Joystiq

More Puzzle Quest coming from reborn indie Infinite Interactive

Alexander Sliwinski — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EST

Yesterday's announcement regarding EA's Firemint and IronMonkeys merger actually had a sideplot to it, in that Infinite Interactive, which was "acquired" by Firemint last year, quietly split off this past January to be independent again.

"There was never an actual acquisition of Infinite, it was more of a merger. It was all amicable stuff - as much as it would be fun to have a bit of a scandal. Unfortunately there isn't one," Infinite Interactive's founder and creative lead Steve Fawkner told us. "I think everybody agreed that Infinite does its best work when it's independent, and so we headed back out into the wilderness to work on our own stuff again."

Fawkner explained he couldn't get into the "nitty-gritty" details about intellectual property ownership and that things are "a little more complicated" than before, but that Infinite do still retain the Puzzle Quest and Warlords IP rights.

"While I don't have a specific announcement that I can make at the moment, if you shook a Magic 8-Ball and asked it 'Will Infinite's next game be a Puzzle Quest title?', then it would quite probably say 'All signs point to yes!'," Fawkner explained.

"In the short term, we will continue to build and innovate in the genres and settings that we know and love. That means games that combine fantasy, puzzles, strategy and tactics. It's doubtful we'll ever move too far from those genres, because they are our favorites, and you always do your best work when you're building games that you're passionate about."

[Thanks Aaron S.]

More Puzzle Quest coming from reborn indie Infinite Interactive originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Puzzle Quest 2 canceled for PSP

Alexander Sliwinski — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:40:00 EST

From PSN-only to the void, Puzzle Quest 2 for PSP has met with the ultimate skull chain combo. Steve Fawkner, CEO and president of Infinite Interactive, confirms on his Facebook account that the PSP version has been canceled.

"After Firemint's acquisition of Infinite, and EA's acquisition of Firemint, so many people have moved around, that I find myself without enough manpower to finish it," Fawkner writes. "I would also like to point out that it was nothing to do with EA and/or Firemint that it has been cancelled - they have been excellent in giving me enough time and freedom to get it done... this is just a very unfortunate logistical problem where key people are no longer available to work on it."

Fawkner claims there was "ONE sound bug remaining to be fixed, and it would have been good to go." He won't give up hope entirely, but admits that finishing the project is "unlikely to happen." So, um, anyone with working knowledge of PSP development want to help a brother out?

Puzzle Quest 2 canceled for PSP originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firemint acquires Puzzle Quest dev Infinite Interactive

James Ransom-Wiley — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST

You'd think after selling a billion iPhone games, the Firemint crew, makers of those Flight Control and Real Racing games on your phone, would go buy a boat or something. But, oh no, they had to be "smart" with their money, acquiring Puzzle Quest developer Infinite Interactive to form an even stronger, more independent operation, which "works exclusively on self-published original games." Who do these guys think they are ... PopCap?

It would seem that Firemint starter Rob Murray and Infinite Interactive founder Steve Fawkner, both Aussies, have been casually strategizing for years now. "Steve and I have been talking about working together for a long time, and I remember him showing me an early version of Puzzle Quest," Murray recalled. "This inspired me to make a game during my own holidays two years later, which was Flight Control -- and now, another two years later, we've finally found a way to work together!" (The financial terms of the deal haven't been disclosed.)

Infinite Interactive will merge into Firemint's "recently expanded" (how convenient!) offices in Melbourne and continue work on some kind of infectious game that could endanger world health at a bargain price. And then, they'll all probably buy a fleet of boats and retire into Port Phillip Bay.

[Image credit: Firemint]

Firemint acquires Puzzle Quest dev Infinite Interactive originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fawkner talks up Neopets

Candace Savino — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, Video

Steve Fawkner, the CEO of Infinite Interactive, chats a bit about the recently announced Neopets and some of its features in the video above. Neopets takes the game Othello (also known as Reversi in some circles) and spruces it up a bit with magical spells and things of that nature, while also adding an adventure storyline. This may not excite some of you, but we still have fond memories of 7up's Spot: The Video Game, which showed us that Othello can be awesome in the right circumstances.

Fawkner also claims that if you play just one game, you'll be hooked. Since Infinite Interactive gave us Puzzle Quest, a title that people had big doubts about until they realized it was video game crack (the DS version, at least), we're inclined to see if Neopets can live up to Fawkner's promise -- even if we still think the tie-in with the Neopets franchise is just weird.

Gallery: Neopets Puzzle Adventure

Fawkner talks up Neopets originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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