcome, JC. We’re sure we’ll all get on fine.

Yooka’s Awaylee

More good news! Almost two years since Playtonic announced itself to the world – and 21 months since our Kickstarter campaign – we’re absolutely delighted to announced that Yooka-Laylee has gone gold!

We couldn’t have reached this moment without the incredible support of our backers, fans, family and friends across the games industry. Thanks again for your unwavering enthusiasm for our studio. We hope you enjoy Yooka-Laylee when it releases on April 11!

Kickstarter Backers: Important Update

Today we have published a very important update on how Yooka-Laylee console Kickstarter backers will soon be able to prepare their final platform choices, ahead of the game’s April 11 release.

Head over to Kickstarter for the full information breakdown.