Playtonic Games has announced a partnership with fellow UK-based developer Team17 for next year's Kickstarter-funded 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee.

The partnership means Playtonic - notably made up of ex-Rare developers - will focus all of its efforts on creating the game, whilst Team17 (itself an independent developer, best known for the Worms franchise) will handle publisher-like tasks such as QA testing and translation work.

In a statement, Playtonic's creative lead Gavin Price said the deal has "taken lots of non-game dev pressure off our ageing, clicking shoulders (not a joke sadly) while Team 17 uses its expertise in other areas, including the various business necessities that indie studios traditionally struggle with."

Playtonic also re-emphasized that there was currently no plans for a boxed retail edition of Yooka-Laylee. The game concluded its hugely successful Kickstarter a few weeks ago, raising over £2,000,000. It is being developed for PC and Wii U, as well as PS4 and Xbox One.

The game is scheduled for release in October 2016.