More Puzzle Quest coming from newly independent Infinite Interactive

If we were to compile a list of smartphone games that can ruin whole evenings with their magnetic pull, Puzzle Quest would probably be somewhere near the top.

Which is why there's as much fear as joy in our hearts at the news that developer Infinite Interactive is independent once again - and that it's almost definitely going to be releasing more Puzzle Quest.

This franchise's magical mix of match-three puzzle and RPG elements has resulted in a bunch of memorable games - not least 2010's Puzzle Quest 2 (pictured above) on iOS. It's been a while since we saw anything new on the Puzzle Quest front, mind, mainly due to the amount of chopping and changing going on at the studio.

Infinite Interactive merged with fellow Australian developer Firemint at the beginning of 2011, you see, to form a kind of smartphone gaming supergroup. As is usually the way with supergroups, the partnership hasn't lasted too long, though, with Firemint being acquired by EA and then merged with IronMonkey (to be called FireMonkeys).

Are you keeping up with all this? Good. Essentially, Infinite Interactive has taken the opportunity to split off from its good buddies at Firemint and go it alone once again.

"It was all amicable stuff," Infinite Interactive founder Steve Fawkner told Joystiq. "I think everybody agreed that Infinite does its best work when it's independent."

Yes, yes, but what about the other bit? The "more Puzzle Quest" bit?

"While I don't have a specific announcement that I can make at the moment, if you shook a Magic 8-Ball and asked it 'Will Infinite's next game be a Puzzle Quest title?', then it would quite probably say 'All signs point to yes!'," Fawkner teased.

Apparently, Infinite Interactive retains the IP rights for the series, so there's no obstacle on that front.