Green Throttle taps BioWare vets to build Android game for the living room

Green Throttle Games is unveiling its first internally produced free-to-play title for its Android-based living room game controller. Hungry Moose Games, a Canadian game studio started by former BioWare developers, has created 9 Lives: Casey and Sphynx to take advantage of Green Throttle’s system for getting mobile games onto your TV.

9 Lives is the tip of the spear for Android games in the living room. As such, it represents an attempt by Green Throttle and Hungry Moose Games to disrupt the traditional $60 games on consoles made by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. It will do so by unleashing free-to-play games from the Android app store, curated and tailored for a big screen experience.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Green Throttle, cofounded by Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang, has made the Atlas game controller (see our coverage), which plays Android games on devices such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD. You can also plug the device into a TV set with an HDMI cable and play your mobile games on a big screen. Green Throttle has also created an Android app that makes it easier to shop for Android games on your TV.

Above: Green Throttle cofounder Charles Huang (right) is a co-creator of one of the HD generation’s biggest franchises: Guitar Hero. Mobile games are his next target.

Image Credit: VentureBeat

9 Lives was designed for just such an experience. The point is to make mobile gaming more versatile and social. The puzzle game is about a misfit couple: security guard Casey and Sphynx, the stray cat with an attitude. They risk their nine lives on an archeological adventure in a local museum. You can play on your own or with a friend on the same screen and navigate the duo through a series of puzzles set in ancient Egyptian tombs within the museum.

The title was put together by Hungry Moose Games, a studio in Edmonton, Canada, that aims to marry the best of console and mobile game experiences.

“We are excited to develop our first title with Green Throttle,” said Ric Williams, the co-founder of Hungry Moose Games. “The challenge of making a game using the latest in hardware technologies that connect your Android device to a TV fits 9 Lives like a glove, and we think gamers will love our misfit characters and device-specific gameplay.”

“We think the Hungry Moose team came up with a really fun concept for a game that will nicely take advantage of the Green Throttle experience,” said Huang. “Playing local multiplayer on an Android tablet or through the TV will make you connect with Casey and Sphynx in a totally different way. We can’t wait to see this one launch.”

Huang said at our recent Mobile Summit that Green Throttle is leading the charge for Android in the living room, but it needs a lot of help from different companies in the ecosystem.

Check out our video of our on-stage interview with Huang at VentureBeat’s Mobile Summit below.

Charles Huang – Green Throttle Games from VentureBeat on Vimeo.

And here is the Arena software on a Kindle Fire.