Mayles began his career as a designer of the
Battletoads series and the
Donkey Kong Country series, and was one of the creators of the characters
Diddy Kong and
King K. Rool. 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 to be about a boy who went on a magical adventure to a pirate island. The concept was scrapped, and the hero was changed to a
bear based on one from
Diddy Kong Racing with a
backpack, with the latter inspired by Mayles' trip to Japan. This became the critically acclaimed
Banjo-Kazooie series. After the success of Banjo-Kazooie, Mayles did additional design on
Donkey Kong 64, which was based on the 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 in 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. In 2006, Mayles decided to go back to his roots, and started a new
Banjo-Kazooie project with a new feature: car building. It was announced at
X06, and was titled
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The game was released in 2008. After
Nuts & Bolts, Mayles did work on the
Xbox 360 version of
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and on
Kinect Sports. Mayles also served as the creative director for 2018's
Sea of Thieves; one of the in-game songs is named in his honour. In 2007, Tim and Chris Stamper left Rare to "pursue other opportunities", and Mark Betteridge, along with Mayles, replaced them as studio director and creative director, respectively. Mayles also donates money for poor children. He started a "Very Purple Marathon" in April 2009. The marathon was supported by Rare itself, donating 2,110
euros. His younger brother is
video game artist Steve Mayles, who also worked at Rare from 1992 to 2014. In October 2025, after the reported cancellation of
Everwild, Mayles has now resigned from Rare. ==Works==