Former Rare Devs Working On A Spiritual Successor to “Banjo-Kazooie”

Eekum Bokum!

By Andrew Dodson on February 11, 2015 at 1:31am

It seems that a group of former Rare developers have gotten together to work on a new game which is currently code-named "Project Ukulele."

The group of developer have formed a new studio, Playtonic Games, and they are looking forward at getting back to their roots of making a truly fun and memorable games.

Currently we’re a sextet of artists, programmers and designers – sort of like The Pussycat Dolls with computer science degress – with one thing in common; we were all once core member of famous UK studio Rare, where we helmed franchises such as "Banjo-Kazooie," "Donkey Kong Country" and "Viva Piñata."

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.

Together, our all-star ensemble is aiming to build its debut game, ‘Project Ukulele’, into a worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures we built in the past.
Playtonicgames.com

So, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're getting another sequel to the fantastic "Banjo-Kazooie" (originally released in 1998), but it does look like the old band is back together to give us a similar experience. Right now, all we have to go on is talk, rumors and a little teaser images of eyes staring out from a bush, but that won't be the case for long.

Playtonic Games is revealing some of the details of Project Ukulele this week in Edge Magazine #277, which comes out on February 12.

NeoGaf revealed a bit of the interview from the Edge exclusive, so we know that while they have the funding for the game, they would like to work with a publisher, if possible.

There's a history of working with Nintendo so we'd naturally love to see our game on a Nintendo platform. If people tell us to make Wii U our target console platform then we've got the flexibility to do that.
Playtonic Games, Edge Magazine #277

You can bet that Player Theory will be paying attention and will keep you informed of any bird/bear shenanigans that happen to arise.