Rovio rebranding Casey's Contraptions as "Amazing Alex"

We're hearing a little more every day about Rovio's next big mobile title. Originally, we thought that the game would be a truly original release, but that's not quite the case: The company has instead bought the rights to Casey's Contraptions, a really excellent iOS title that came out last year, and now Rovio CEO Mikael Hed says it's going to rebrand the property as "Amazing Alex." Other than the name, however, it sounds like Rovio's keeping the Rube Goldberg simulator mostly the same. Hopefully they will include the great multiplayer social system that was originally built for it.

Casey's Contraptions co-creator Noel Llopis has also put up a blog post explaining his side of the deal with Rovio, and he says he and Miguel Friginal won't be involved in development of the game going forward at all. They never expected to sell the property, but when Rovio came along with "an offer we couldn't refuse," they gave it up. Llopis said he expects big things for the game: Sites who didn't cover Casey's Contraptions at all have already mentioned Amazing Alex, so Rovio's big app machine is already working its magic.

Llopis also says the Rovio deal will allow him a lot of creative freedom going forward. He's not interested in building a company of his own, and says money won't even be a consideration for his next title. That, at least, is great. Rovio might have earned the ire of some developers for their overwhelming App Store success with Angry Birds, but in this case, it sounds like they made a smart move with a good title that will leave everyone involved happy.

Thanks, Mikko!