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What Rare is doing next is still under wraps, but it's pretty exciting stuff, certainly something that would be a career highlight for me to have had a small hand on the tiller, so to speak, during the creation of what Rare is doing next."
EG: You've brought this up a number of times now, so you can't blame me for asking. Battletoads... It's Rare's 30th anniversary this year...
Phil Spencer: Is it? (laughs)
EG: You're going to celebrate it with cupcakes, I'm sure, but what other plans are there?
Phil Spencer: We know it's their 30th anniversary. I can say that. And Rare's a very special studio, and I think I said a couple of months ago that I got to play the prototype they had for their new game.
Gregg Mayles [veteran Rare designer] is someone I've a tonne of respect for. We recognise that it's their 30th year. And that's an important time - without giving away too much.
EG:Is it time to celebrate their heritage?
Phil Spencer: I think it is.
Playtonic: 'We know what Rare is working on. We may even collaborate'
The small Midlands studio is building the ‘spiritual successor’ to Nintendo 64 classic Banjo-Kazooie. But the team still has one eye on its old employer, Rare
Fledgling game studio Playtonic, currently working on a “spiritual successor” to classic Nintendo 64 platformer Banjo-Kazooie, says it knows what Rare is working on – and that fans will be satisfied.
Playtonic, formed by six ex-employees of Rare, still has contact with its old employer, which is based only a few miles away.
“I still chat to them, I know what they were working on when I left last year,” says Playtonic’s studio head, Gavin Price, who worked for Rare for 20 years, having joined as a tester in the 1990s. “It sounds really good.”
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has been teasing gamers by suggesting that Rare may be about to move away from the Kinect Sports titles onto an IP more befitting the team’s skills and heritage. Last year, the exec tweeted that he had played the studio’s new project, claiming it was an example of “Rare building a uniquely Rare game, as it should be.” In January, Rare’s head of music Robin Beanland tweeted that 2015 would be a huge year for Rare and made a reference to Banjo-Kazooie.
“I want them to do well,” says Price. “They’re mates and we left them behind to come and do this. I’m looking forward to what they’re doing next – people will be really happy to see it.” Asked whether it would be a Kinect-focused title, like the studio’s other recent projects, he replied: “I can’t say for sure what they are or aren’t doing with that piece of hardware that Microsoft isn’t supporting much anymore.”
On the subject of old Rare, the popular story is that when Microsoft took control of the studio, it restricted the team’s creativity, and insisted on a more corporate approach, killing the unique atmosphere. Playtonic denies this.
“For me, it was more about [Rare founders] Tim and Chris Stamper leaving,” says Playtonic technical director Jens Restemeier, who worked at Rare handling handheld conversions of key titles. “There was no sense of progression about what the company was going to do from that point on. The story people want to hear is that Microsoft came in and destroyed everything. It wasn’t like that. They gave us freedom, almost more freedom than Nintendo gave us.”
Key Responsibilities
•Deliver world class lighting for an exciting and new project
•Work with the Art Director to translating intense mood and atmosphere from concept art to in-game environments
•Collaborate closely with the tech artists and the rendering engineers to improve the lighting technology, tools, and workflows
•Working with colour grading and other post process effects to achieve a game with a rich atmosphere, tone, and depth
•Work with other artists to help refine the material behaviours in the game and achieve the highest quality lighting across the entire game.
jawafour wrote:Monkey Man, that must be the most comprehensive opening post that we've seen in a while! It sounds intriguing and it's good to see that Rare are perhaps delivering a fresh game that will excite fans.
Venom wrote:I like the sound that is fun first.
But that Linked In list of staff who joined in 2001 or earlier, you must really want people to know this will be 'authentic' Rare game!
Garth wrote:I'd love a new Banjo, and imagine how good it would look too - Nuts and Bolts looked amazing last gen
Garth wrote:I'd love a new Banjo, and imagine how good it would look too - Nuts and Bolts looked amazing last gen
But one thing that does have me curious is, the ex Rare guys that are making Yooka Laylee know what Rare are working on and even though they said fans will be happy with it, I wonder why they left Rare when they were working on Banjo 3, just so they could leave and work on a Banjo 'spiritual successor' themselves?
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