Ron Gilbert's next game is a match-3 puzzler for iOS

Ron Gilbert, designer of The Cave, recently parted ways with Tim Schafer and the Double Fine team to make his "next move." That move, apparently, was to work on a match-3 puzzle game for iOS devices.

Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG, or SSITVTDTUSS:AMMTPRPG for short, is Gilbert's next game. It attempts to change up the match-3 formula by having blocks not only come from the top, but from the sides as well, based on the direction of your swipes.

On his personal blog, Gilbert said that "I've always loved match-3 games, there is something zen-like about playing them."

Because the board will collapse in new ways, you can actually move your hero around the board and position him next to enemies to do battles. So yes, it's not only a match-3 game, but it's also an RPG, as mentioned in the title. Perhaps it will also sell the "billion" copies that Puzzle Quest did?

The iPad and iPhone version should be out in the next month "with any luck." An Android version may be released once Gilbert figures out how to "get xcode to build objective-c for Android."