Gregg Mayles

Career

Mayles began his career designing the Battletoads series and the Donkey Kong Country series, and was one of the creators of Diddy Kong and King K. Rool. After his work on Donkey Kong Country, he conceived an action-adventure game influenced by that series. The project, codenamed Project Dream, was initially planned for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and later the Nintendo 64, featuring a boy on a magical adventure to a pirate island. That concept was scrapped, and the hero became a bear from Diddy Kong Racing with a backpack, inspired by a trip to Japan; this became the Banjo-Kazooie series.

Following its success, Mayles contributed additional design to Donkey Kong 64, which used the concept from his earlier project. He then directed Banjo-Tooie, the long-awaited sequel, which received even more acclaim. After Banjo-Tooie, Mayles worked on Conker's Bad Fur Day and Star Fox Adventures. He directed the design of Grabbed by the Ghoulies, released in 2003, which was poorly reviewed; its protagonist Cooper resembles Mayles himself.

He later played a key role in creating Viva Piñata, an idea from Tim Stamper that became a full game influenced by Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons, released in 2006 to positive reception. Mayles also helped design its sequel, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. In 2006, he began a new Banjo-Kazooie project featuring car building, announced at X06 as Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, released in 2008. After that, he worked on the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and on Kinect Sports.

Mayles served as creative director for Sea of Thieves, released in 2018; an in-game song is named in his honour. In 2007, after Tim and Chris Stamper left Rare, Mark Betteridge and Mayles replaced them as studio director and creative director respectively. Mayles donates money for poor children and started a Very Purple Marathon in April 2009, supported by Rare with a donation of 2,110 euros. His younger brother, Steve Mayles, was a video game artist at Rare from 1992 to 2014.