It’s no secret to those that have followed me over the years that I love highlighting indies and AA games that fly a little under the radar. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy AAA games like everyone else, but I’ve built my following highlighting the AA games. Often times they are the most creative and fun games out there. Case in point 2020’s Journey To The Savage Planet and its upcoming sequel, Revenge Of The Savage Planet. Today is in fact Journey To The Savage Planet’s 5th anniversary!

I still remember picking up Journey To The Savage Planet like it was yesterday. One look at it and I knew it was a game for me. Its colourful, artistic world, crazy plot and quirky humour were right up my alley. And it did not disappoint. My time exploring its world was great from start to finish. There’s something about a game that asks you to explore and learn everything about the world that just clicks. It was so good that I made sure to get every achievement in the game.

The plot was also an interesting one for a game. An everyday man sent to an alien planet by a major corporation only to be abandoned by said corporation. In a weird way, the studio itself has lived out the plot of its own game.

The Studio Purchase That Stung

The game did so well that it caught the eye of Google and the company decided to purchase developer Typhoon to make Stadia games. There’s not many studio acquisitions that bother me much, but knowing a Journey sequel would likely be Stadia exclusive was a gut punch.

Of course things didn’t work out for Stadia the way Google had hoped and they abandoned the platform and subsequently Typhoon studios. Sound familiar? Luckily out of the ashes came Raccoon Logic Studios and the Savage Planet IP was released to them.

Through all that it’s led the team to present day. Celebrating a crazy 5 years and mere months away from releasing the sequel, Revenge Of The Savage Planet. If our preview is any indication what gamers can expect from the sequel is a bigger and better version of the first game. And for me that’s certainly a good thing.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Revenge Of The Savage Planet’s Creative Director Alex Hutchinson. We were able to talk about the crazy journey they’ve been on, what to expect from the sequel and much more. We also touch on another topic very dear to me, physical games and their importance to is both.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it. And thanks to Alex for taking the time. Revenge Of The Savage Planet releases on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC in May 2025. Enough from me, let’s get into the interview!

I feel like I’ve gotta start from the top. It’s been quite the road to get to this sequel. From releasing Journey To The Savage Planet to being purchased by Google to make a Stadia game before Google ultimately pulled the plug. It’s honestly eerily similar to the premise of the games. Big corporation leaving the little guy behind. How was it going through all of that. Did you ever wonder what would happen coming out of that? 

Any similarities to real life events are purely coincidental! But seriously, it was a crazy few years and it seemed like we were living through our own satirical adventure, so it was perfect fodder for the sequel. At least as a launch point. Obviously we didn’t kill any aliens or eat strange orange goo in real life.

Was it easy to get the IP back from Google once you rebooted the studio from Typhoon to Racoon Logic? 

It felt like it was easier to sell them the previous company than get back the IP honestly. I think Google is far more familiar with buying things than selling them. But they were actually very good about all that and even though the transaction was complex we are happy to have the rights to the IP and the code back so we could make a sequel!

Journey Of The Savage Planet is 5 years old today! Time flies. Usually a launch has some things go unexpectedly, both good and bad. Was there anything for you 5 years ago that you say you wish you did better? Perhaps something great you didn’t expect as well? 

Launching a game during a pandemic was a new experience! We were bought by Google just as lock downs were declared and we launched the original game, then they shut down our studio as we shipped the Employee of the Month edition, which meant that we never set foot inside a Google office. That was weird. 

Another unusual thing for us is the first game sold pretty steadily: usually with a new release you have a massive spike then a pretty abrupt fall of in sales. With Journey we didn’t get a monstrous opening week like we occasionally had in our previous careers in AAA but we have seen much steadier sales. Which hopefully continues in Revenge of the Savage Planet in a few months!

Getting into the game now, we’ve already seen a fair bit of Revenge Of The Savage Planet and it looks like more of what made Journey so great in a bigger and better package. How different is it creating a sequel when you have a formula you know is successful? Do you feel more pressure to deliver to fans or is it a bit easier because you have that formula? 

I love the first sequel in a franchise. You can start from success, you have a lot of the boring work of getting basic assets and gameplay up and running out of the way, and you can focus on refining what made the first special and adding all those bits you maybe had to cut the first time. Plus it’s easier to communicate with the team as we’re all better aligned on what the core values of the game are.

Journey To The Savage Planet did a great job balancing different playstyles. It was catered to speedrunners but also to completionist’s that wanted to explore and find everything. Is that something you are focused on in Revenge?

Yes! We are trying to allow lots of play styles to work and be satisfying. The core of the game is still an explore ’em up in my heart, so it rewards players who turn over every rock and climb every peak. But for those who want a more directed experience you can always check the quest log and get a marker to tell you where the next major gameplay beat takes place. 

Old Game Minus was a pretty cool mode you added post launch into Journey To The Savage Planet. Do you think we might see the return of that or something similar?

I would love to do it. Some funny, free modes post release to keep the game fresh and get people replaying. Even though this game is longer than the first it is designed to be deeply finishable, making speedruns much more attractive in my mind! But yeah we are planning some post release support to reward people who shell out their hard earned cash for the game!

I’m really intrigued by the base building aspect you’ve talked about in Revenge Of The Savage Planet. Just how in depth is this base building going to be. Is it just bringing back some creatures and trinkets to decorate or will the base be customizable to get some pretty unique looking builds out there? 

I worked on the Sims for several years so I love me some home decoration and even though there’s no real ‘gameplay’ to the customization in Revenge of the Savage Planet, there is plenty of room for creative expression. Make your own disgusting space hovel or design a beautiful home for your explorer. There’s also a bunch of interactions with your stuff, just to add a little life! 

You are bringing back co-op for the sequel which to me isn’t a feature in enough games. We’re you always creating the game as a co-op experience and did you ever consider going for more than 2 player? 

Not for this one! I am a big believer in two player co-op as I find you really cooperate when there’s only one other person. You chat the whole time, you build strategies, you generally stick together. It’s more intimate and satisfying to me. When you get to four, people collaborate but don’t talk as much, and it feels less personal. And anything over that is basically a shared world. We may look into it for the next game but it was a creative choice for this one. 

It’s also why we added splitscreen coop. We wanted people to play the game the way most of the team played coop games growing up, on the couch with a pizza, sitting next to your best friend or partner (or now kid).

This is more a personal question for me. I’m a big advocate to keep physical media alive in gaming. I’m happy to see Revenge Of The Savage Planet has a physical release. Sadly many companies both big and small are moving away from that, especially on Xbox. How important was that for your team to have a physical release? 

My basement looks like that warehouse in Indiana Jones where they put the Ark of the Covenant, so I am definitely a fan of physical media! I love finishing  a game and putting it up on my shelf, then perusing my stack and pulling a new game down to play. It just feels more real and tangible and satisfying to me. So far I’ve managed to get physical releases on every game I’ve ever worked on and it’s something I’ll keep trying to ensure moving forward!

I would think there’s still got to be something special as a creator of any form of media to hold that project in your hand and almost makes it feel more real? 

Yes! It makes it real. Next to me right now I can see a row of all the games I’ve shipped back to 2003, along with Prima guides when they still existed and various statues and give aways. I love it. There’s even a can of Grob from the first game which was a preorder bonus in Australia, which is fun.

I appreciate you taking the time with me today. Is there any final thoughts you’d like to say to the readers? 

Just that we hope you grab a copy and a friend and play the whole thing together. We put years of love and hard work into it so we hope you get a kick out of it.