Gregg Mayles
| Gregg Mayles | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 January 1971 Coalville, Leicestershire, England |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Employer | Rare |
Gregory Ashley "Gregg" Mayles (born 1 January 1971 in Coalville, Leicestershire, England), is a British video game designer currently working for video game company Rare as Creative Director. He is one of the longest-serving members of the company, working there since 1989.
Mayles began his career as designer of the Battletoads series and the Donkey Kong country series, and was one of the creators of the character Diddy Kong. After his work on DKC, he came up with an idea about an action-adventure game influenced by his recent work on the series. The project was greenlit for release first on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and then on the Nintendo 64. Codenamed Project Dream, the game was about a boy who went up on a magical adventure to a pirate island. The concept was scrapped, and the hero was changed to bear based on one from Diddy Kong Racing with a backpack, with the latter winnowed by Mayles's trip to Japan. There went the critically acclaimed Banjo-Kazooie series.
After the success of Banjo-Kazooie Mayles did additional design on Donkey Kong 64, which was based on concept of Mayles's project. Then, Mayles directed the long-awaited sequel, Banjo-Tooie, which was even more acclaimed than its predecessor. After Banjo-Tooie, Mayles did design on Conker's Bad Fur Day and Star Fox Adventures. Mayles directed the design of the 2003 game Grabbed by the Ghoulies, which was reviewed poorly by the press. The game's protagonist, Cooper, resembles Mayles himself. Then he worked on some other projects before playing a key role in creating the game Viva Piñata. It first came to life as an idea from Tim Stamper, and then it resulted to a full game influenced by the Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons series. It was released in 2006 and was well received. Mayles also took part in designing its sequel, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.
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