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Happy 6th Birthday Playtonic Games!

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Yooka-Laylee Developer Playtonic Partners Up With 3 Studios to Launch New Publishing Label

Playtonic Friends Is Go; Awe Interactive, Fabraz, and Okidokico on Board

Derby, UK, February 12th: After six years dedicated to introducing platformer aficionados to the world of a certain chameleon and bat, Playtonic Games is excited to announce a brand new venture that will see the developer open up the games industry to its fellow studios.

As well as continuing to work on their own properties, Playtonic Games can today lift the lid on ‘Playtonic Friends’ – the company’s new publishing label designed to bring scores of fresh, creative, and compelling games to the market in the years ahead.

The new venture will allow the company to use its experience of developing and launching both Yooka-Laylee and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair to enable those hidden-gem games, developers, and new businesses to reach the best audience possible.

“The knowledge that we were coming up to our sixth birthday triggered lots of typical Teams calls amongst the staff here at Playtonic,” said Gavin Price, CEO, Playtonic. “Should we all don party hats and video chat together? Should we have a few mocktails, whip out the Karaoke and belt out our best Beyoncé? Or should we launch a new publishing label designed to bring the best games from indie studios the world over to market? Given I had a bit of scratchy throat that evening – and that the establishment of Playtonic Friends had been brewing as a serious ambition for a while –  we went with that.”

Playtonic Friends is thrilled to announce the first three studio partners who will be bringing incredible game experiences to market over the coming months –  Bedfordshire-based Awe Interactive, New York studio Fabraz, and international outfit okidokico.

  • Formed in 2019, Awe Interactive’s first release was a marked hit, with rhythm-action FPS rogue-like BPM: Bullets Per Minute garnering critical and commercial acclaim when it launched on Steam last 15th September 2020.

  • Fabraz is an indie game dev studio based in New York drawing from minds and talent found across the world. The studio was behind critical darling Slime-san, which won plaudits and high scores aplenty when it launched on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam in 2018.

  • The studio behind the celebrated OK Golf series, okidokico, made its name releasing beautifully crafted titles on iOS and Android and has creatives working in Montreal, Geneva and Tokyo.

“While everyone at Playtonic has dreams of recreating Scrooge McDuck splashing around in his pool of cold, hard cash, in reality our motivation for setting up Playtonic Friends was to take what we’ve learned about producing & releasing video games and use it to aid developers of a like mind looking for a fruitful route to market,” adds Steph Darrah, Business Development Manager, Playtonic. “That said, a yacht moored on the shores of Monte Carlo would be nice.”

Playtonic Friends will soon be able to reveal the first games coming from these partners, as well as its own top-secret new title currently in the works. Stay tuned!

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Playtonic Friends Twitter: @PTonicFriends
Playtonic Games Twitter: @PlaytonicGames
www.playtonicgames.com

 

About Playtonic Games

Playtonic Games is an independent videogame developer, started by the creative talent behind some of the most popular platform games of the past (including Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie). Their aim is to bring fun games that everyone loves to play to new and old audiences alike across multiple platforms! Their core team of veterans mixed with fresh, youthful talent has collectively notched up hundreds of years of videogame development. Their first release as Playtonic Games is Yooka-Laylee, launched in April 2017, and funded as a result of Europe’s biggest video game Kickstarter! They’re based in the heart of the Midlands in the UK near Burton upon Trent, within easy commuting distance of larger cities such as Derby, Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham.

About Awe Interactive:

Awe Interactive was founded by David Jones in 2019 to make awe-inspiring games. David was joined by Josh Sullivan, Nathan Knight and Sam Houghton shortly after. We believe our calling is to make the best possible experiences for players like ourselves. We strive to create things that we and our players love. We feel that our calling is to create the next generation of great and ambitious games.

About Fabraz:

Fabraz is an independent game development studio that prides its diversity both in design, and its developers. Drawing from minds and talent found in New York, Boston, Berlin, Zurich and Bangkok, it is a breeding ground of creativity. Their first game, the critically acclaimed Cannon Crasha, was an action-strategy title released for iOS and Android, and was featured as “…a sure-fire winner!” by Apple. Their second game, Planet Diver, was published on Steam and has been nominated for the Indie Prize, Momocon Indie Awards and was bundled in with the IndieBox. Their newest game, Slime-san, has been nominated for numerous awards, was shown at several exhibits, was part of tons of conventions and is published by Headup Games on Xbox, PS3 and Switch. It is currently ranked as one of the best Switch games on Metacritic.

About okidokico:

Okidokico is a micro-studio headquartered in Montreal, Quebec with a core team of three people spread over Canada, Switzerland and Japan. The company was founded by Charles Goatley and Moussa Khan, industry veterans who have contributed to a broad range of games from cult classics like Viva Piñata and EVE Online, to blockbuster titles like Far Cry 3, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The studio enjoyed huge success with Ok Golf – which sold over 250,000 units.

Vic

Editor / Writer / Producer For Drop the Spotlight