Halo Co-Creator Launches Midnight Star, A Mobile Game For Core Gamers

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Bungie founder Alex Seropian--who co-created the Halo universe--and his new studio Industrial Toys on Thursday released Midnight Star, the independent developer's first game.

The game, originally known as Morning Star, is available today from iTunes for iPhone and iPad, along with an interactive graphic novel called Midnight Rises.

Midnight Star is set 120 years in the future, taking players board a spacefaring research vessel called the MSRV-Jpolin. You're sent to explore a mysterious signal emitting from somewhere in the solar system. Of course, everything falls apart, and you're sucked into a war against aliens to save your crew...and the entire human race.

Industrial Toys calls Midnight Star a "complete re-imagining" of the sci-fi shooter genre for touch devices. In addition to Seropian, principal Halo designer Paul Bertone and award-winning author John Scalzi worked on the game.

"With Midnight Star, we're looking to change expectations for what kind of experience core gamers get from their mobile devices," Seropian said. "We're breaking new ground on everything from the visuals to the story to the ongoing support we'll provide in the way of content, events and player involvement."

Providing the music for Midnight Star was Serj Tankian, the lead singer of rock group System of a Down.

Seropian founded Bungie Studios in 1991 and was instrumental in the development of Halo: Combat Evolved, the first entry in the now-mammoth shooter series. Seropian later left Bungie and formed Wideload Games in 2004, which Disney purchased in 2009.

With that acquisition, Seropian was promoted to senior vice president and general manager of core games at Disney Interactive, the position he departed from in February 2012.

You can read more about Industrial Toys in our interview with Seropian.

Midnight Star, developed using the Unreal Engine, is available as a free download today from iTunes.