Rovio’s got a “new” game coming out this Thursday, as announced in another short teaser trailer (below). Here’s what we know about Amazing Alex so far.

We know that the game is based on Casey’s Contraptions, developed by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut. Rovio officially licensed the game from the developers, and it is no longer available on the App Store. Also, Rovio renamed the game to Amazing Alex and added a new art style. It should play similarly to Casey’s Contraptions, where players try to build Rube Goldberg contraptions to complete a goal and collect stars. There will be 100 levels in 4 different environments with 35 different types of objects in total. The video below also mentions free updates.

The level creation and sharing aspect is going to return to Amazing Alex – and it’s likely that the sharing will be more integrated than it was in Casey’s Contraptions, where it was a browser-based solution. Will the sharing be cross-platform, though? We do know that the game will be multiplatform, with a launch on iOS and Android worldwide on July 12.

May the App Store deities have mercy on anyone who decides to release a game of their own on Thursday, as we also know that Tiny Wings 2.0 comes out on that day.

The biggest thing to speculate on is if this will launch as a paid game, or if Rovio will try to go the free-to-play route. Angry Birds Space launched a free ad-supported version alongside premium versions for Android, though the iOS releases were solely paid versions at launch. Truly, the biggest speculation is what will Rovio change in the game? Will it still be as enjoyable as Casey’s Contraptions? Possibly even better when given the Rovio touch? That is the one thing that cannot be answered until the game is finally in players’ hands.

Update 5/11: In an interview on Finnish YLE TV this morning, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed talked a bit about Rovio’s next game, based on Casey’s Contraptions IP. The game will be called Amazing Alex and will be released in July of this year. Casey has been renamed Alex yet remains a curious young boy who loves to build things.

We mentioned yesterday that we believed that Rovio had bought the rights to Casey’s Contraptions. While neither the original developer or Rovio could confirm it yesterday, today we have gotten official word from Rovio that this was indeed the case.

Rovio’s VP of Franchise Development, Ville Heijari commented on our story from yesterday “We can confirm that we have acquired all rights to Casey’s Contraptions IP from Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut. We are currently reworking the title to enhance it, and getting ready to re-introduce it in a true “expect the unexpected” Rovio style launch to an even larger audience”.

Ville further commented on what makes Casey’s Contraptions a perfect fit for the Rovio brand. “Working with Noel and Miguel has been fantastic, and this is a game that we all fell in love with from the first play. The gameplay is a perfect fit in our arsenal with its approachable, fun and highly addictive take on the physics puzzler genre.”

We also asked Noel Llopis, the developer half of the games creators and the face behind Snappy Touch how this deal happened. He commented “We didn’t create Casey’s Contraptions with any thoughts of ever selling it. We just concentrated on making the best game we could and infuse it with as much personality as possible. The fact that Rovio came along and wanted to buy it was a happy accident that happened along the way. We’re really excited to see it get a second chance and to have it reach a much larger audience than we could have ever dreamed of.”

It will be interesting to see what changes Rovio makes to the excellent game. Will they keep the innovative sharing features (in Casey’s Contraptions, you could share your solutions, many times very unique, with other players)? Will the art style change? Will it be simplified or more complex? What about crossovers — will we see Angry Birds show up in the game? All questions we’ll have to wait to find out. As the game gets closer to release, we will undoubtedly find out more.

Expect Rovio to release the game for iOS and Android this summer, with other platforms to follow after that.

And now that Casey’s Contraptions in the capable hands of Rovio, what’s next for Snappy Touch? Again, Noel comments “I’m working on my games full time. I haven’t decided what my next game will be yet. I do know that it will be focused primarily on creativity and player expression, just like Casey’s Contraptions or Flower Garden. At the same time, it will be quite different from those games. That seems to be a theme with me so far: After doing one game, even if it’s successful, there’s a lot less creative challenge to make something very similar, so I rather move on and explore something different.”

For a look back at what was, here’s the excellent gameplay trailer from the original Casey’s Contraptions. Now that the game has been removed from the store, it will have to do to hold you over.

We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more about this, the next game from Rovio.

Casey’s Contraptions, the physics puzzler rated 4.5/5 stars and given the Editor’s Choice award by 148Apps as well as featured by Apple as “iPad Game of the Week” upon release, has been updated with the ability to download shared contraptions from the web directly into the app. Previously, contraptions could be shared only by email.

Now, people can visit the Casey’s Contraptions Shared Contraptions website, view contraptions uploaded by other people, and download them to their device. There is a button to view this website from Safari on the iPad, and clicking on a contraption downloads it and opens it up directly in the app, and will be saved to be played later. Stars can be earned on these levels, although solutions cannot be shared like the main game’s levels. Still, this is a massive influx of content to the game, and the integration of the web interface to the app is perfect. User levels can easily be shared from within the app to the website, or the URL can be shared directly to the website, in case a level was created prior to this update and is only available in the shared email.

This isn’t it for the update’s features. The game now supports multiple user profiles, so people who share one iPad can now have different progressions on the game. This feature was inspired by parents playing the game with their children, but also wanting to have their own saved progress in the game. With the 1.1 update, this is now possible. There have also been some tweaks to solution submissions, with the ability to autosubmit best solutions, delete submitted solutions, and to load past solutions, in order to compare the process that went into different solutions. Some other minor features like sound & music toggling, the ability to skip a level’s ending animation by tapping, and some bug fixes have been added as well. The app has been renamed to Casey’s Contraptions HD, as an iPhone/iPod touch version is in the works. Owners of the iPad version will be pleased to know that the game will be updated to a universal build in the near future, so there will be no need to re-buy the app for use on smaller devices! This feature, along with a new location and new items will be part of the game’s next update. The 1.1 update for Casey’s Contraptions is available as a free update from the App Store. Check out some screenshots of the update and a teaser for the iPhone version below.

$2.99

Casey's Contraptions HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-05-19 :: Category: Games