Well known for its work on franchises such as Age of Empires, Texan studio Ensemble has proved to be great training ground for mobile and social studios.

Since it was shuttered by Microsoft in 2009, it's famously spawned Newtoys - now Zynga With Friends - and Hero Academy developer Robot Entertainment.

And now Ensemble and Robot co-founder Tony Goodman has revealed his new outfit, PeopleFun.

Time is now

"The explosion of mobile platforms including iOS and Android is amazing, and the market that has opened up for game creators is absolutely massive," said Goodman, who is PeopleFun's CEO.

"We watched the space for a while and then it hit a point where I said, 'We have to get into this market'. From that point, we assembled a team of some of the best people in the industry and just a few short months later, we got the studio into full production of our first title."

Big boots

That game hasn't yet been announced but Goodman commented that it was a departure from the games made at Ensemble and Robot in terms of scope and genre.

"But I think our games will appeal to the gamer inside of all of us and hope to play with our friends in the community in the coming weeks," he added.

Other staff at PeopleFun include Ensemble co-founder John Boog-Scott, lead programmer on Age of Empires' engine Angelo Laudon, and serial entrepreneur Leon Campise.