Reborn Gremlin reveals iOS shortlist

Gremlin Graphics' resurgent leader Ian Stewart has revealed to Eurogamer the Gremlin games on the shortlist to be remade for iOS devices.

Near the top of the pile: Monty Mole.

In April, Monty Mole creator Peter Harrap told Eurogamer he wanted to make a new Monty Mole game for iPhone. Now Eurogamer can reveal that Stewart and Harrap have talked: the wheels of a new Monty Mole game are in motion.

"Well Pete and I have been in touch," Stewart informed Eurogamer.

"I've not spoken to Pete in nearly 15 years or so. He left the industry and he just dipped his toe back in the water [helping Kavcom remake Z The Game for iOS].

"[Monty Mole] will be one of the titles I'm looking at. Obviously that one is fairly dear to my heart, because it was really the product that launched Gremlin in 1984.

"No we haven't had a chance to meet up yet," he added. "We're going to be speaking in the future and seeing if there's any synergies there."

Fingers crossed.

The first golden oldie to be recreated for iOS devices under the Gremlin Presents label will be Bounder, as Bounder's World. That game is being tested and tweaked at the moment. "Once we've tweaked the product so as we're happy about it then we'll fix the date," said Stewart. "It's not far away. "

The second project to be published under the Gremlin Presents label will almost certainly be Thing on a Spring, a 1985 side-scrolling platform-puzzle game for Commodore 64.

"Thing on a Spring is likely to be the next product we look at."

Ian Stewart, Gremlin Graphics and Urbanscan founder

"Thing on a Spring is likely to be the next product we look at," said Stewart. "We're getting some game designs together for that at this moment in time. That's likely to be the one we look at and introduce to the public. And again, going back, that was one of my favourite projects."

But Stewart said releasing a second game this year would be "quite a rush". "Maybe early next year rather than late this year," he guesstimated.

The Gremlin games that come third and fourth and fifth aren't set in stone, although Stewart has a firm idea of what he'd like to do.

Lotus Racing?

"No probably not [top of the list]," answered Stewart. "Whilst that was a very successful range, there's a lot of competition out there on racing games that have been produced over the last 20 years. To really get out there and compete with the Need for Speeds etc. - it's probably not the best route for us to take.

"You're more likely to see things like Zool appearing."

Ian Stewart

"You're more likely to see things like Zool appearing," he added, explaining that popular icon Zool is another character "fairly dear to my heart".

Stewart has been running a competition at Sheffield Hallam University that allows students to use the Zool character to come up with a game that may be made eventually into a PlayStation minis game.

"We're likely to be working on a project of our own anyway," Stewart remarked. "We treat it as two separate things."

What about Premier Manager for iOS?

"It's something that we're looking at," nodded Stewart, "because, to be honest, if any of the football games lend themselves to that sort of casual gaming, probably Premier Manager does more so than any of the others.

"Obviously the PlayStation Network version is the focus at the moment. There will be a PC version of that this year as well. "

"You might see Super Cars."

Ian Stewart

What about Actua Soccer?

"That's not very high [up the list], actually," returned Stewart. "Again, you've got to look at the reality of the competition out there and say to yourself why would you pit yourself against some of the other big guns? I tend to think our character-based IPs have more value in that sense than something like Actua."

"You might see Super Cars," he added. "I'm working with another developer on that one. It will be titled Gremlin Presents but it may not be published by Urbanscan that one. But that's likely to be seen going forward."

"That's probably enough for this moment in time. We wouldn't want to flood the market with all these fabulous IPs now would we," he quipped with a laugh.

Stewart also name-checked Jack the Nipper as a "wonderful character".