A Dark Room creator's latest game A Noble Circle takes an unexpected turn

Amir Rajan, the creator of the much-loved surprise of 2013 A Dark Room, has another game out on iOS called A Noble Circle. It's unusual.

It's a 2D platformer in which you play a dark circle. Tapping the screen causes it to jump up the screen, unravelling a world known as "flatland" leap by leap.

There are other shapes that, if collided with, will destroy the circle. So you have to jump in such a way as to avoid these.

But, more than that, text appears as you jump across flatland. It gives character to all the shapes, slowly detailing a world that you piece together.

Triangles are men that sit around. Slender lines are women who try to appear invisible to you by tracking your movement.

Then, after you've conquered a few challenges, A Noble Circle completely changes direction.

It turns out that Rajan is updating A Noble Circle every weekend as that's the only time he has to work on it. It's almost like a game diary.

So far, he's updated it twice, but not with new challenges to beat. No, instead he's began writing about his disappointment with the way the mobile games industry has gone.

He laments how indie developers like himself rely on App Store ratings to get a reputation. And how a lot of the most popular games are lacking in substance.

He's spoken to us before about these topics and his problem with mobile gaming.

Whether Rajan will keep this up or revert to the original platformer, or go somewhere else entirely with A Noble Circle is to be seen.

If you're curious, you can download A Noble Circle for free on the App Store right now.