Blue Fang Games, the developer of Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon franchise and of Facebook games based on The Oregon Trail and Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego? capitulated in July, eventually shutting down in September.

But now its ex-CEO Hank Howie has revealed that he and former art director/lead designer Lou Catanzaro are still in business.

The two have established Beach Cooler Games, a new mobile/social studio based out of Boston.

Does it work?

Speaking with Gamasutra, Howie mentioned the new team is already underway on new projects, though what those are remains a secret.

Beach Cooler will work on both social and mobile games, but is currently focused on the mobile market.

The company will not be working on original IP for the time being, though the intention is to expand enough to fuel such projects.

"(Working on original IP) is something that we would aspire to, but it's not the case with the projects we're working on right now," Howie said.

Indeed, Howie remains very cautiously optimistic about the new venture.

"We think we can make this work, and it should work pretty well, so we'll see if we can get it to work."

[source: Gamasutra]