This Week In Mobile – GDC Gives A Look At What’s To Come

This week in mobile has been dominated by news coming out of GDC. With the convention drowning out any new releases, it’s time to take a look at some of the more interesting mobile games that hit the show-floor this year.

This War of Mine
Developer: 11 bit
Platform(s): iOS (iPad)

Game Informer’s PC Editor, Dan Tack, walked away impressed by This War Of Mine when it released late last year, as did many others. Now, those who didn’t have an avenue through which to experience the grim survival game when it launched on PC will have another option. Developer 11 bit says it’s committed to keeping the iPad version as close to the original as possible, and that the game will be releasing as a premium app instead of free to play.

Crashlands
Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans
Platform(s): TBA

While big sprawling survival games have taken over the PC space in recent years, they’re still somewhat of a rarity in the mobile space. Developer Buttersctoch Shenanigans is looking to fix that with Crashlands. The game features an absolutely massive procedurally generated world, and a genuinely interesting story behind how it came to exist if you have a few minutes to spare. 

Eisenhorn: Xenos
Developer: Pixel Hero Games
Platform(s): TBA

Games Workshop has been fairly active with its Warhammer brand lately. We recently got a look at Warhammer: Endtimes – Vermintide, a co-op shooter set in the classic fantasy Warhammer universe. Eisenhorn: Xenos, based on the Warhammer novel Xenos by Dan Abnett, is an adventure game – with a dash of action – set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. While there aren’t many details surrounding the game at this point, its gorgeous visuals are enough to make it worth keeping an eye on.

Zodiac
Developer: Kobojo
Platform(s): iOS, Vita, Others TBA

While turn-based JRPGs are certainly nothing new to the mobile market, few have the pedigree or good looks of Zodiac. With music from Hitoshi Sakimoto and writing from Kazushige Nojima, both of Final Fantasy fame, Zodiac is a game to pay attention to moving forward. Kobojo has already announced that the game is coming to Vita as well, so there’s intriguing potential for some unique cross platform interaction. 

Trial by Viking
Developer: Last Life Games
Platform(s): Mobile TBA, (also headed to PC, Mac, and Wii U)

Trial by Viking is one of the more ambitious games to come out of GDC this year. While it’s coming to PC, Mac, and Wii U, the action platformer is also targeting mobile platforms. The game already promises more than 150 levels to fight through, and if developer Last Life Games gets the touch controls right it could pave the way for more traditional 2D platforming on phones and tablets.