The Walking Dead’s next iOS game will shuffle out of Finnish startup Next Games

Helsinki startup Next Games has won a deal to make a new The Walking Dead mobile game based on the popular television series.

Next Games and the AMC cable network announced that the Finnish game company is developing an iOS release that will cater to the series’ fans. The show is the No. 1 television program among adults ages 18 to 49 in the U.S. Telltale Games continues to work separately on its highly acclaimed PC adventure game, which is on iOS as well.

Founded last year by design veterans from Rovio, Supercell, and Disney, Next Games has assembled a team focused on free-to-play, narrative-driven mobile games.

“We chose to team up with Next Games because of their outstanding creative and technical talent as well as a willingness to reimagine the unique and compelling world of The Walking Dead, which has built a significant and passionate global fan community,” said Charlie Collier, the president of AMC, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be part of this next wave of games innovation and participating in a project that — like the show itself — is in service of the fans.”

The iOS game is scheduled to debut in 2014. Both AMC and Next Games will jointly market it to coincide with the launch of the fifth season of the TV show.

“Our take on the undead-survival franchise will match the against-all-odds action and moment-to-moment tension of the TV series,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, the CEO at Next Games, in a statement. “We want to find that sweet spot where gameplay and narrative inform and reinforce one another. Like AMC’s The Walking Dead [show] itself, we’re not giving away too many details right out the gate, but I can confidently state it’s unlike anything we’ve seen from The Walking Dead franchise on home- or mobile-gaming hardware before.”