PopCap and Rovio talent helping Housemarque capture casual

Stardust developer Housemarque is making a concerted effort to capture the iOS market with Furmins, enlisting the help of talent from two of the casual world's most respected names.

Furmins, a puzzler that's pitched somewhere between Cut the Rope and incredible Machine, falls in line with other successful iOS fare, with physics based gameplay and object manipulation coming together in a succession of levels in which your performance is rated out of three stars.

With music supplied from an ex-Popcap employee and audio provided from a former member of Rovio - a studio located near Housemarque's Helsinki base - Furmins also benefits from the expertise of some of the casual market's heavy hitters.

Furmins has been in development at Housemarque for three years, beginning life as a console and PC game before moving over to iOS, and it utilizes the same engine that powered games such as this year's well-received Outland.

With such a flexible engine behind it, Housemarque is also looking to bring the release to other formats should the iOS original perform well.

"I think with a game like Furmins you can do multiple versions very easily," Housemarque's CEO and co-founder Ilaro Kuittinen told Eurogamer, "you can do mouse controls or touch controls."

There's even a strong possibility that Furmins could make it to Sony's PS Vita. "We can get it on there very quickly, and because of the investments we've made down the years it's not that complicated," Kuittinen said.

Housemarque is already working on Sony's Vita, with a version of its well-regarded Super Stardust series coming to the handheld.

Meanwhile Furmins is scheduled for release on iOS devices in January.