Given the breadth of Jordan Weisman's career, it was only likely to be a matter of time before he was going to get into mobile social gaming.

Spanning PC and console franchises such as MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies, not to mention miniatures company WizKids, virtual reality outfit VWE, numerous paper and pens RPGs, and ARGs such as The Beast and I Love Bees, there's not a lot of gaming he hasn't been involved in.

Which bring us to his new company Harebrained Schemes.

"We're a collection of grizzled veterans and young talent," says Weisman of the Redmond-based outfit, which formed early in 2011 and is currently a dozen people strong.

"I'm constantly intrigued by new platforms so we put a team together for touchscreen devices and started learning by doing," he explains.

"We're interested in how the games are different, and how storytelling is different on these devices."

Setting sail

Launched in early September, Harebrained's debut release is Crimson: Steam Pirates, a freemium iPad game that mixes up turn-based strategy with some elements of card games and a focus on story and high-end presentation.

And it's certainly made a splash, sliding into the App Store top 5 in 52 countries.

"I've been blown away by the response," Weisman comments.

"This is what's really interesting about the mobile space. It's not like the days of shrink-wrapped games. It's really lively. You have to keep the audience engaged."

That's something Harebrained is currently hard at work on as the first chapter of Crimson was free, with the second available as an in-app purchase for $1.99. The third will be released in due course.

Friends in high places

Developed using Zipline's cloud-oriented, cross platform, Lua-based Moai development platform, another significant element of the launch was that the game was published under Bungie's mobile and social-focused Aerospace Corporation label: its debut.

"We're longterm friends," Weisman explains of the hook-up with Bungie, citing shared Chicago roots, his work on I Love Bees as well as his creative director role within Microsoft.

"It was interested in social, mobile games too, and liked Crimson's concept. It provided additional development bandwidth in terms of audio and testing."

Keeping nimble

Still, that doesn't mean Harebrained is tied down. It has two new projects on the go that won't go through Bungie.

"When you're bootstrapping your company, you need a balance of work," Weisman explains.

"We're working on more original content and we're also teaming up with other companies. That's what I like about this space - the rate of learning. It takes years to make a console game. Now, we're releasing every three to five months and learning much faster in the process."

You can find out what Harebrained Schemes get up to next via its website.