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GDC 2012: Here’s What’s Coming Up From 99 Games

We had a chance to sit down with the folks from 99Games (creators of WordsWorth [$1.99 / Free] and The Jim and Frank Mysteries [$0.99 / HD], among other apps) and took a look at the games they have coming up in the next few months.

First up, WordsWorth HD [$2.99] has a big update incoming. The main thing to expect is a new single-device multiplayer mode. Where the game’s online multiplayer is a strategic asynchronous affair, the head-to-head (or side-by-side) single device mode is frantic. Both players have their own copies of a shared board, and letters disappear as your opponent uses them. Looks like it’s going to be a really great time.

Up next is Night Club Mayhem. 99Games has played with the time management concept before with Prison Mayhem [Free]. Night Club Mayhem brings those lessons back to a setting that might have slightly more crowd appeal. It’s nice to see a solid time management title that doesn’t run on IAP currency. The cool thing here is that the developer has put a lot of love into the accompanying mini-games, with a rhythm-style DJing game and a surprisingly complicated bartending simulation in the mix.

Night Club Mayhem should be out soon— 99Games expects it to be one of the first new games to fully support the Retina iPad, and it will hit Mac and PC at some point too.

A little further down the road iPhone users should be seeing the adorable physics puzzler Tito’s Shell. The version we took a look at was still under heavy development, but it’s looking good so far. Each timed level separates Tito the turtle from his shell, and the player has to use the environment to put them back together. Just about any part of the level can be connected to anything else within a tight range, so the solutions get increasingly experimental in a sort of Rube Goldberg machine way. It looks like it’s coming along well, and will certainly make a place for itself in the world of cute animal physics puzzlers.

There’s one more game up on 99Games’ slate: Dream Star. If you’re into the idea of a IAP-currency supported movie star simulator, keep your eyes open for this one when it comes out later in spring.