Ex-Naughty Dogs ready to unleash WiiWare game

It's been a year and a half since a pair of former Naughty Dog developers established Steel Penny Games in Austin, Texas, but the startup studio is finally set to launch its first game. The family-friendly puzzle game Bruiser & Scratch is ready to go live on the WiiWare downloadable-game service next month, the company said today.

As the pugnacious bulldog Bruiser and his purple kitten companion Scratch, players will have to push puzzle pieces around a grid, attempting to match them together and combine shapes in each level until everything has been mashed into one piece. The developer originally described the single-player game as "a combination of the accessibility of classic arcade games and the depth and quality of play that modern audiences crave."

The game's story sees the titular duo mysteriously transported to a world of puzzles in which the lines between science and magic are blurred. As players attempt to guide Bruiser and Scratch home, they will encounter a supporting cast of similarly anthropomorphic players, including a bat, a vulture, and a rabbit.

Steel Penny was founded by company president Jason Hughes, with Andrew Gilmour on board as art director. Hughes worked at Uncharted developer Naughty Dog as a senior programmer for years, helping the studio work with the PlayStation 3. During his own tenure at Naughty Dog, Gilmour worked on background and level art for multiple games in the Jak franchise. Beyond a focus on digital distribution, the company touts its plan of "building smaller games with big production values and broad gamer appeal."

Bruiser & Scratch has been rated E for Everyone, but no price point has been announced yet.