Super Stardust HD Developer Housemarque Working on Three New IPs

Talking to Gamasutra, Housemarque has revealed that the Finnish Super Stardust HD developer is making three new IPs for various systems, including a PSN exclusive, a multiplatform title, and a self-published game, Rope. “They’re both in matters we haven’t dealt with before,” said CEO and co-founder Ilari Kuittinen. “One of the games is a PSN exclusive for Sony again, continuing our good relationship with them. And that’s gonna be as far as we know, announced at [GamesCom 2009 this August in] Cologne.” “We are doing also currently our first multiplatform game, for a leading publisher,” he continued. “Again, something different from the past. We haven’t done this kind of a game genre before.” “What we’ve been able to accomplish in the last 6 months is pitch new IPs for downloadable games. Most of the games out there are new versions of older games, it seems. We’ve been lucky enough to sell our own ideas to publishers.” Additionally, the company is hoping to get into self-publishing, on its third IP, a physics-based puzzle/problem solving game called Rope. “What we are currently doing is games for publishers, but we’d love to go games of our own,” said Kuittinen. “Doing what Team 17 is doing for instance, doing our own games. We hope Rope will be one of the first games we will publish, late next year.” The game essentially uses rope physics, attaching a ropey avatar to various objects, then beginning the physics simulation, with the goal of getting a group of fuzzy characters to roll to a goal. Housemarque is considering different kinds of rope with different physical attributes, and different themed levels. The company is hoping to add around 50 levels, and release new ones, perhaps with an editor. The firm still hasn’t decided what platforms the game will hit, but the concept is approved on PSN, and the company is asking Microsoft for approval as well, but “obviously it can be on iPhone, maybe WiiWare. We hope to eventually be a small boutique publisher, releasing things ourselves.”