Gregg Mayles

Gregg Mayles is a British video game designer employed by Rare, and the brother of Steve Mayles. He is credited as a designer for several of the company's games, such as Battletoads Arcade, Viva Piñata and the Banjo-Kazooie series. Gregg Mayles is one of the longest-serving members of the company, having worked there since 1989."CS Sessions – Gregg Mayles". Creative Social Blog (Wayback Machine). Published March 10, 2013.
==History==
Mayles was the designer of Donkey Kong Country, deciding on elements like having a sparse HUD, designing the levels to allow a skilled a player to navigate smoothly without interruption and the presence of a "buddy" character to allow the player to take more than one hit.The Making Of Donkey Kong Country (accessed February 20 2012) He cites Super Mario Bros. 3 as a chief inspiration for Donkey Kong Country.In "The Making of Donkey Kong Country", Gregg Mayles is quoted as saying: "For me, Super Mario Bros. 3 was the ultimate pinnacle for 2D platform games. We wanted the same kind of structure, but we also wanted it to be extremely flowing – where a skilled player could move effortlessly through the levels at great speed,"
Gregg Mayles was also the designer for Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, which he believes to be superior to its predecessor. In "The Making of Donkey Kong Country", Gregg Mayles is quoted as saying: "My personal opinion is that DKC2 was a better game than DKC as we tried to incorporate more of the intricacies that made Mario so compelling but at the same time retaining our desire for fast, fun gameplay." Gregg Mayles was not directly involved in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, as he was working on Dream: Land of Giants (which later became Banjo-Kazooie) at the time.
Gregg Mayles designed the final battle with King K. Rool on Donkey Kong 64.Mayles, Gregg (September 6, 2020). Tweet by Gregg Mayles. Twitter. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
In 2006, Mayles started a new Banjo-Kazooie project with a new feature: car building. It was announced at X06, and was released in 2008 with the title, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts."Spiral Mountain talk to Gregg Mayles". Rareware Archives (Wayback Machine). Published April 15, 2010. Mayles did work on the Xbox 360 version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing and on Kinect Sports.
Gregg Mayles is the creative director of Sea of Thieves, released in 2018. One of the in-game songs is "Grogg Mayles", which is named after him.
Gregg Mayles is also known for his tweets regarding development and conceptual information of games he has worked on. This includes both Donkey Kong Country and its sequel Donkey Kong Country 2, where he would respectively use the hashtags #DKCrevealed, and #DKC2is20 in commemoration of each game's twentieth anniversary.
==Games credited==
Date	Title 	Platform(s) 	Role(s) 	Notes
1990	Solar Jetman 	Nintendo Entertainment System 	Critical feedback 	
1991	Battletoads 	Nintendo Entertainment System 	Designer 	
1994	Battletoads Arcade 	Arcade 	Lead designer 	
1994	Donkey Kong Country 	Super Nintendo Entertainment System	Lead designer 	
1995	Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest	Super Nintendo Entertainment System	Producer, lead designer 	
1998	Banjo-Kazooie 	Nintendo 64 	Director, lead designer 	
1999	Donkey Kong 64 	Nintendo 64 	Support 	
2000	Banjo-Tooie 	Nintendo 64 	Director, lead designer 	
2001	Conker's Bad Fur Day 	Nintendo 64 	Additional design 	
2002	Star Fox Adventures 	Nintendo GameCube 	Special thanks 	
2003	Grabbed by the Ghoulies 	Xbox 	Director, lead designer 	
2004	Sabre Wulf 	Game Boy Advance 	Original concept 	
2005	It's Mr. Pants! 	Game Boy Advance 	Original concept 	Credited for "We Dream of Pants"
2005	Perfect Dark Zero 	Xbox 360 	Rare management 	
2005	Kameo 	Xbox 360 	Rare management 	
2006	Viva Piñata 	Xbox 360 	Lead designer 	
2007	Jetpac Refuelled 	Xbox 360 	Rare mangement 	
2008	Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise 	Xbox 360 	Additional design 	
2008	Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts 	Xbox 360 	Director, designer 	Credited for "Daft Ideas and Vehicle Gluing"
2010	Kinect Sports 	Xbox 360 	Designer 	
2010	Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 	Xbox 360 	Special thanks 	
2012	 	Xbox 360 	Special thanks 	
2014	Kinect Sports Rivals 	Xbox One 	Designer 	
2018	Sea of Thieves 	Xbox One, PC 	Creative director 	Credited as Grogg Mayles
2019	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 	Nintendo Switch 	Original Game Supervisors; Rare Ltd.	Banjo-Kazooie Fighters Pass DLC
2020	Battletoads 	Xbox One, PC 	Special thanks 	
==External links==
*Twitter account
==References==
Category:Staff
Category:Game designers